Internet issues continue to plague DreamLeague Season 23; Heroic falls

After taking a one-game default loss and a scramble to a new internet cafe Heroic's journey at DreamLeague Season 23 ends. 

Between the Capitalist and Avery Podcast, we were able to get a few games of Dota 2 in DreamLeague Season 23.  Following the unfortunate end of Aurora's journey, the second elimination series of the day started just as frustrating and disastrous – and the patch was the last thing that was on the team's minds. 

• Read An unfortunate event for Aurora as they dropped from DreamLeague Season 23

Azure RayvsHeroic 2:0

After a significant delay, the first match finally got underway, only to be sidelined again due to an ISP issue at Heroic's boot camp. The South American team relocated to another internet cafe to resume playing, but it was another 45-minute (approximate) pause that ended in a default loss. At least this time Heroic wasn't eliminated and had a chance to turn their fate around, even if starting with a one-game disadvantage. 

Heroic seemed to show up to the second match with a vengeance. They weren't about to give up to Azure Ray so easily or be frazzled enough to let a direct invite slip from their fingers. The beginning and middle of the match heavily favored Heroic, but about 45 minutes in things shifted to a pretty significant Azure Ray advantage. The Chinese team overwhelmed the South Americans towards the end with tanky heroes and too much power. 

Three out of four of Romania's internet providers suffered a countrywide outage. Sadly, it ended up being ISP 2:0 Teams for the day. 

Heroic will go home with a 7-8th place finish and $47,500 in their pockets from DreamLeague Season 23. They will need to book their ticket to Riyadh Masters via qualifiers. 

Azure Ray will continue to advance through the lower brackets to face Xtreme Gaming tomorrow. They will need to continue to survive through the grand finals and seize the DreamLeague Season 23 trophy to secure their invite to Riyadh Masters. 

There is still one more elimination series on the menu for today:

Tundra EsportsvsBetBoom Team

Both teams have already secured their ticket to Riyadh Masters, so the stakes don't feel nearly as high for either of these teams. Loser will go home in 5-6th place with $57,500. Winner will advance to the lower-bracket semi-finals tomorrow.

DreamLeague Season 23

DreamLeague Season 23 Playoff Teams

•  BetBoom Team (EPT Leaderboard)
• Xtreme Gaming (EPT Leaderboard)
• Gaimin Gladiators (EPT Leaderboard)
• Team Falcons (EPT Leaderboard)
• Tundra Esports (Western Europe)
•   Azure Ray (China)
•  Aurora Gaming (Southeast Asia) eliminated
•  Heroic (South America) eliminated

DreamLeague Season 23 Playoffs Format

• Playoffs - May 23 - May 26, 2024
  • Double-elimination bracket
  • All matches are Bo3
  • Grand Final is Bo5

DreamLeague Season 23 Tournament Prize Pool

• Prize pool: $1,000,000
• Total EPT Points: 26,100

DreamLeague Season 23

Twelve teams gathered in boot camps in Europe to compete for a share of the $1,000,000 prize pool and 26,100 EPT points. At this point with no DPC, many expect that the EPT points will be critical for participating in ESL's LANs and might be the biggest factor in determining The International 2024 invites. 

DreamLeague Season 23 will be followed by Riyadh Masters. This will be the least DreamLeague Season before The International 2024. Check out the ESL EPT Pathing and results so far:

• Read ESL Pro Tour 2024: A midway snapshot