The preview of DreamLeague Season 10

Eight teams will meet at the arena “Monster Energy DreamHack Studios” on October 29 to determine the winner of the first Minor tournament in this rating season and to divide a prize pool in the sum of $300,000 and 500 Dota Pro Circuit points.

The format

The championship will be hosted in two stages - the group stage and the playoffs. The organizers will divide all participants into two groups where they will play bo3 matches in a GSL format. The top teams from each group will go to the upper bracket of the playoff stage and the two worst teams will start their way to the championship from the lower bracket. All playoff matches will be carried out in a bo3 format and the grand final will be played in a bo5 format.

As the event has received a Minor status, the winner will earn a slot in the final stage of The Kuala Lumpur Major 2018 and all participants will play for 500 Dota Pro Circuit points and $300,000, you can find the distribution of them below:

1st place: $125,000 + 120 DPC points + a slot at The Kuala Lumpur Major 2018
2nd place: $70,000 + 100 DPC points
3rd place: $35,000 + 90 DPC points
4th place: $25,000 + 70 DPC points
5th-6th place: $15,000 + 40 DPC points
7th-8th place: $7,500 + 20 DPC points

The organization of the championship:

The DreamHack studio was honored to host the first Dota 2 championship in the Minor series in the new gaming season. DreamHack can be said that they have been hosting large and small Dota 2 and CS:GO events for the first time, which are about 25 only in the above-mentioned MOBA-game. The studio is famous for its “home” atmosphere at the tournaments - the organizers often detach a great space for viewers to bring their own PC and devices to feel all benefits of LANs by themselves.

The importance of the championship:

This championship is unusually important for all tier-2 teams due to the fact that a slot at The Kuala Lumpur Major is given for the first place and due to the refusal of Team Liquid from the participation - all current participants have big enough chances to win. Besides a lot at the first Major tournament and a prize pool, Dota Pro Circuit points will be also up for grabs, which will also be required to go to The International 2019 directly.

The chances of teams:

Royal Never Give Up - the odds for the victory are equal to 2,5.

The team Royal Never Give Up was created during the period of the transfer window after The International 2018 and consists of enough famous player on the modern professional scene, who have already played for such teams as Invictus Gaming, LGD.FY, compLexity and others. The team has started playing well enough at the Chinese qualifiers where the competition is the highest among all regions. In a month and a half, the roster managed to win the qualifiers to DreamLeague Season 10 and to place 3rd-4th at the open qualifiers to ESL One Hamburg 2018. At the moment, the team is considered to be a favorite of the competition by bookmakers as each member of the roster has a great experience of participation on the professional scene.

compLexity - the odds for the victory are equal to 7.

The team compLexity Gaming was created around Zfreek and Limmp, who were joined by three participants from two regions - Skem and EternaLEnVy were the representatives of Southeast Asia and Sneyking was playing in North America. At the moment, the team looks not enough strong to win the championship because the guys only managed to prevail at the qualifiers to DreamLeague Season 10 and ESL One Hamburg 2018 in a month and a half, however, all strong participants qualified for the Major and didn’t play the qualifiers. And looking at the participation in King's Cup 2: North America, World Showdown of Esports #1 and in the LAN-final of ESL One Hamburg 2018, it became clear that the team is not competitive among strong teams at the moment and the only advantage over other participants of DreamLeague is an experience of participation in LANs in the season.

Natus Vincere - the odds for the victory are equal to 8.

The roster of Natus Vincere had been created around SoNNeikO in August this year and this approach has already given its results - the team has managed to achieve victory at the qualifiers to DreamLeague Season 10 and the guys have placed 3rd-4th at the online tournament Maincast Autumn Brawl, having beaten Team Secret in the quarterfinal. Natus Vincere were able to hope for the victory at this Minor tournament, however, the roster had been playing with stand-inds a couple of weeks before the competition due to an injury of the main mid-player of the team - MagcaL. Now, the team is on a bootcamp and is training as a full roster, however, the guys haven’t played official matches since the return of Idan and it’s difficult to evaluate their shape.

Tigers - the odds for the victory are equal to 8.

The team Tiger was created at the beginning of September this year and it consists of the experienced Moonmeander and 1437, who are “diluted” by Xepher and inYourdreaM, who are hungry for the trophies. The team has been playing well enough in its region, however, they are unlucky to enter the top three in their region on a permanent basis. Since the moment of creation, 1437 and the company have won the qualifiers to DreamLeague Season 10 and the LAN tournament Southeast Asia Cyber Arena 2018 Finals but they didn’t manage to enter the top four at King's Cup 2: Southeast Asia and the qualifiers to The Kuala Lumpur Major. The team will obviously have to advance from the group to the upper bracket of the playoffs but we don’t see them as champions.

The FInal Tribe - the odds for the victory are equal to 8.

The FInal Tribe have been playing together for an enough long time and Chessie has become the only replacement for this rating season, who replaces Era. The team played unstable enough in the previous season and was not able to get rid of this after the replacement - the guys won DreamLeague Season 10 and held the 7th-8th place at The Kuala Lumpur Major, having lost to MangoBay. In October, the roster competed in Reshuffle Madness where was not able to enter the top four and the team placed 3rd-4th at World Showdown of Esports #1. We think that the roster will have to advance to the upper bracket regardless who will be in the group but the Swedes will unlikely get higher than the 3rd-4th place.

Team Lithium - the odds for the victory are equal to 13.

The guys from Team Lithium had started playing together at the beginning of September and have already earned about $12,000 at online tournaments - the team placed 3rd-4th at GG.Bet Invitational Season 1 and Red Bull Guardians. The 3rd-4th places are coming after the European mix everyone, the team was not able to get higher at both qualifiers to The Kuala Lumpur Major and DreamLeague Season 10. The roster came to DreamLeague Season 10 only due to the fact that Team Liquid decided to refuse from their slot because of the players’ illness. It’s worth to notice that Lithium will come to the Minor with a stand-in in the fact of Dendi and we can’t say that this will make the European mix weaker as the roster has received the strong mid-player, who has enough experience of playing on the professional scene.

ROONS - the odds for the victory are equal to 13.

The guys from ROONS include players, who are famous to the public because of participation in online tournaments, however, only monkeys-forever visited large championships. The roster held the second place at DreamLeague Season 10, which guaranteed itself a slot in the LAN finals and also placed 3rd-4th at Red Bull Guardians. The team has also competed in World Showdown of Esports #1 and King's Cup 2: North America but was not able to hold a place higher than 7th-8th. In our opinion, the roster might win a couple of matches but it’s unlikely to place higher than 5th-6th.

Infamous - the odds for the victory are equal to 15.

The team Infamous is the third team in South America and is coming after paiN X and paiN Gaming and this region is considered to be the weakest in Dota 2. The guys took part in the qualifiers to The Kuala Lumpur Major but they were unlucky to place higher than 5th-6th. Since its creation, the roster’s only achievement is the victory at the qualifiers to DreamLeague Season 10 but, to tell the truth, the teams were not competitive there. It’s also worth to notice that Matthew had left the team a week before the trip to the LAN due to personal issues and it will be filled in by Scofield. The team will unlikely to place higher than 7th-8th even with the full roster and it will be difficult to win a single match with a stand-in.