Rivalry and WePlay! set to hots an online Dota2 event
Amid COVID-19 outbreak, which saw a plethora of esports events cancelled, Rivalry decided to introduce an online tournament dubbed No Major No Problem, which will feature six South American Dota2 teams, who will compete for the largest share of US $5,000 prizepool, while WePlay! Announced a charity Dota2 event dubbed WeSave! Charity Play! With 24 teams in attendance and over $120,000 in the prize pool.
Dota2 teams have found themselves in quite an unfortunate situation, where they are unable to compete, due to the fact that the majority of esports scene at a standstill amid to the coronavirus outbreak. Just recently, it was announced that ESL One Los Angeles has been indefinitely postponed, while both EPICENTER Major and its Minor – the OGA Dota PIT Minor 2020 have been cancelled, effectively meaning that Dota2 teams are on an involuntary break up to May, when the qualifiers for ONE Esports Singapore Major begin.
Rivalry, however, decided to step up in these hard times and announced an online Dota2 tournament, dubbed No Major No Problem, in response to the postponed LA Major tournaments
"Major cancellation got you down? Well, no major… NO PROBLEM," read the announcement.
"Announcing the Rivalry No Major No Problem, featuring the best teams from South America duking it out over the next 6 days for their share of $5,000!"
The tournament is slated to kick off on Tuesday, March 17 and it will run for five days, up until Sunday, March 22. A total of eight teams will be in attendance, including Thunder Predator, Infamous, Team Unknown, Infamous Young, FURIA Esports, paiN Gaming, NoPing e-sports and Omega Gaming.
Teams have been divided into two GSL groups of four where all fixtures will be played as best-of-three. The group stage will run until Sunday when the top two teams from each group will get an invite into the playoffs. There a double-elimination Bo3 format will be in place, while the grand finals will be played as Bo5.
The tournament will be a rather small featuring only US $5,000 in the prize pool, with $2,800 reserved for the champions. That said, it will at least give the teams in attendance a chance to play some competitive matches as to avoid losing the momentum they gained before COVID-19 outbreak put the esports scene to a standstill.
Since the start of the month, many esports tournaments and leagues have been either postponed, cancelled or moved to an online format, which might become the preferred format for all tournaments that are scheduled to be played until the epidemic dies down or slows down to a controllable level.
Just recently, League of Legends Pro League (LPL) re-launched its competition with an online format, with League of Legends European Championship (LEC) and League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) following suit. There are also speculations League of Legends Korea Champions (LCK) could return from its hiatus with an online format, however, nothing has been confirmed from Riot Korea yet.
Yesterday, on Monday, March 16, a prominent Dota2 event organises WePlay! announced WeSave! Charity Play!, which will be a non-profitable online Dota 2 charity marathon dedicated to fight COVID-19.
The online tournament will take place on March 20-26, featuring some of the best teams from six major regions, Europe, CIS, South America, North America, Southeast Asia and China. At the time of writing, beastcoast, Team Secret, TNC Predator, Team Liquid, Virtus.pro, Nigma, Invictus Gaming, CR4ZY, Natus Vincere, FURIA Esports, Geek Fam, BOOM Esports, business associates, EHOME, HellRaisers, Thunder Predator and OG have all confirmed their participation at the event, with seven more spots left open for more teams to join in.
With one of the most stacked lineups we have seen in any Dota2 tournament throughout 2019/20 season, the WeSave! Charity Play! will provide a perfect replacement for ESL One Los Angeles Major, with Dota2 fans having a chance to tune in and watch the cream of the crop of Dota2 scene compete for a charitable cause.
As announced the event will feature a $120,000 prize pool, which will be split into $20,000 per region and donated to organisations that fight the coronavirus. The prize pool could potentially increase if more sponsors decide to join in and donate money for the cause. WePlay! also unveiled all donations coming from stream viewers will be added to the prize pool.
WeSave! Charity Play! will feature a handful of prominent commentators who will cover the event in Russia, English and Ukrainian language.
English casters:
Jorien “Sheever“ van der Heijden
Owen “ODPixel“ Davies Kyle
Kyle “Kyle“ Freedman
Admir “LizZard“ Salkanović
Dominik “Lacoste“ Stipić
Troels “syndereN“ Lyngholt Nielsen
Darren “KillerPigeon“ Elmy
Jared “Nomad“ Bajina
Michelle “Moxxi“ Song
Robson “TeaGuvnor“ Merritt
Nikola “hairy_freak“ Babic
Matt “Danog“ Joyce
Luke “Fluke“ Pate
Gabriel “Lyrical“ Cruz
David “LD“ Gorman
Trent “Trent“ MacKenzie
Shannon “SUNSfan“ Scotten
Muriëlle “Kips“ Huisman
Russian Casters:
Yuriy "Strike" Tereschenko
Alexey "yXo" Maletsky
Yaroslav "Tekcac" Petrushyn
Anton "4liver" Pavliukovets
Alexander "DkPhobos" Kucheria
Danil "Dendi" Ishutin
Ilya "Lil" Ilyuk
Andrey "Mag" Chipenko
Yana "b2ru" Khymchenko
Vladislav "KVYZEE" Kovalchuk
Andrey "Ghostik" Kadyk
Ukrainian Casters:
Andrii "ViolinUA" Yatsiuk
Roman "DoubleEspresso" Hubin
Yevhenii "TaiTake" Pakholiuk
Roman "Telpecarne" Shevchuk
Bohdan "Aelnis" Zaverukha
Vladyslav "JUSTICE" Bahan
