Top Dota 2 Tournaments in 2022

Dota 2 biggest tournaments  list features some already established competitions but introduces a new event in Singapore. If you wanna find out more about the most important events in Dota 2 keep on reading

The Top Dota 2 Tournaments and Leagues in 2022 are:

1. The International 2021
2. DPC China 2021
3. ESL One CIS
4. DPC South Asia
5. OGA DPC South America
6. DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU 
7. DPC North America 2021
8. Dota 2 Singapore Major 2021 

The International 2020 /2021

• Date: 6th Oct. – 16th Oct.
• Prize Pool: $40,018,195
• Teams: 18

The International is an annual tournament organized by Valve. Since 2015, The International remains the biggest and most prestigious event on the Major Championship circuit.

The first International was held in Cologne, Germany, and it had a $1.6 million USD prize pool. 16 teams were invited to play for the title and the first-place prize of $1 million USD.

The last International was supposed to take place in Stockholm on August 23 2020, but it was rescheduled most probably for August 23 2021, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. After seeing the current situation about the pandemic, The International is taking place in Bucharest, Romania without a live audience.

The prize pool for this event was $40.018.195.

The International – the conclusion to the the Dota Pro Circuit

Dota Pro Circuit is the official series of Valve-backed tournaments, divided into 6 regional leagues.

Spread across the globe, in China, Europe, North America, South America, CIS, and South Asia, the 2-stage events were created to replace the Minor Dota 2 tournaments.

The top 16 teams across all six regions will be competing in both the upper and lower divisions, fighting for DPC points, a spot at the March Major, or a chance to move up into the big leagues at the end of season one.

Complete details on the Dota Pro Circuit 2021.

DPC 2021 China

• Date: 18.01.2021- 14.03.2021
• Prize Pool: $280,000
• Teams: 16

The DPC Regional leagues are divided into an Upper and a Lower division of 8 teams each. 2021 is the first year for the Dota Pro Circuit in China, but it seems to be very promising for the DPC.

Every DPC tournament starts on the same day that is January 18 and ends before March, except China that finishes on March 14. The delay of the ending date is due to a 4 weeks break.

The total prize pool is $280,000 uneven distributed for the Upper and Lower divisions. 

The Upper Division has a prize pool of $205,000, where the first place takes $30,000, the Lower Division has a prize pool of $75,000 where the first place takes $17,000. 

Teams

Upper Division teams

PSG.LGD, Ehome, Vici Gaming and Elephant are the invited teams that will participate in DPC 2021 China Upper Division 

The teams from the Closed Qualifiers are: Team Aster, Team MgMa, Invictus and LBSZ.

Lower Division teams

The teams participating in DPC China Lower Division from the Closed Qualifiers: Phoenix Gaming, Royal Never Give Up, Dalajing Gaming, Sparking Arrow Gaming. 

The teams participating in DPC China Lower Division from the Open Qualifiers: CDEC Gaming, Dragon, Dynasty and Xtreme Gaming.

The format is round-robin and all matches are Bo3.

For the Upper Division half of the teams are directly invited and half come from the Closed Qualifier. The Lower Division also has 4 teams from the Closed Qualifier but the difference is that the other 4 come from the Open Qualifier. 

Dreamleague Season 14 Europe

• Date: 18.01.2021- 24.02.2021
• Prize Pool: $280,000
• Teams: 16

The DPC 2021 Europe Upper Division starting date is January 19 and it ends on February 24. The Lower Division starts one day earlier but ends at the same time. 

The total prize pool is $280,000 for every DPC tournament. 

The teams from the Upper Division battle for a shared prize pool of $205,000, where the first place takes $30,000. The Lower Division has a prize pool of $75,000 where first place takes $17,000. 

The format has round-robin Bo3 matches. 

Of the 16 teams that are participating in the DreamLeague Season 14 DPC Europe, 4 of them are invited, 8 come from the Decider Tournament, and 4 from the Open Qualifier. 

The Upper Division has 4 teams invited and 4 from the Decider Tournament.

Team Liquid, OG, Team Secret, and Team Nigma are the 4 teams directly invited to the Upper Division of Dota Pro Circuit Europe 2021. 

Vikin.gg, Alliance, Tundra Esports, and High Coast Esports are the 4 teams from the Decider Tournament. 

Hippomaniacs, Hellbear Smashers, Spider Pigs, and Brame are the 4 teams from the Decider Tournament for the Lower Division.  The teams that qualified from the Open Qualifier are Creepwave, burjui, No Bounty Hunter, and Meta4Pro. 

You can catch all the games live on DreamLeague’s Twitch channel. Past games will also be available on the channel, under the videos/past broadcasts section. You can also check out DreamLeague’s YouTube for more content.

The most recent news from the event announced that team burjui has been disqualified, because a player was Covid-19 positive. More informations about this here

DPC North America

• Date: 18.01.2021- 28.02.2021
• Prize Pool: $280,000
• Teams: 16

Dota Pro Circuit North America 2021 is one of the most confusing regions, because of its teams being newly formed or fresh off of a long break heading into a high-level competition. 

From the total of 16 teams, the eight upper-division teams will be competing for a $205,000 prize pool and 1,150 Dota Pro Circuit points. 

At the end of the season, which runs from January 18 to February 28, the top two teams will earn a spot at the March Major, while the bottom two teams will be relegated two the lower division for season two. The bottom three teams won’t gain any of the DPC points either. 

The lower division is also made up of eight teams, but there are no DPC points, but the fight for the shared prize is $75,000 and a chance at being promoted to the upper division for season two.

The two top finishers at the end of the first season will replace the lowest placing teams from the upper division, while the bottom two teams will be completely eliminated and replaced by new teams through an open qualifier. The groups will follow a single round-robin format with all matches being best-of-threes. There won’t be any playoffs because of the enhanced focus on the Major. 

Teams

The tournament is ongoing and as said before the team is newly formed or they compete from a long pause, but that doesn’t mean that there is nothing fun and interesting to watch. Who knows what hidden talents and potentials are in this competition. 

The best-known name from this competition is Evil Geniuses. The team replaced Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev while on an extended break from the game. This team is not the runaway favorite yet. 

Quincy Crew and 4Zoomers are both fantastically strong stacks that have been battling for the title of best NA group since the actual pandemic forced online competitions. QC is a very consistent team that won a large part of North America’s tournaments, so it should be considered the early pick to win this tournament.

For the Lower Division, TOOBASED shows are ready for a big comeback. Team DogChamp is a fan-favorite because of its cute logo and early success. 

The real surprise for the Lower Division is Arkosh Gaming because no one knows if they are random or pros playing under new names. 

DPC 2021 South America 

• Date: 18.01.2021- 28.02.2021
• Prize Pool: $500,000
• Teams: 18

Dota Pro Circuit South America seems to be at this moment the one that has grown and developed the most, over the last year. Instead of looking at the lineup and wondering who can stand up to beastcoast, we are now wondering if beastcoast will even make it to the first Major. 

Thunder Predator, SG e-sports are the teams that showed some serious promise over the last several months. There could be some serious competition coming out of DPC South America this year. 

The starting date is the same date as for every other regional tournament from this series: January 18 and The Grand Final on February 26. 

The Upper Division teams will be battling for a $205,000 prize pool and 1,105 Dota Pro Circuit points. The top 2 teams will also earn a spot at the March Major, while the bottom two will be relegated to the Lower Division for season two.

The Lower Division doesn’t have DPC points, but it has a share prize pool of$75,000 and a chance of being promoted to the Upper Division for the season two. Therefore the top two teams from the LD will replace the bottom two teams from the UD. The bottom two teams from this division will be eliminated and replaced by new teams coming from the Open Qualifier.

The groups will follow a single round-robin format with all matches being best-of-threes. This tournament does not have playoffs. 

Teams

The Upper Division’s invited teams are: SG e-sports, Thunder Predator, Infamous and beastcoast. NoPing e-sports, Team Unknown, EgoBoys and Latam Defenders are the four teams that qualified.

From the Lower Division’s Closed Qualifier: Incubus Club, Infinity Esports, Hokori and Crewmates, and from the open qualifier we’ve got: 0-900, Inverse, Gorillaz-Pride and Mad Kings. 

Thunder Predator and beastcoast are the clear favorites to earn the Major spots, since both have competed against North America teams over the last several months. Thunder Predator even won the last BTS Pro Series Season of 2020 over 4 Zoomers in December. 

You can see one of TP matches from the DPC SA 2021 here

For the lower division 0-900 seems to be the most promising squad from the open qualifier group, mostly because of its players such as Christian “Madara” Kimura and Diego “Jericho” Rivera.

But we can’t forget about Infinity Esports and Incubus Club, both having some experience competing together, after the closed qualifier.

Standings Upper Division

Rank	Team	Series	Games	Seed
1	beastcoast	5-0	10-0	Major Playoffs
2	Thunder Predator	3-2	6-6	Major Group Stage
3	Team Unknown	3-2	7-4	Major Wild Card
4	SG e-sports	3-2	6-5	Major Wild Card
5	EgoBoys	2-3	5-7	–
6	NoPing e-sports	2-3	7-8	–
7	Infamous	1-4	3-8	Lower Division
8	Latam Defenders	1-4	3-9	Lower Division

Standings Lower Division

Rank	Team	Series	Games	Seed
1	Infinity Esports	4-1	9-2	Upper Division
2	Incubus Club	4-1	9-3	Upper Division
3	Hokori	4-1	9-4
4	0-900	4-1	8-5
5	Gorillaz-Pride	2-3	6-6
6	Crewmates	1-4	2-8
7	Inverse	1-4	3-8	Elimination
8	Mad Kings	0-5	0-10	Elimination

ESL One CIS Online Season 1

• Date: 18.01.2021- 28.02.2021
• Prize Pool: $280,000
• Teams: 16

DPC CIS region had fans wondering whether the scene would perform to its full potential, but the tournaments leading up to the latest DPC showed that the region was once again ready to become a top competitor throughout 2021. 

The CIS region has one of the largest tier-two scenes, this means that the CIS region will have one of the most bustling lower divisions.

The event is going to take place on January 18 and February 26 for the Lower Division and between January 20 and February 26 for Upper Division. 

The prize pool is exactly the same, meaning a shared prize pool of $205,000 for the Upper Division and a shared prize pool of $75,000 for the Lower Division.

From the 8 teams that are participating in the ESL One CIS Online Season 1 Upper Division, 4 of them are invited and the other 4 come from the Decider Tournament.

The teams from Upper Division that were directly invited are: Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, Team Spirit, Live to Win, and Team Empire, NoTechies, EXTREMUM and Team Unique qualified from the Decider Tournament.

The first-place team from the Upper Division is qualified to the Major Playoffs and the 2nd place team is qualified to the Major Group Stage. 3rd and 4th place teams are qualified for the Major Wild Card. The bottom two teams get relegated to the Lower Division of Season 2 and the remaining teams are maintained in the current division for Season 2.

The Lower Division’s teams: 4 of them come from the Open Qualifiers and 4 come from the Decider Tournament. 

B8, Winstrike Team, HellRaisers, Gambit Esports are the teams qualified from the Decider Tournament and PuckChamp, Imperial Pro Gaming, VP.Prodigy and XactJlepbl are the 4 teams from the Open Qualifiers. 

First two teams from the Lower Division get qualified to the Upper Division of Season 2. The bottom two teams are eliminated and the remaining teams are maintained in the current division for Season 2.

Teams

Even though Virtus Pro and Na’Vi would not settle for less than first two places, there are some other promising teams that may steal the prize from them. One of the threatening teams can be Live to Win, that has a strong core of players.

From the Lower Division we have to watch out for HellRaisers and its players that have been to the International, such as: Resolutlon, Lil and VANSKOR.

Watch the matches here

ONE Esports Singapore Major

• Date: 25.04.2021 – 04.04.2021
• Prize Pool: $500,000
• Teams: 18

The ONE Esports Dota 2 Singapore Major Presented by PGL is set to be the first Major of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021.

It will start on 25th March and it will end on 4th April. The tournament’s matches are round-robin wild card and group stage double-elimination playoffs. The prize pool for this event is $500,000 US Dollars and 2,7000 DPC points.

Format

From the total of 18 teams: 4 teams each will be from Europe and China, 4 teams each Southeast Asia and CIS, two teams each North and South America.

The matches are round-robin wild card and group stage double-elimination playoffs.

Wild Card

Six teams will be on a single round-robin with all the matches played as Bo2. The top 2 teams advance to the group stages and the remaining teams will be eliminated.

Group Stage

Eight teams on a single round-robin with all the games played as Bo2. Top two teams advance to the lower bracket of the playoffs and the remaining teams will be eliminated.

The playoffs will be played as a double-elimination bracket.

Teams

The teams will be announced as soon as the DPC regionals will be over. 

More details about this event here.