ESL officially announced their Pro Tour series for Dota 2. It features the biggest prize pool in Dota 2 history aside from TIs: Riyadh Masters 2023 will have an astonishing $15,000,000 to fight for.
To qualify for the event, teams will compete in two seasons of DreamLeague (19 and 20), with a million-dollar prize pool each. 16 teams will get invited to each competition based on ESL's Elo-based ranking system, reworked specifically for DreamLeague. Every region will have one slot by default, with others determined by the Elo system for regions. This is what the first season looks like:
The champion of Season 19 and the two best teams of Season 20 will qualify for Riyadh Masters 2023. Five more will get invitations to Group Stage based on their average performance in DreamLeague. All others will be picked based on EPT rankings to start at the play-in event.
Esl Pro Tour schedule
- Season 19: April 9-23
- Season 20: June 7-25
- Riyadh Masters: July 17-30
Dreamleague format
- Group Stage 1: 16 teams, two groups, Round-robin, bo2 matches, half of the teams get eliminated.
- Group Stage 2: One group, bo3 matches, half of the teams get eliminated.
- Playoff: Double elimination for four teams, bo3, the grand final is bo5.
Riyadh Masters format
- Play-in: 12 teams, two groups, bo2s, 8 best to advance to Group Stage.
- Group Stage: 16 teams, two round-robin groups, 1-4th places advance to upper bracket playoffs. 5-6th proceed to the lower bracket. 7-8 are eliminated.
- Playoffs: Double elimination, bo3s, the grand final is bo5.
