Jan 7, 2021

  Modern Times Group subsidiary ESL Gaming has been chosen by Valve to host the all-new Dota Pro Circuit leagues ESL One DPC CIS for the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the DreamLeague Season 14 DPC EU for Europe. The two leagues, along with four others, are the precursors to the Dota 2 Majors and The International 10. Both the European and CIS leagues will have prize pools of $280K USD. The leagues will start on Jan. 18, playing matches online for six weeks. Each team will get the opportunity to play everyone as the leagues will use a best-of-three round-robin format for both the upper and lower divisions. Each division features eight teams, with matches being played three times a week. Broadcasts for both regions will be produced out of Stockholm, with leagues having broadcasts in several localized languages including Russian and Chinese. Other languages will be revealed at a later date. Teams receiving direct invites to the upper division in the ESL One DPC CIS league include Virtus.pro , Natus Vincere , Team Spirit , and Live to Win. The European edition will see OG , Team Secret , Team Liquid , and Team Nigma receive direct invites to its upper division. Starting Jan. 8, a closed eight-team decider event will take place to determine the other four teams in the upper division or qualify for the lower division. The final slots for the lower division will be determined by open qualifiers which start on Jan. 5. Each of the leagues will reward teams with DPC points that “contribute toward qualification for the majors and The International.” The best 18 teams from the six global DPC leagues will progress into the majors where 12 of those teams will qualify for The International 2021.