With the unfortunate cancellation of the Epicenter Major due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers Epic Esports Events team up with Beyond The Summit for another event that will gather the best DOTA teams from Europe, CIS, and China later this month. Beyond Epic! would be held as tournament in online format similar to how previous events have been since the pandemic.
There will be two divisions for the tournament: Europe/CIS and China with $250,000 as total prize pool. Read on to see if your favorite teams will be participating.
Europe & CIS
Once again Europe and CIS teams have been mixed in one division. This cohort of the tournament will be competing for a major chunk of the total prize pool, $200,000 to be exact. There will be twelve participating teams for this region with ten teams already receiving direct invites as they wait for two more teams to be determined from the qualifier. Below are the ten teams that have already confirmed for the event.
– Virtus.pro
– Natus Vincere
– OG
– Team Nigma
– Team Liquid
– Alliance
– FlyToMoon
– Team Unique
– Ninjas in Pyjamas
– Team Secret
China
The Chinese teams will be battling it out for the title and $50,000 in prize. Eight teams will be competing here with seven already receiving direct invites leaving only one slot remaining to be filled by a representative from the qualifier. Here are the teams who have been already invited:
– PSG.LGD
– Vici Gaming
– Royal Never Give Up
– CDEC Gaming
– Invictus Gaming
– Team Aster
– Sparking Arrow Gaming
Format
The EU/CIS group stage will be played in a familiar format of teams being split into two groups and play in a single round robin. All matches will still be a best-of-three series, there will be point system this time around though as a clean 2-0 sweep will award three points for the winning team, 2-1 will give two points, 1-2 awards 1 point and a 0-2 will not be receiving any point. The top two teams advance to the upper bracket, the third and fourth seed teams advance to the lower bracket while the bottom two teams from each group will be eliminated. The playoffs will be played in in a double-elimination bracket with the grand final being the only match to be played in a best-of-five series.
The group stage format for the China leg of the tournament will be composed of two GSL groups with all matches to be played in a best-of-three series as well. The top two teams from each group advance to the upper bracket while the bottom two teams from each group get eliminated.
Schedule
The group stage for Europe/CIS begin on the 15th of June until the 24th, while the Chinese region will have their group stage on June 21 to June 25, 2020. The playoffs for Europe/CIS and China will be on June 25 – 28 and June 26 – 28 respectively.
Thoughts
Another online tournament with big name participants is around the corner once again to keep us entertained and us DOTA fans just keep on winning. The heavy hitters of the Chinese DOTA scene Royal Never Give Up, CDEC Gaming, and Invictus Gaming once again look to make a run for the title against the recently crowned champions of China region for ESL ONE Birmingham, PSG.LGD, and OGA DOTA PIT, Vici Gaming. I am banking on these two teams to secure the top spots if they end up in separate groups and meet in the grand final. However, the other teams could very well threaten those two titans and emerge as dark horses of the tournament.
I could not say the same however for the Europe/CIS leg of this tournament as the title seems to be on lock once again with Team Secret participating. With their recent performance on their run for a third title in a row at ESL ONE Birmingham, it seems that they are yet to find their match as they have only suffered two losses on the way to a clean 3-0 sweep in the grand finals.
Excited for a particular matchup? Stay tuned for further updates and schedule as to when your favorite teams clash.
