For this year’s third official Dota 2 championships, Valve have decided to break from form and put all tickets up for sale at once on May 7. Fans will descend on the official Dota store in droves at 10am PDT for a chance to watch the top 16 teams in the world play at the finals in Seattle.
The event will run from August 7 to August 11 at the Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. Qualifying matches begin sometime earlier on May 13, and are available to watch for free via DotaTV in the game’s client.
Thirteen of the 16 teams to play during the event have already been confirmed as follows:
- Invictus Gaming (2012 champions)
- LGD Gaming
- Orange.Neolution
- Alliance
- Fnatic
- Team Liquid
- Natus Vincere (2011 champions)
- Team Zenith
- Team Dignitas
- Virtus.Pro
- DK
- LGD Gaming.Int
- Invasion MUFC
A further sixteen teams will compete in the qualifiers to fill the final three slots. One belongs to the winner of the East qualifier, another to the West, and the last slot to a ‘Wild Card’ team determined by a runners-up match held the night before the main event in Seattle.
The West qualifier is hosted by GDStudio from May 13-19, and will feature:
- Absolute Legends
- Evil Geniuses
- mousesports
- RoX.KIS
- Empire
- ICCup
- Qpad Red Pandas
- DD.Dota
The East qualifier will be commentated by BeyondTheSummit from May 20-26. Its matches will be played by the following teams:
- First Departure
- Neolution.Init
- TongFu
- Vici Gaming
- RattleSnake
- Rising Stars
- MiTH.Trust
- Mineski
Which of the qualifying teams can you foresee completing the line-up in Seattle?