ESL already preparing for Dota 2’s next $1 million tournament a week after Valve shutters DPC

Dota Pro Circuit is no more and Valve has yet to announce any specific 2024 plans. In the meantime, however, ESL has confirmed plans to host yet another $1 million prize pool tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

It was just this month that ESL surprised the Dota 2 world with DreamLeague Season 21, a $1 million prize pool event just a month before The International 2023. These moves underscore ESL’s ambition to establish itself as the dominant esports tournament organizer in the Dota 2 world for the upcoming year.

ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 will take place two months after TI12, starting on Dec. 11. In previous Dota 2 seasons, the final month of the year would also be dedicated to roster changes, so this tournament ultimately reduces the available time that top Dota 2 teams will have for after-TI transfers.

ESL made it clear that it wants a large slice of the Dota 2 cake with all the tournaments it organized this year, which they also crowned with Riyadh Masters 2023. Considering the fans remained skeptical about what Valve would do next after DPC was gone, ESL’s move served as an excellent reassurance.

In addition to its generous prize pools, the timing of ESL events has been top-notch; they have minimized downtime in the competitive scene between Majors.

Professional players and community members have longed for competitive Dota 2’s prime days between 2014 and 2017 when there were more major tournaments around the world without a league to ground players.

Two-time TI winner N0tail appeared on Gorgc’s Twitch stream yesterday, stating the DPC’s removal was “the best thing that happened to Dota since before DPC.”

OG’s legendary captain also said Europe could host more events in 2024. Despite being the most competitive region and featuring notable organizers like ESL, Europe has been getting the short end of the stick regarding LAN events. The region did recently host a TI but there was no fans due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the DPC and three Major structure has since bottlenecked event opportunities.