ESL’s Pro Tour to fill Dota 2’s competitive void with 5 tournaments

The competitive Dota 2 landscape has been battling with uncertainty ever since Valve pulled the plug on DPC. With the scene becoming more open to third-party organizers, ESL claimed a majority of the pro calendar with five upcoming events.

Though Dota 2 fans already knew about the ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 event, the organizer revealed it had four more tournaments lined up for the 2024 season. Following the December tournament, ESL will host DreamLeague S22 at the end of February. This will be followed by a LAN event in Europe and DreamLeague S23, with the roads leading to a mystery July event. Though this July tournament is currently nameless, it’s expected to have ties with Gamers8, Riyadh Masters’ organizers.

Gamers8 has been challenging Valve’s The International’s prize pool over the last two years, and the Saudi organizer blew the developer out of the water in 2023 as TI’s prize pool tanked to all-time lows. The name of Riyadh Masters might retire, though, as Saudi Arabia has big plans for next year’s Esports World Cup, and the new branding of the event might still be in the works.

Apart from the July event, all tournaments in the calendar are likely to have a $1 million prize pool alongside EPT points, which will be used to determine teams’ positioning in the EPT leaderboard. ESL’s new competitive calendar also confirms a new Dota 2 region, MENA. In each tournament, MENA will have one guaranteed spot.

Some elite Dota 2 players have already migrated to the MENA region as Falcons swooped up a Dota 2 roster consisting of 2 TI champions. It’s currently unclear whether this region will get a seat in other third-party events, but considering its close proximity to Europe and the overall skill levels of the players, a tougher qualification stage might not be a problem for a tournament or two.