Frankfurt Becomes Dota 2 Mecca for a Week

The first event of Valve’s new tradition – Dota Major Championships – is kicking off on Friday, November 13th with a two-day long group stage, which will be followed by a six-day-long event in Frankfurt, Germany. Sixteen Dota 2 teams will fight for a sizeable 3 million USD prize pool.

Placing in the top ranks at the Major might also influence the team’s chances to reserve a spot for themselves at the most desired Dota 2 event, The International, which will take place again next summer. Led by a talented broadcast team the tournament is expected to bring both joy and excitement following the communities’ beloved teams day-by-day. As one of the casters Toby "TobiWan" Dawson tells, it is impossible to stay nonchalant: “The event looks awesome and teams are going to be amazing. The spectators will see some truly high-class Dota 2 and working with ESL is always fun for me. It should be a great time for everyone.”

His colleague Austin "Capitalist" Walsh is also glad to have a new Dota 2 event on the horizon. “The rise of the Majors adds a great amount of stability to the scene, helps to push the quality of tournaments in general, expands the boundaries and shows how a premiere event can look like,” he tells.

Most of the 16 teams set to compete at the Frankfurt Major have been spending the last week or more in Frankfurt, investing all their time into valuable team practice and some fun.

[gallery include="" size="medium" link="file" template="file-gallery" columns="2"]

[gallery include="" size="medium" link="file" template="file-gallery" columns="2"]

 The anticipation intensified this Wednesday, as the groups were finally announced.

Favorites With a Twist

Going into the Frankfurt Major there are few teams considered to do well. Although even seasoned experts know, that good Dota often includes some surprises. Here are few of the teams to look at as they might do really well:

1. Team Secret. They have demonstrated strong plays and have reached three most recent consecutive LAN Finals and winning last two of them: Nanyang Dota 2 Championship and MLG World Finals 2015.
2. Evil Geniuses. Crowned as TI 2015 champions they are known for outstanding experience and individual talent. Besides this, EG have yet to demonstrate their top-level performance after they parted ways with former team mate Aui_2000. It is simply exciting to see his replacement Arteezy back on the stage with his old team.
3. OG (former (monkey) Business). The players are former teammates, famous for high individual performance and Miracle is known as the 8k MMR God.

At the same time there are many others that might pull a rabbit out of the hat and show some breathtaking plays – Chinese teams like Vici Gaming always put up a strong fight. Both Russian squads Virtus.Pro and Vega Squadron have been doing pretty well and Alliance is an up-and-coming possible top-contender.

Groups Might Be Bloody

The group stage will bring some very exciting games to the viewers. In every group there are at least two strong competitors and the vibrant Dota 2 scene often has at least one dark horse lurking. In group A it looks that the Chinese Newbee has the weakest chances, but in the end only Evil Geniuses are clear favorite here, both Fnatic and Virtus.pro might go head-to-head.

The unluckiest in Group B is probably the Peruvian newcomer Team Unknown. With competition like OG, Vici Gaming and Vega Squadron, very little chances remain for them to end up in the top bracket.

Except for Team Secret most certainly advancing to the upper bracket from group C, it is difficult to say if Newbee.Young (replacing IG due to visa issues) or Cloud 9 could make it. LGD Gaming probably has better chances here, but again one can never be sure.

Group D could be considered a best possible setup for Alliance, who already proved their ability to face and defeat Asian teams. At the same time Mineski looks solid as well and CDEC Gaming is not behind, still holding their title as runner-ups from The International 5. Some say that EHOME could be that dark horse we mentioned.

Event Details

Not only the competition and the prize money makes the Frankfurt Major exciting. This is the first ever Major in the upcoming row of seasonal marquee tournaments. It is highly likely that it not only will set the standard for the future shows, but will also bring an impressive spectacle for on-site spectators. It is expected that the Finals will be viewed by almost 10k people.

Prior to the official start of the tournament, the organizers of the Frankfurt Major slightly adjusted the group stage flow. Originally it was planned that all four groups will play their games both on Friday 13^th and Saturday 14^th but, according to the newest update, all eight games of groups A and B will be played out on Friday and all games of groups C and D – on Saturday.

The Frankfurt Major is a great opportunity to dive into real-time world of Dota 2 as the event attendance is free of charge for all days except the day of the finals, Saturday, November 21^st.