Elite League Dota 2: Teams, Formats, Schedules and More

Valve implemented a new hands-off approach for the 2024 Dota 2 professional scene. As a result, many third-party tournament organisers stepped up to fill the void and successfully hosted several tier 1 tournaments. ESL One has been dominating the calendar year with its ESL Pro Tour Season 2, which features several million-dollar prize pool tournaments.

The calendar for ESL Pro Tour Season 2.
Credits: ESL One

Eastern European tournament organizers have also stepped up their game. FISSURE announced they will join forces in hosting a 960,000 USD Prize Pool tournament, Elite League Dota 2, with ESB. Several top-tier teams are participating in this tournament.

Elite League Dota 2 The Teams

List of the Dota 2 teams participating in Elite League.
Image Source: Screen capture from Strafe's website.

Elite League will feature twenty-four top Dota 2 teams from around the world. A total of fourteen teams received a direct invite to the tournament. Eight teams received a direct invite to play in the Round-Robin stage of the Elite League, while the other six teams received their invite to start at the Swiss Stage.

The eight teams that will play starting from the Round-Robin stage are:

Team Spirit

BetBoom Team

Team Liquid

Gaimin Gladiators

Team Falcons

Xtreme Gaming

Azure Ray

LGD Gaming

The six teams starting at the Swiss Stage are:

OG

Tundra Esports

Aurora

Team Secret

HEROIC

Virtus.Pro

PSG Quest

Ten teams qualified for the tournament through the qualifiers. Every region received a slot through the qualifiers except Western Europe and Southeast Asia. These regions received two slots. The tournament acknowledges the founding of a new region, MENA. Shopify Rebellion received a direct invite to the tournament starting at the Swiss Stage but due to issues, will be replaced by Team Secret.

The teams which found their way to the tournament through the qualifiers are:

North America

Nouns

South America 

BOOM Esports

Western Europe

Entity
Rest Farmers

Eastern Europe

9Pandas

MENA

Nigma Galaxy

Southeast Asia

Blacklist International

Talon Esports

China

KEV

Elite League Dota 2 Tournament Format

One of the strongest teams in the upcoming tournament is Gaimin Gladiators.
Credits: ESL One

Elite League has a unique format compared to the other tier 1 tournaments hosted this year. The tournament is separated into three parts - the Swiss Stage, Round-Robin Stage, and the Playoffs.

Sixteen teams will duke it out at the Swiss Stage. Amongst those contestants, only the top eight teams will advance to the next stage. In this stage, every match will be a best of 3.

Round-robin is the second stage of the tournament. The participating teams will be split into two round-robin groups, and all the matches played during this stage will be best of 2. The top two teams from each group will advance to the upper bracket. The third and fourth-placing teams will advance to the lower brackets, while the remaining teams will get eliminated.

The final stage of the tournament is the Playoffs. It features a double-elimination format. Thus, teams from the upper bracket will have a safety net. All the matches will be best of 3 at this stage except the Grandfinals, which will be a best of 5 series.

Elite League Dota 2 Prize Pool Distribution 

The prize-winning distribution for Elite League Dota 2.
Image Source: Twitter.@fissure_eng

The tournament features a whopping prize pool. Here’s how the prize pool is distributed amongst the teams:

1st place - $300,000

2nd place - $150,000

3rd place - $80,000

4th place - $50,000

5-6 places - $40,000 

7-8 places - $30,000 

9-16 places - $20,000

17-24 places - $10,000

Schedule

Elite League Dota 2 will start on 31st March 2024 and ends on April 15th, 2024. The Swiss stage will be from 31st March to April 4th. The Round-robin stage will last five days, from April 5th- April 10th. There will be a two-day break after the Round-robin stage as the final stage of the tournament, the Playoffs will begin on April 12th through April 14th.

Final Notes

Team Falcons were the champions of BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024.
Image Source: Twitter.@fissure_eng

Elite League Dota 2 will be an online tournament hosted in collaboration between Fissure and ESB. FISSURE, the esports tournament organisers from Eastern Europe, has been hosting Dota 2 tournaments since 2022. Prior to hosting this tournament, Fissure hosted BetBoom Dacha Dubai 2024 to a huge success.

Featured Image Source: Twitter.@fissure_eng

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