Shanghai Major Overview
It is fair to say that the first Major event in Frankfurt was a success for both the community and the players. It was clearly a special tournament that provided an experience similar to that of the International, particularly in terms of organization, the commitment of the teams and, of course, the prize pool.
The second edition will take place in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.
It is dubbed the “Winter Major” and will feature the 16 strongest teams on the Dota 2 scene. The more distinguished ones were invited, while the rest had to battle their way through regional qualifiers.
The invited teams are: OG, EG, Team Secret, EHOME, CDEC Gaming, Vici Gaming, Virtus.Pro and Alliance.
Two stages of qualifiers were held – Open Qualifiers (3-6 January) and Main Qualifiers (7-10 January). As the name suggests, any team could try their luck in the Open Qualifiers, with the two best teams progressing to the Main Qualifiers along with another eight invited teams to that stage.
From that pool, a total of two teams from each region advanced to Shanghai. These teams were:
- Americas – Team Archon and compLexity Gaming
- Europe – Team Liquid and Team Spirit
- Southeast Asia – Fnatic and MVP Phoenix
- China – LGD and Newbee
The next phase is the Group Stage, which runs from 25-28 February, and the draw paired the following teams against each other:
- Group A – CDEC Gaming, EHOME.cn, MVP Phoenix, Team Secret
- Group B – Alliance, Fnatic, Team Spirit, Vici Gaming
- Group C – LGD Gaming, OG, Team Archon, Newbee
- Group D – compLexity Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, Virtus.Pro
The Group Stage matches will be played in a double-elimination format in best-of-three games. This means that the winners of the first two matches in the group will meet and the winner of that clash will advance directly to the upper bracket of the Main Event. The losers of the first two matches will face each other and the winner of this match will face the loser of the winners’ match for the second spot in the upper bracket of the Main Event. Thus the top two teams in each group will advance to the upper bracket of the Main Event, while the other two will drop into the lower bracket of the Main Event.
The Main Event will take place between 2-6 March and all 16 teams will take part.
All matches in the upper bracket will be played in best-of-three games. The upper bracket path to the Grand Finals is shorter as teams will have to win three consecutive matches to reach the final stage. If they are eliminated at any stage prior to that, they will fall into the lower bracket, where they will have a second chance to advance further.
The lower bracket path to the Grand Finals is harder as six consecutive wins will be necessary if this is where a team starts out. The first two lower bracket rounds will be played in a best-of-one format, with the other four in a best-of-three format.
Starting from the second stage onwards, each round will contain a team having lost a match from the winner bracket.
The Grand Finals are the final match of the tournament and will be played in a best-of-five format.
The prize pool is $3 000 000 and each team will receive a part of it:
- Champions – $1,110,000
- 2nd place – $405,000
- 3rd place – $315,000
- 4th place – $255,000
- 5th-6th place – $202,000
- 7th-8th place – $105,000
- 9th-12th place – $45,000
- 13th-16th place – $30,000
