The fight to enter Riyadh Masters is going to be fierce.
In case you missed it, the ESL DreamLeague season 20 started last weekend and it’s already shaking up to be a crazy tournament.
We’ve got the breakdown of this entirely online tournament as 16 teams from West and East Europe, North and South America, China, and Southeast Asia battling against each other for the final two direct invitations to Riyadh Masters later this July.
The Teams
West Europe:
- Gaimin Gladiators
- Team Liquid
- Tundra Esports
- OG
- Entity
- Team Secret
East Europe:
- Team Spirit
- 9Pandas
- BetBoom*
North America:
- Shopify Rebellion
- TSM
South America:
- Evil Geniuses
- Beastcoast
China:
- Team Aster
- PSG.LGD
Southeast Asia:
- Talon Esports
All participating teams earned their spot through their ESL Pro Tour (EPT) rankings. The EPT is an Elo-based ranking system where teams are scored based on their performance in official ESL tournaments.
*Betboom will take Execration’s place as the Southeast Asian team was unable to secure their visas in time for the tournament.
The Format
The group stages will have two stages in two weeks. In group stage one, the 16 teams will be separated into two groups of eight and will play each other in a best-of-two, single round-robin. The top four teams in each group will advance to group stage two while the rest will be eliminated.
In group stage two, the remaining eight teams will play each other in a best-of-three, single round-robin. The top two teams advance into the upper bracket of the playoffs while the third and fourth teams advance into the lower bracket. The remaining teams will be eliminated.
Finally, the playoffs will be a double elimination bracket. All matches will be a best-of-three with the exception of the grand finals which will be a best-of-five.
The Prize
As mentioned earlier, the top two teams will be directly invited to the group stages of Riyadh Masters. This will give the invited teams more time to prepare for their opponents while avoiding the intense fighting in the play-ins stage.
The ESL DreamLeague champions will also walk away with 300,000 USD from the 1,000,000 USD prize pool.
Want to catch the rest of ESL DreamLeague season 20? Check out their official Youtube and Twitch channels.
Banner image from ESL Dota2 on Twitter.
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