ESL One Genting 2018: The RM1.5 Million Prize Pool & More To Expect At The Dota 2 Minor

It is the first ever Malaysian Dota 2 Minor, which will happen from 26 to 28 January in the prestigious Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands.

The tournament features 16 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams as they compete for a USD400,000 (RM1.5 million) prize pool and the ESL One trophy.

Red Bull is the official energy drink partner of ESL One Genting.

The top 16 Dota 2 teams will not only battle over the huge prize pool but also for 400 coveted Qualifying Points that are collected to determine the eight direct invites to The International 2018.

Qualifying Points will only be awarded to the Top Four teams. However, all 16 participating teams will still walk away with prize money regardless of their finishing position.

The champion will bring home USD160,000 (RM600,000) while the runner-up will bring home USD80,000 (RM300,000). The third and fourth placing teams will win USD40,000 (RM150,000) each.

The tournament will feature 16 teams - six teams from Europe, four teams from China, three teams from South East Asia, two teams from North America, and one team from South America.

However, nine of them have already been eliminated in the group stages, which began on Tuesday, 23 January. The eliminated teams are Complexity, SG E-Sports, Penta Sports, Planet Dog, TNC Pro Team, LGD Forever Young, Fnatic, Mineski, and VG.J Thunder.

Prior to the grand finals, which will be played in the Best of 5 (Bo5) format, the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played out in the Best of 3 (Bo3) format using single elimination.

By the start of tomorrow, only six teams will remain. Two teams will have an advantage by already securing themselves a place in the semifinals while the other four teams will battle it out in the quarterfinals.

At the time of writing, Team Secret has secured a spot in the semifinals after taking down Virtus Pro in two straight games. However, all is not lost for Virtus Pro as they are still in the competition and is due to play tomorrow in the quarterfinal.

The final six teams are the following - Team Secret, Team Liquid, Newbee, Virtus Pro, Vici Gaming, and Natus Vincere/Evil Geniuses.

The first quarterfinal starts at 3.00pm tomorrow. You can watch it at ESL One's Facebook page.

Four Malaysians are participating in the event, namely Chai "Mushi" Yee Fung and Kam "Moon" Boon Seng from Mineski, Tue "ah fu" Soon Chuan from LGD Forever Young, and Yeik "MidOne" Nai Zheng from Team Secret.

However, Ah Fu’s LGD.FY bowed out early in the tournament as they suffered defeats in the hands of Newbee and Mineski. Mushi and Moon’s Mineski also suffered the same fate are they were knocked out by Natus Vincere in a three-game series.