D2CL gives hope to a lost region as Dota 2 tournaments remain on hiatus

Ever wonder where are the household Dota 2 teams from the Eastern Europe region of DPC?

The likes of Team Spirit, Virtus.pro, AS Monaco Gambit, even PuckChamp have stopped getting love entirely. Once DPC EEU wasn’t able to kick off on February 28, everyone simply forgot about several thousand aspiring pros from the region.

D2CL goes on despite challenges

Since the conflict Russia-Ukraine conflict began, Valve wasn’t the only party that put esports on hold in the region, as most third-party tournament organizers did so too. Many TO took the conflict as a reason for retracting their partnerships with Russian and Belarusian companies. After all, many TOs, such as WePlay Esports, are based in Ukraine.

Yet, the Dota 2 Championship League (D2CL) has kept the show going throughout the conflict. During D2CL S8, the event was put on-hold when the conflict started but eventually got back on its course to continue group stage. Considering the lack of resources D2CL has, the D2CL S8 went decently well with Entity taking the crown.

That said, the D2CL wasn’t without its hiccups as Ukrainian participants withdrew from the event. Furthermore, fans were outraged that D2CL decided to continue the event despite what was happening outside the arena.

D2CL Season 9

As the last season’s D2CL concluded pleasingly, Epic Esports Event didn’t hesitate to announce a new season of D2CL. The D2CL S9 is currently running its group stage between fourteen teams. It’s frankly a sight for sore eyes knowing that D2CL is still trying to keep the EEU scene afloat. After all, for many of these EEU teams, which aren’t powerhouses, their livelihood depends on prize winnings alone.

While the group stage is ongoing, D2CL S9 has yet to announce the playoffs seeds, which are typically top-tier candidates. For instance, Virtus.pro and PuckChamp might just make an appearance again.

Where EEU stands in DPC

Unfortunately, Epic Esports Events’ efforts in sustaining the EEU esports for the meantime might not last very long. Valve has yet to release any updates on the current EEU DPC situation since putting it on hold indefinitely.

This is beginning to become a rising concern as the Stockholm Major 2022 will soon have its qualified teams from each regional league. Three potential EEU representatives will be left out and miss the opportunity to win DPC points and the prize pool. Since we are certain that EEU teams can’t make it for the major, the massive point gap is a disadvantage. After all, DPC points won from majors and DPC Tours are crucial in placing teams in the top twelve candidates.

It begs the question of how Valve intends on orchestrating the DPC EEU scene, presumably after the conflict concludes. Our initial guess would be of an isolated qualifier for the International 11 (TI11). Perhaps a large-scale TI11 regional qualifier exclusive for the unfortunate folks from EEU.

Regardless, it boils down to Valve on how they intend on letting the DPC EEU region get their share.

Team Spirit, the defending champions

As Team Spirit is the TI10 Champions, much more is at stake for EEU’s competitive scene to defend their title as champions. After all, Team Spirit is still a formidable opponent and remained undefeated since the grand finals of TI10.

It surely isn’t the first time a former champion wasn’t able to defend their title at TI. Wings Gaming, the TI6 champions were banned from Chinese tournaments, due to breach of contract by leaving their esports organization. This makes the founding members of Wings Gaming, the first among TI champions to fail to defend their title during the subsequent year’s TI.

The thought of this happening for Team Spirit is devastating, as we don’t see any plausible scenario whereby the DPC EEU could return to its former glory.Just when the Dota 2 community anticipated a grand year from EEU with the rise of PuckChamp and CIS Rejects. EEU was once again disrupted by unforeseen circumstances, which is estimated to set the region’s talents back by a milestone.

Till then, kudos to D2CL for doing a phenomenal job at enabling EEU teams to keep up with their Esports career. While we are at it, consider showing your support for the D2CL S9 happening right now to have a glimpse of how EEU has evolved since Dota 2 Patch 7.31