DreamLeague Season 10 participants and preview

Dota 2
September 27, 2018
Radu Muresan

DreamLeague Season 10 is the first Dota Pro Circuit LAN event of the new competitive season. This tournament will be a Minor, having a prize pool of $300.000 and offering a total of 500 qualification points for The International 2019.

DreamLeague Season 10 is scheduled to take place in Stockholm, Sweden between October 29th – November 4th. It will be attended by 8 teams and the stakes are high because the winner qualifies for The Kuala Lumpur Major, which takes place immediately after this event.

DreamLeague Season 10 participants

DreamLeague Season 10 brings together 8 teams from 6 different regions:

  • Europe: Team Liquid, The Final Tribe.
  • CIS: Natus Vincere.
  • North America: ROOONS, compLexity Gaming.
  • South America: Infamous.
  • Southeast Asia: Tigers.
  • China: Royal Never Give Up.

Apart from Team Liquid, we haven’t seen any of these teams on the big stage in a very long time. And in some cases, ever.

dream-league-season-10-teams

© DreamLeague

The format of the tournament is yet to be revealed, but with 8 teams playing Bo3 matches (except for the Grand Final which is a Bo5 series) and 7 days of competition, the format pretty much has to be the often used 2 groups + playoffs, where the groups are played in a double-elimination bracket format (GSL) and the top 2 teams qualify for the semifinals.

Another possibility is to have all of the teams in the playoffs, paired according to the results in the group stage. In such a case we could even see a double-elimination bracket playoffs stage, with the groups being played in a round robin fashion, just like at The International, but consisting of Bo3 matches instead of Bo2s.

Main contenders at DreamLeague Season 10

Team Liquid

After winning The International 2017 and securing a 4th place at The International 2018, Team Liquid clearly lost some of its motivation and will to succeed. Otherwise KuroKy and his teammates wouldn’t be here in the first place. They would have qualified directly for The Kuala Lumpur Major. A team of Liquid’s caliber is like a lion among sheep at an event like this. The only reason why there’s more than a main contender is that Team Liquid is currently a shadow of its former self. Otherwise this event would be a free win for it.

team-liquid-the-international-2018

© ESL One

It is still unclear whether or not KuroKy did it on purpose, being confident that his team would easily win at DreamLeague Season 10 and wanting to catch two rabbits instead of one. After all, the teams that have qualified for The Kuala Lumpur Major don’t get the chance to compete in the Minor that precedes it as well.

Tigers

This is a strong SEA team with a lot of talented players in it. With 1437 as its captain and former Major champions such as Moonmeander in its roster, Tigers looks perfectly capable to defeat all opposition at DreamLeague Season 10, perhaps with the exception of Team Liquid.

Royal Never Give Up

This is a very famous name in League of Legends, but in Dota 2 it’s the first time we see this organization on a big stage. Nevertheless, its Dota 2 team looks very promising and consists of a mixture of highly experienced players. Many of them are former members of world-class teams such as LFY and Fnatic.