The ESL has changed the rules of the spring Dota 2 major: the pluses of the new format

The ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022 will be held from May 12 to 22 in Stockholm. It will be the first LAN tournament with an audience for a long time. 18 best teams of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022: Season 2 will perform there. The participants will play for $500,000 and 3,530 DPC points. On April 6, the tournament operator changed the ESL One Stockholm rules, getting rid of the Wild Card which was on both of the majors last year. This change is a considerable advantage. It will make the tournament much more exciting, as now the playoff participants will be noteworthy, and strong teams won't be eliminated before the tournament, that is, at the Wild Card. The concentration of strong teams will grow during the tournament, as it should be at cool championships. Read what the new ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022 rules are and why they are better than the old ones in the material of Cybersport.Metaratings.ru.

In 2021, there were two Dota 2 majors, and their rules were the same. 18 strongest teams were invited: four from China, four from Europe, three from the CIS, three from Southeast Asia, two from North America, and two from South America. Teams that got first place during the DPC league in their region went straight to the major playoff. Teams that took second place got a direct invite to the group stage, and those from third and fourth places moved to the Wild Card. Only two Wild Card teams out of six made it to the group stage. This system had two main cons.

The first one. Weak teams qualified for the playoff upper bracket without any fight. We know that South American teams are weaker than an average world team. But some Thunder Awaken could take first place in their region and become one of the major winners, making it to the tournament top 12. However, if this team had played in the group, it might have not qualified for the playoff at all. The same can be said about North America or even the CIS. The teams got higher places at the major because they proved themselves in their region, which sounds strange and makes no sense.

The second one. Strong teams were eliminated during the Wild Card due to fierce competition. Europe and China are considered the strongest Dota 2 regions. That's why they both have four slots in the major. Two of the four teams take part only in the Wild Card, where a maximum of two teams out of six make it to the group stage. It means that we used to lose at least two strong teams during the Wild Card (and one from both the CIS and Southeast Asia), which could become the tournament champions. It is obvious that even the fourth place in China or Europe is stronger than the first one in South America. So, their participation in the main part of the major should be of higher priority to make the tournament as spectacular as possible. However, the organizers used to turn a blind eye to such an obvious flaw and distributed the slots so that each region would be pleased.

Before the upcoming spring major, the Electronic Sports League (ESL) decided to change the tournament rules by getting rid of their two main disadvantages. The tournament operator has renounced the Wild Card and distribution of teams to different stages of the tournament depending on their place in their home region. Now all 18 teams will start the major at the group stage.

Thanks to this, a weak team will no longer go far in the tournament just because it was in first place in its region. There will also be no cases when a strong team leaves the tournament during the Wild Card due to intense competition. These changes should make the major much more fascinating.

Actually, it is nice. Of course, Wild Card matches were captivating, as they were tenser, but I wouldn't like to start my performance at this stage. I have played there and now I try not to get there once again. The cancellation of invites to the playoff will make the tournament more thrilling and the teams will be able to have more matches. Making it to the playoff used to mean you had to spend a couple of days in AFK mode watching Dota 2, and I want to play.

Tommy "Taiga" Le

According to the new rules, 18 teams that will qualify for the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022 will be divided into two groups. There they will play against each other in a round-robin system with best-of-2 matches. Four best teams from each group will get to the playoff upper bracket, and teams that will take fifth and sixth places will be in the lower bracket. Other rosters will leave the championship. The matches of the ESL One Stockholm Dota Major 2022 final stage will be held at the Hovet arena with an audience. This hasn't happened in Dota 2 for more than two years.