ESL One Katowice Winners
Virtus.pro picked up their third Dota 2 Pro Circuit win of the year, finishing in first place at ESL One Katowice. The team was debuting a new roster, with Vladimir “RodjER” Nikogosyan replacing Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk. Virtus.pro beat Vici Gaming 3-1 in the Grand Finals to pick up (US) $400,000 and 750 qualifying points per player. This put Virtus.pro in first place on the Dota 2 Pro Circuit leaderboards, and all but guarantees they’ll receive a direct invitation to The International 8.
Sponsor Mercedes-Benz also handed out an MVP trophy and a (EUR) $50,000 Mercedes-Benz car to Rodjer. This solidifies his transfer from Natus Vincere to Virtus.pro only eighteen days before the tournament began as a brilliant career move.
The next Dota 2 Pro Circuit event is The Bucharest Major, in Bucharest, Romania from March 4-11th.
7.10: Paging Dark Willow Players
Thursday’s scheduled patch brought 7.10 to the Dota 2 masses. Any conversation about the patch has to start with the inclusion of Dark Willow in Captain’s Mode. She’s already made her way into a few qualifier games, but it seems likely she’ll be banned out of most games at the upcoming Major as
This patch adjusted sixty-nine heroes, with tweaks to everything from movement speed and turn rates to talents and abilities. There were also several other changes, including to items and bounty runes. The full patch notes can be seen on the Dota 2 website here.
The Bucharest Major
On Friday, March 2nd, Jake “SirActionSlacks” Keller drew the the first round match-ups for the Swiss group stage. Each of the group stage rounds will be best-of-ones. On March 7th, the top eight teams will be seeded into a single elimination bracket play-off after the final and fifth round. The bottom eight teams will be eliminated. With (US) $1,000,000 and 1500 qualifying points on the line, the competition between the sixteen teams will be fierce.
The Bucharest Major begins March 3rd and can be watched at https://www.twitch.tv/pgl_dota2.
Featured Image Credit: Copyright: ESL | Helena Kristiansson