ESL One Genting Results
On Sunday, January 28, 2018, Newbee beat Team Liquid 3-2 in the grand finals of ESL One Genting. Newbee picked up 200 Qualifying Points (QPs) per player, and $160 000 USD, putting them in fourth place in the current Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) standings. Team Liquid took second place, with Evil Geniuses and Team Secret sharing third/fourth place.
The tournament was ESL’s first Dota 2 tournament exclusively broadcasted on Facebook as per an agreement announced in early January. The Dota 2 community’s reaction was mixed, and Valve re-addressed their DotaTV Streaming policy as controversy brewed around ESL’s reaction to streams popping up on other platforms. Ultimately, ESL took to the popular Dota 2 subreddit to apologize and commit to improving the Facebook experience for future events. They’ll have until February 20th when ESL One Katowice begins.
StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 4 Kicks Off
The first two days of StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 4’s group stage saw Team Liquid taking the first playoff spot in Group A and Newbee taking the first in Group B. Infamous, compLexity Gaming, and LGD Gaming will battle for the last spot in Group A, while Team Kinguin, Team Empire, and Mineski go after the last spot in Group B.
StarLadder is a Minor in the DPC, worth 300 QPs to the top four teams and with a $300 000 USD prize pool. It runs from February 1st to February 4th, in Shanghai, China.
Spring Cleaning Patch(es)
IceFrog, Dota 2’s elusive developer, broke his silence on Twitter this week to announce a bi-weekly patch schedule experiment. For the next six months, “small patches” will be released every other Thursday. Unclear is how these patches will interact with tournaments; four events, including the currently ongoing StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 4, conflict with patch dates.
The first bi-weekly patch was released February 1st, and is anything but a small patch. Patch 7.08, called Spring Cleaning 2018, features several quality-of-life improvements to the UI, adjustments to matchmaking and the ban system, as well as extensive balance changes, with 23 heroes, 11 items, and various general gameplay elements receiving alterations. For all the details, check out Valve’s official Spring Cleaning 2018 page.
The Race to Roster Lock
The final roster lock before The International 8 will happen on Monday, February 5th. Teams have been releasing and adding players throughout January, with some of the most notable changes including teams in the top ten of the DPC standings.
The biggest roster shocker of the week came from the CIS region: Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere swapped position 4 players. Vladimir “Rodjer” Nikogosyan headed to Virtus.pro, taking 105 QPs with him, while Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk headed to Natus Vincere with his 900 QPs. Virtus.pro sits in third place now, with 2700 QPs, while Natus Vincere bumps up to fifth place with 1110.
Check out the current Dota Pro Circuit Team Standings on the official Valve site and watch StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 4’s English coverage on twitch.tv/dotastarladder_en.
Feature Photo credit is ESL | Photography Adela Sznajder