The Dota 2 professional scene is buzzing this summer. Late July, in particular, is packed with excitement, featuring two LAN tournaments that will commence immediately after the Esports World Cup.
Elite League Season 2 will bring Dota 2 action to South America. This LAN tournament, boasting an $800,000 prize pool, will take place from July 25 to August 4 in Lima, Peru.
Currently, ESB, the tournament organizer, has revealed that the event will feature two group stages and a playoff. The teams receiving direct invites to the tournament have yet to be announced. However, regional qualifiers have been held across the six major regions over the past week, each offering one slot for the LAN event.
Teams Qualified for Elite League Season 2:
- MOUZ (Western Europe);
- Yellow Submarine (Eastern Europe);
- Apex Genesis (North America);
- Infinity (South America);
- Execration (Southeast Asia);
- Evil Rabbit (China).
Most of the teams heading to Peru at the end of the month are relatively unknown, as this will be their debut at a tier-one tournament. Notably, this will be the first time fans will see the Eastern European prodigy, Alan "Satanic" Gallyamov, who has been dominating public matches for the past couple of years. At just 15 years old, he has caught Team Spirit’s attention, with some speculating he might eventually replace Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk. Whether or not he ends up at Team Spirit, Elite League will mark his international LAN debut.
While we await ESB's announcement of the directly invited teams, it's worth noting that this event almost perfectly overlaps with another LAN tournament in China. The Snow Ruyi Invitational will run from July 28 to August 4 and has already announced its participating teams, revealing which teams won’t be in Peru.
Snow Ruyi Invitational Participating Teams:
- Xtreme Gaming;
- G2 x iG;
- LGD Gaming;
- Azure Ray;
- Team Zero;
- Team Spirit;
- Talon Esports;
- nouns;
- Virtus.pro;
- Natus Vincere;
- Nigma Galaxy;
- Team Secret.