There’s so much Dota 2 in China that it’s causing problems for top teams

This past year year, people blamed the lack of tournaments as one of the reasons for China’s lackluster performance at The International 2013 (TI3). But now, we have just the opposite. Chinese teams currently have so many Dota 2 tournaments to play that schedules are conflicting.

Three tournaments will be overlapping —the Hyper X Dota 2 League (D2L) Season 4, the Esports Championship League (ECL) 2014 and G-League 2014. After a meeting with all Dota 2 teams that are under the Association of Chinese ESports (ACE) including the two newest teams Hearts Get Together (HGT) and TongFu.WanZhou, it was decided and announced that teams will be allowed to choose which tournaments to participate in.

The current schedule leaves no time for the 2 Chinese teams participating in the D2L LAN games in Las Vegas to fly back to China to participate in the ECL and the G-League tournaments. So if they choose to fly to Las Vegas, they will be missing out on two prominent Chinese tournaments. However, a chance to face Western teams is rare for Asian teams outside of The International.

So can’t the schedules be changed? Even before this schedule conflict with ECL and G-League, D2L had already coordinated with ACE regarding the scheduling of their tournament. That is why arrangements had already been made for the Chinese teams that are participating both in the WPC-ACE League so that they will be able to play in both tournaments. However, G-League and ECL declared that they will not be moving the schedule for their matches so either the teams play for D2L or G-League and ECL.

Here are the tournament schedules for November 2013 and January 2014.

Although there has been no confirmation yet about who’s going to attend which tournament, it’s safe to say that those who have the chance to attend D2L will be suffering the most. They now have to consider which will be more beneficial for them in all aspects, and there’s more at stake than just the prize pools. As I mentioned, meeting Western teams outside of The International is rare for Asian teams. This will be particularly helpful in understanding how the Western teams handle the new meta. Watching them is one thing. Going against them is another.

As for matches against other Chinese teams, they could bank on the possibility of other Chinese tournaments for the rest of 2014. But there could be another dry spell of tournaments for high tier teams like last year. And if the big teams all decided to go to D2L, it could be bad for the sponsors and organizers of Chinese tournaments. Perhaps it would be beneficial for all parties to coordinate with each other to avoid conflicts like this. It is undeniable that viewership is very important and having the top teams in a tournament means a lot.

So do you think the Chinese teams should fly to Las Vegas to face the West or should they instead focus on tournaments in China? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Source: 2P, SGamer