Soon after announcing Dota Summit 11 as the first Minor to kick off the new DPC season earlier, Valve has quickly followed it up by announcing the MDL Chengdu Major as the first Major of the 2019-2020 DPC Season. The MDL event event will take place from November 16th to November 24th 2019 in Chengdu and will be run by Mars Media. The event will feature a $1,000,000 USD prizepool and 15,000 DPC points up for grabs, with its qualifiers in conjunction with Dota Summit 11 in 2 weeks.
Details regarding the organizer and the location of the first Major has been in circulation around the Internet for a past couple of weeks, and now it is confirmed. Another important thing to take note is the possible absence of several Tier 1 teams, although being a Major event. PSG.LGD has officially confirmed that it will skip the first Major event, and popular Russian Dota 2 host Vitalii "v1lat" Volochai stating that 3 Tier 1 teams are considering to skip the first Major as well.
A highly-possible candidate is recent TI9 champions OG, who skipped the first pair of DPC events last year following their TI8 victory, and is now missing their midlaner Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen, who has announced that he's taking a break, as well as potentially Anathan "ana" Pham, who annually takes a long period of break every post-TI.
Event Details
MDL Chengdu Major
Organizer: Mars Media
Series: Mars Dota 2 League
Dates: November 16-24, 2019
Location: Chengdu, China
Venue: Chengdu Century City New International Convention & Exhibition Center
DPC Status: Major
Prizepool: $1,000,000 USD
DPC Points: 15,000 points
Participants: 16 teams
Qualifiers: October 5-10, 2019
Prize Distribution
1st: $300,000 USD - 4,850 DPC points
2nd: $160,000 USD - 3,000 DPC points
3rd: $110,000 USD - 2,100 DPC points
4th: $80,000 USD - 1,350 DPC points
5-6th: $60,000 USD - 900 DPC points
7-8th: $40,000 USD - 450 DPC points
9-12th: $20,000 USD - 150 DPC points
13-16th: $12,500 USD - 100 DPC points
Qualifiers & tournament format
With Valve's new take on the DPC qualifiers, MDL Chengdu Major qualifiers will be held together with Dota Summit 11 on October 5-10, 2019. 15 teams that qualified through Phase 1 and 2 of the qualifiers will get to partake in the Major, with the final 16th slot reserved for the winner of the preceding Minor, Dota Summit 11. Each qualifier region are guaranteed at least 2 slots for the Major, with the remaining 3 slots distribution to be determined by Valve.
With the Major format predetermined by the DPC rules, the tournament will consist of group stage and playoffs. The 16 teams will be split into 4 groups and play in a Bo3 GSL format, with the Top 2 teams from each group advancing to the Upper Bracket, while the rest enter the Lower Bracket. Playoffs will be a Bo3 Double Elimination bracket, with exemption to the first Lower Bracket round, which is a Bo1, and the Bo5 Grand Finals.
An overview of MDL
MDL, or Mars Dota 2 League, is the flagship event organized by Chinese production company Mars Media (rebranding from MarsTV following expansion), who have been organizing the series' events since 2015. Mars Media also runs the DPL (Dota2 Professional League), a series of popular online leagues featuring the biggest teams in China.
Past Mars Dota 2 League events was held in various cities in China like Shanghai, Wuxi, Wuhan, before entering the DPC with a shorter, more colloquial event rebrand as MDL. From that point, MDL expanded beyond China, producing events in Macau and even France.
MDL is a frequent contributor to the Dota Pro Circuit, with a Minor held in Macau and Majors held in Changsha, Paris, and soon, Chengdu. MDL particularly got a huge international attention after holding their Major venue in Disneyland Paris.
Past MDL events
- MarsTV Dota 2 League 2015 Spring (2015)
- MarsTV Dota 2 League 2015 Winter (2016)
- Mars Dota 2 League 2017 (2017)
- MDL Macau (2017)
- MDL Changsha Major (2018)
- MDL Macau 2019 (2019)
- MDL Disneyland Paris Major (2019)
- MDL Chengdu Major (2019)
Of course, Dota 2 fans will be able to follow the action from the Chengdu Major with the schedule and live streams and win real cash by making predictions at Luckbox, where every new account starts with $5.
