In two weeks, the top 18 teams in the world will fight it out for the biggest prize pool in e-sports history, not to mention the prestige that will come along with being crowned the seventh champion of The International. But we won't be starved of Dota 2 action till then, as there is still the small issue of DreamLeague Season 7 at hand. What's common in the two tournaments ? (other than some good Dota 2 action of course) Team Liquid and Team Secret will be fighting it out at both events for supremacy.
Dream League is a tournament that doesn't venture beyond the western world. The final LAN, which will be taking place in Atlanta, has three teams that have qualified from Europe and one from North America. Besides the two mentioned above, the tournament will be featuring TI 6 runners up Planet Odd and forgotten CIS team Vega Squadron. It is a double elimination tournament for which the bracket looks like this:
The prize pool for the tournament is $175,000 distributed as $80,000 for first place, $45,000 for second place, $30,000 for third and the fourth team ending up with $20,000. No team will be going home empty handed!
So why will the spotlight be on Liquid and Secret? The current Dota 2 patch is 7.06 e, which will be the one that Dream League will feature and also the same one on which TI 7 will most likely be played (unless Valve decides to throw a curve ball and introduce a new patch just before the biggest Dota 2 event). The event is a double edged sword for the two teams: Perform well and get a morale boost before TI 7 but then you risk revealing starts and play styles to the 16 other teams having their eyes on you. Even though it might not seem a lot for most of us, professional teams with their coaches and statisticians can decipher a lot based of what they analyse.
If you ask me, I'd say it is always to get some practice before a big event. It will be interesting to be seen how the captains, Kuro 'Kuroky' Salehi Takhasomi and Clement 'Puppey' Ivanov approach the event. It could also be a make or break event for Planet Odd, who have had many disappointing results in the near past. All in all, it promises to be a short but thrilling event! The action starts on the 21st July, 11 am EDT and the best of five grand finals will be played at 16:15 EDT on the 22nd of July.
