New Chinese $1m Dota 2 League announced, with Chinese players to become official athletes

The Chinese National Sports General Administration has partnered with Perfect World and MarsTV to host a $1m Dota 2 League starting this May.

The official announcement came on May 10th via a press conference held at Grand Hyatt Hotel from Beijing, China where representatives of Perfect World, MarsTV and the Chinese National Sports General Administration presented their plans for the biggest league ever to be hosted in China.

The Dota 2 Professional League (DPL) will help further promote Valve’s Dota 2 in China while giving teams of all level a chance to perform at the highest level. Over the past few years, we witnessed some of the biggest powerhouses in China compete in both major domestic and international events. What was lacking, until now, was a platform where smaller teams could show the extent of their skills against the cream of the crop. ” - extract from MarsTV’s facebook announcement

Dota 2 Professional League will be held across two seasons and at the end of it all participating players will be declared official athletes in China. Apart from this recognition, all teams will receive a share of the prize pool money, with placements determining the exact split.

However, the first season of DPL will only have a $200,000 prize pool, with the rest of the $800,000 being reserved for Season 2. Starting next week, on May 18th, 22 teams will battle each other for the next few months. All of them will advance in season two but the top 10 will be promoted to division one the rest having to climb up to join them from division two.

source: MarsTV
headline and title image source MarsTV