One of the most essential pillars and backbone in the competitive DotA landscape, ASUS, is going through rough times. In a personal blog on cyberfight.ru, ASUS head administrator Dmitry "d1monn" Kuznetsov announced, that due to a tight budget, the first three tournaments of the season will not take place via LAN.

One could mostly read disappointment between the blog's lines, as ASUS finds itself forced to break with the long lasting tradition of throwing one LAN party per quarter. In 2012, the tournament series will not be a regular meeting point for the Eastern European professional scene, as only the "final battle of the year", ASUS Winter Cup, will take place in a cybercafe during December.

More specific reasons, other than a difficult financial situation are not mentioned. Until now it seems further unclear, wether DotA or Dota 2 will become our discipline to follow, besides the tournaments in Starcraft II, Counter-Strike 1.6 and League of Legends.

A rough schedule for all events of 2012 has been put up, making out March-April, June-July and September-October as possible dates for the Spring, Summer and Autumn Cups. At issue is currently, wether teams and players should be able to win tickets and wild cards for the final battle through good placings in the three online tournaments.

Links
cyberfight.ru - Original blog
prodota.ru - related press release

ASUS season 2012: Spring, Summer and Autumn cups to be held online