1. Groups and Schedule
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
06:00 - FXOpen vs SushiAndYasha
07:00 - MVP vs SymphonyDota
08:00 - UnderRateds' vs Team NJ & Kids
1st October
12:00 - E'oT vs MVP
13:00 - UnderRateds' vs Ace Online
14:00 - FXOpen vs Season One_
5th October
06:00 - Moonlight United vs SushiAndYasha
07:00 - Moonlight United vs Season One_
08:00 - Team NJ & Kids vs Ace Online
8th October
12:00 - Ave~ vs Virtual Throne
13:00 - FastGG vs SymphonyDota
14:00 - E'oT vs FastGG
12th October
06:00 - Moonlight United vs FXOpen
07:00 - SushiAndYasha vs Season One_
08:00 - Ave~ vs StarTale
15th October
12:00 - StarTale vs Virtual Throne
13:00 - FastGG vs SymphonyDota
14:00 - FastGG vs MVP
Quarter-finals: October 22 - October 26
Semi-finals: October 29 - November 26
Grand final: November 9
2. Format
Groupstage
- 16 teams will be separated into four groups of four where they will play round robin.
- The top two placers in the group will move into the playoffs.
Playoffs
- Quarter-finals will run single elimination best-of-three format.
- From the semi-finals onwards, the tournament will switch to double elimination although the games will still be played in best-of-three.
- Grand final will be best-of-five.
3. Prize distribution
Nexon Sponsorship League S1 Prizes | ||
---|---|---|
Placing | Teams | Prize |
1st place | 100 mio. Won (~$93,000) | |
2nd place | 8 mio. Won (~$7,400) | |
3rd-4th place | 3 mio. Won (~$2,800) | |
5th-8th place | 1.5 mio. Won (~$1,400) |
Just looking at the table above, you can probably tell that this tournament is extremely top heavy. Well, that is because it is parallel to Nexon's main objective to help teams get more sponsorship in Korea. The winner of season one and the upcoming season two and season three will also receive help from Nexon to secure more sponsors.
4. Top teams
FXOpen
Team roster:
March
Febby
QO
Anarchy
Sagun
MVP
Team roster:
Mafia
BanHwa
Kaizer
Pein
Hoonji
Eyes of the Tiger (E'oT)
Team roster:
Reisen
Pyung
Day
Rash
lly
StarTale
Team roster:
TB
M.P
KSH
Gandhi
Jyu
Virtual Throne
Team roster:
Aqua<3NJH
KYRA
Now
iHungry
DevilElf
5. Location
GOMTV studio during Nexon Starter League. Photo by Inven.
The matches of Nexon Starter League will be played at GOMTV's Gangnam Studio in Seoul, Korea. In Nexon Starter League The Gangnam Studio is a new studio GOMTV opened and it has all the technology and toys needed to topple production value records.
GOMTV Gangnam Studio address: 2nd Floor, Mirae Asset Life Insurance Building, 997-4 Daechi-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
6. Where to watch?
Sang-Hyun Park
Korean caster Sang-Hyun Park will be casting season one of Nexon Sponsorship League alongside Dae Man Park and Inho Jeong on GOMTV's stream. Park was previously invited to cast The International 3 at Seattle and many are amazed at how this guy can continue shouting the whole game. Here's a sample of his cast at TI3 alongside Dae Man Park.
BeyondTheSummit
Similar to the Nexon Starter League, BeyondTheSummit will likely run the broadcast of Nexon Sponsorship League on their second channel. The games will most likely be streamed by LysanderXonora while GoDz assured us that he will try to cast a few games whenever possible.
JoinDOTA Red
According to joinDOTA's news post, Toby 'TobiWan' Dawson will be casting Nexon Sponsorship League season one. Toby missed casting Nexon Starter League because of a time clash with StarLadder Star Series VI.
K3nt
Kent, one of DOTA2's earliest Chinese commentator, currently LGD-Gaming's official caster. Once the second most popular Chinese stream during The International 2012, with a record of continuous 40 hours non-stop streaming throughout the three play days. Appointed as official Chinese caster for several major tournaments, including GEST, Dreamhack, The Asia 2012 and many more. With his humorous comments and appropriate analysis, Kent is considered one of the more skilled and active commentators in China.
You can get this courier by buying the NSL DotaTV bundle.
DotaTV
Nexon Sponsorship League DotaTV ticket is available on the Dota 2 store for $12.99. The DotaTV ticket will come with a Baekho courier made by Vidotto, Onilolz, Zaphk and Nexon.
7. Who will you be rooting for?