The main event of GEST August is all set, with the teams winning from their respective regional qualifiers going at it for the $1,500 prize pool. The tournament will ironically start on the 2nd day of September, stretching all the way to the 8th.
The 16 teams will be split into four different groups, and each group will have a separate double-elimination tournament. The top two teams from each group, or simply the teams who will manage to score two wins, will advance into the next round. Aside from the seeding, the first-ranked advancing team will not have any advantange heading into the playoffs.
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Three of the four previous champions of GEST will not be present on this month's finale. The International 3 particpants NeoES.Orange and Invasion.MUFC decided to sit this one out, while MiTH.Trust forfeited on the semifinals of their qualifiers due to schedule conflicts. The only team who has a chance to win the title once again is incidentally last month's champion, AMD.Mineski.
We have teams re-emerging into the tournament, like Impervious (previously known as Netolic.SG) of Singapore and Tim Chung (primarily made up of BienHoa Assassin players) of Vietnam. Returning teams like 1st.Vn and Mineski (both 7/7 on GEST appearance), Queen Net (previously known as Ultimate, four-time GEST finalist), NeoES.G7 (three-time GEST finalist) and Nara.Stacks (back-to-back finalist) are also on the fray for the title.
We also have teams making their debut. Thai-teams GxBrutal and What Up Dude took advantage of Trust, Awake and TMY's absence, while Lowyat.net will be one of the two teams representing Malaysia. A relatively new team of veterans in the Indonesian-team Bambang FC (Kyosh, Chains and company) are also participating on the tournament after they topped out their qualifier. Singapore's Xplicit is also a neophyte on GEST's main event.
After the teams for the playoffs have been determined, the eight remaining teams will then follow a single-elimination format. All the pairings will be played on a best-of-three series, except for the grand finals which is best-of-five. The winning team will receive $1,000, and the runner-up will get $500.
The delayed schedule is because of Philippines' MSI Beat It! happening this last weekend of the month, which is GEST's usual slot. While its multi-stage format was kept in tact, a slight change on the playing schedule has been made as well. Instead of the usual four-day grand finals, it has now stretched into a one-week skirmish. Despite the longer tournament duration, it also means that there will be no overlapping games for at least on the group stage.
The DotaTV ticket for this GEST is not out yet, but it is reportedly coming out this weekend. The English cast will be handled by BeyondTheSummit and Basskip.
Source: DotaTalk
