MLG and joinDota to host $60,000 T.K.O.

Administration of the online competition will be handled by JoinDOTA with commentary for 6-8 matches each tournament day provided by Toby “TobiWan” Dawson, notable for his casting in all three International DOTA 2 Championships and as recipient of the 2013 Best Commentator award from the community of GosuGamers. T.K.O America and T.K.O Europe will split the $60,000 prize pool evenly. This also provides much needed attention for the American scene which saw close to no tournaments at all in 2013.

While many well known teams like Fnatic, Na'vi, Sigma, Speed Gaming, Empire, Team Liquid, Virtus Pro, Rox.KIS and others will be competing in MLG T.K.O, fans may notice team Alliance's absence from the roster. Following their poor performance in D2L Season 2, a short break and lineup changes were announced by manager Kelly "kellymilkies" Ong. The Alliance has recently been active in several tournaments, taking second place in Starladder Star Series Series Season 8, but it appears that the Swedish giants, winners of The International DOTA 2 Championship 2013, intend to sit this one out. Many teams may breathe a sigh of relief at The Alliance's absence from MLG T.K.O as, for much of 2013, the Swedes went practically undefeated and have consistently proven themselves a force to be reckoned with.

T.K.O America and T.K.O Europe will independently hold a series of round-robin stages using the brand new Knockout Format in which the weakest teams are eliminated after each stage. In the first stage, eight teams will face off in a one game round-robin, with the three lowest scoring teams being eliminated; the second stage will pit the five remaining teams against each other in a two game round-robin, ending with the elimination of only two teams; finally, three teams will battle their way to the finals in the third stage, playing a three game round-robin. A best-of-five Grand Final will be held between the two remaining teams during the last stage. The teams to be eliminated in each stage are determined by their wins-losses, with the top scoring teams receiving bonus points toward the next stage (the top three teams of stage one receive 3/2/1 bonus points; the top two teams of stage two receive 2/1 points; the top team of stage three receives 1 bonus point).

Matches are set to run from February 4th until the end of March. A full list of rules can be found here.