Next on the Dota Pro Circuit schedule is the MDL Macau Minor which will kick off in two days from now, on the 8th of December.
When it was initially announced, the MDL Macau Minor featured eight teams fighting for the $300,000 prize pool and 300 qualifying points counting towards TI8 invites. However, with LGD Gaming receiving one of the two direct invites to the event and LGD Forever Young claiming their spot in the Minor via DPL Top Season 4 which counted as the Chinese qualifiers for the event, Valve stepped in and “instructed” the organizers to extend a third direct invite to EHOME who were not able to participate in the DPL due to their ACE ban for having two former Wings Gaming players.
So, with a sudden nine teams line-up the MDL Macau Minor will be held in two phases, an elimination best-of-one round-robin group stage leading up to a single elimination playoffs bracket. The group stage will be played across the first two days of the event, December 8-9 with only the top four teams advancing into the playoffs. The group stage winner will have the privilege of choosing their playoffs semifinals opponent from the 3rd/4th placed team. The playoffs will be played entirely on the 10th of December in a best-of-three bracket format, including the grand finals.
MDL Macau Minor participating teams:
Virtus Pro (ArtStyle will be standing in)
LGD Gaming
LGD Forever Young
OG
Natus Vincere
TNC Pro Team
Infamous
VGJ.Storm (Kpii will be standing in)
EHOME
LGD vs LFY will open up the long round-robin marathon in Macau on the 8th of December at 03:00 CET/10:00 CST with Infamous vs TNC played in parallel. Eighteen games will be played on the first day of the group stage with eighteen more to come on the second day.
