DreamLeague Season 11: tournament preview

DreamLeague Season 11 — from March 14 to 24

From March 14 to 24, the third Major of the season 2018/2019 — DreamLeague Season 11, will take its place, and  NAVI.GG.BET is the participant! In this article, we will tell you about the championship in more detail.

The competition is organized by DreamHack, it is the second Dota Pro Circuit tournament that they will be hosting in the 2018/2019 season. Previously it was the tenth season of DreamLeague, which had the title of Minor. Recall that the "yellow-black" participated and took the second place, losing in the final match with a score of 2 : 3 to the  Tigers.

However, now the stakes are much higher: DreamLeague Season 11 has the Major title, and the tournament's prize fund has increased significantly — $ 1,000,000. In addition, all the participants will split the 15,000 DPC points required to qualify for The International 2019.

The venue for the championship will be the Annexet arena (Stockholm, Sweden). The venue is not the most spacious: the arena can accommodate up to 3,950 spectators. It is used both for concerts (for example, Lana Del Rey and Infected Mushroom performed there), and for sports competitions — most of them are hockey matches.

Infected Mushroom Concert in Annexet

It is noteworthy that the tournament will not take place in Annexet on all days. Only from March 22 to 24, viewers will be able to see the performance of the teams at the event itself, and from March 14 to 21, the teams will play behind closed doors, thus you can watch the competition exclusively on the broadcasts.

As for the competition itself, the DreamLeague Season 11 is divided into two stages. The first one is a group stage: it will take place from March 14 to 15, and at the end of the group stage no one will have to leave the tournament. The two best teams of each of the four groups will go to the top bracket of the playoffs, the rest will begin their performance from the lower bracket. Group stage format — GSL double elimination.

Playoffs will be held March 16-24. The teams will play the double elimination bracket with matches being in the best of 3 format. The exception will be the matches of the first round of the lower bracket, which will be best of 1, as well as the grand final — best of 5.

However, right now the group stage brings more of an interest. So, NAVI got into group D, where the best teams of North and South America qualifiers turned out to be  Evil Geniuses and Chaos Esports Club, respectively.

Natus Vincere players: DreamLeague Season 11 qualification

Evil geniuses are in excellent shape: they took the third place at The Chongqing Major, and also ranked second at the recent MDL Macau 2019, although they played in the second tournament with a substitute for the middle lane. Chaos Esports Club, in turn, just looks like a very strong team, which will be difficult for almost every opponent to confront with. Perhaps this is the strongest team in its region at the moment, which is mixed with the high-level European legionnaires — w33 and MiSeRy.

Another member of the group should be mentioned. And that is  Vici Gaming. They deserves a special mention for the reason that they got to the DreamLeague Season 11 thanks to their victory at StarLadder ImbaTV Minor. In Kiev, the Chinese players lost only one game at the championship, which means not only a high level of play but also tells us that they are in excellent shape. In other words, the group for Natus Vincere is not the easiest, but in tournaments of this level, you must always be fully prepared.

As for the other groups, first of all, the seeding of two strong European teams in Group A is surprising:  Team Liquid and  Team Secret will have to face each other in that group  — both are the favorites of the championship. In group B,  PSG.LGD looks like the strongest participant, and in group C, another team from the CIS, Virtus.pro. However, it is worth recalling that after the group stage no one will leave the championship and the participants will only fight for more convenient spots in the playoffs.

Tournament groups

On March 14, the first matches of DreamLeague Season 11 will take place. We are confident that Natus Vincere players are well prepared for the championship and will delight fans with first-class games in Sweden! Be sure to join the broadcast and support the "yellow—black", the first Major tournament of the season for the team! #NAVINATION