eSports means competitions in popular video games whose participants receive huge prizes. According to Newzoo, the total revenue of the e-sports industry amounted to more than one billion dollars in 2020. Games for which tournaments are held are called e-sports disciplines. There are many of them, but recently two are at the top – DotA 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Both games are developed by the American company Valve.

One of the reasons why these games are so popular is the fact that the company offers significant prizes to tournament participants. For example, the DotA 2 championship in 2019 had a total fund of more than $3.4 million. The team that won the first place received more than $15 million.

It caused a lot of excitement and many fans of this game also decided to try their hand at tournaments. Many wonder what steps need to be taken to become a tournament participant.

DotA 2 – What kind of game is it?

DotA 2 is a multiplayer online team game that is a standalone sequel to one of the Warcraft III maps. This is a game where two teams of 5 people compete against each other to win. This, in turn, is achieved by destroying the team’s main building – “Throne”.

Before the game, each player chooses a character that he wants to control. As the game progresses, he must purchase various artifacts, kill heroes and enemy units to level up, and interact with other teammates to win. Each of the characters has a unique appearance and abilities, and also requires a special approach to the game, as well as the purchase of artifacts. On average, the game lasts up to an hour, during which one team wins and the other loses.

DotA 2 tournaments: functions and organizers

Tournaments are competitions that can take place in any part of the world and involve teams. You can watch tournaments online directly in the game client. To do this, you need to buy a ticket, team sets or compendium. You can also watch match broadcasts on other websites. There are such types of tournaments:

Each DotA 2 tournament is the responsibility of a particular company. After the introduction of the Dota Pro Circuit system, a kind of hierarchy of tournament organizers has formed on the professional stage. Although all the organizers work on the same field, they are very different.

• PGL is a Romanian company that focuses more on the games themselves than on screensavers or expensive hotels.
• ESL is a company that organizes all tournaments with Chic, regardless of their actual status.
• DreamHack is a Swedish company that prefers chamber atmosphere and studio tournaments.
• Perfect World is a company that runs Dota 2 in China.
• StarLadder is one of the oldest companies in the e-sports market.
• Epic Esports Events is a company that spares no expense to organize tournaments that will be remembered by all participants.
• Mars Media is another Chinese company that organizes tournaments.

There are also some other operators, but their contribution has not been large enough to put them on par with companies like ESL or StarLadder.

Registration and participation in DotA 2 tournaments

Every year, many Dota 2 tournaments take place. It is not difficult to see if you look at the schedule. Before trying tournaments, the player must first choose a gaming platform that offers them. It can be both a stationary platform and a web application.

No matter which platform a player chooses, there are a few steps required to participate in the tournament:

• Step 1: One must register on the platform.
• Step 2: You have to go to the Tournaments tab and select the tournament you want.
• Step 3: One must click on the “Play in Tournament” button.
• Step 4: You have to confirm your participation.

After confirming the participation, the player is registered for the tournament and when the tournament starts, he has to click on “Go to match”. After that one must go to the match lobby and confirm his readiness and press the “Play” button. One must also confirm the start of the game via Steam and accept invitation to the game. To avoid technical defeat, one must select the hero of the tournament.

In fact, it is not surprising that DotA 2 has become so popular around the world. An interesting gameplay and tournaments with a huge prize pool are one of the reasons for this popularity.