
Dota 2: Overview of the Chongqing Major
| Tags: Dota 2
| Author Zlosterr

Just a few days after the end of the Bucharest Minor yet another DPC event is on its way, and oh boy it sure looks interesting. The Chongqing Major will be the second Major of the 2018-2019 Pro Circuit, and it will take place in China, where sixteen of the best teams in the world will be fighting for that sweet $1,000,000 prize pool as well as 15,000 DPC points, which are essential for The International 2019. The event starts this Saturday (19 January) and finishes on the 27th; As always, you will be able to watch the games on the live streams that will be provided from the organizers of the event – ImbaTV.
Some interesting controversies also surround this event. The South American team123 was disqualified due to “bending the rules,” and the runner-ups took their spot in the qualifications – Thunder Predator. The removal of team123 was mainly thanks to Peter’ppd’Dager, who reached out about the situation surrounding the team.
The second big story is the ban of Kuku and the penalty given to TNC – they won’t acquire any points from this event. Kuku was accused of using offensive terms to some Chinese players, and as it was expected, his actions were punished. On the other hand, many top players have stepped in to support TNC regarding their penalty, because they believe that it is a little bit too harsh. Despite the support, the SEA team will still “suffer” the punishment.
Format
The total amount of participants for the Chongqing Major is sixteen. Fifteen of them had to go through regional qualifiers to secure their spot, while the last team is the winner of the Bucharest Minor – EHOME. The Chinese team had a nearly perfect run, only losing one game in the entire event. If you missed any of the action, make sure to check out our recap here.
Three teams are from Europe, China and North America and two are from CIS, Southeast Asia, and South America.
The strongest regions in professional Dota have more participants compared to the rest, which is kind of expected, even though many people think that all regions should be equal. This is still an ongoing debate, which means that we might see equal slots for all regions.
As with any big event, the Chongqing Major will have a group stage and playoffs. There will be four groups consisted of four teams each. The games will be played from January 19-20 in a Best-of-three double elimination (a.k.a GSL) bracket. The top two teams from each group will be advancing to the upper bracket of the main event, while the bottom two are heading to the lower bracket, where the deadly best-of-ones are waiting. This means that there will be no eliminations directly from the group stage.
Groups
Like we already said, this event will likely gather the best teams in the world. That’s why it will be fascinating to see how they will perform, especially when there are less DCP events than there used to be. The four groups are as follows:
➤Group A
The first group consists of Virtus. Pro, TNC Predator, Chaos esports club and EHOME. From the looks of it, VP and EHOME should have an easy time, but we will see if that will be the case.
The action starts at 10:00 CST/18:00 PST/04:00 EET with the most interesting game in the group – VP vs. EHOME
➤Group B
Coming in second, Team Secret, PSG.LGD, Forward Gaming, and Thunder Predator have to decide who will be the winner here. Similar to the first group A, Secret and LGD seem like the obvious favorites.
The first game will start again at 10:00 CST/18:00 PST/04:00 EET between Secret and Thunder Predator
➤Group C
In group C we have one of the most stable teams in the last couple of months – Team Liquid. Sadly, their star player – Miracle- won’t be able to play in the event due to a “private matter,” however, a thread made on Reddit that there is a visa issue, because of the political scene surrounding Poland and China. His place will be taken by shadow, a notable Chinese superstar. Alongside TL will be Vici Gaming, J.Storm and The Pango (a.k.a NoPangolier). We will also be able to see the old man Fear back yet again. He replaced MiLAN a few weeks ago and will be playing position four for J.Storm.
The opening game will start at the same time as the others, and it will be between TL and The Pango
➤Group D
The last group is probably going to be the most interesting one. Each of the four teams has a chance of going in the upper bracket, which makes the games unpredictable and exciting at the same time. Evil Geniuses, Alliance, Fnatic, and Team Aster, will be fighting to prove which one is worthy of finishing first.
Again, the first game in the group starts at the same time as the others.
The Group stage will begin on January 19th, whereas the playoffs start just two days later. Be sure not to miss the first Major of 2019, because it will surely be full of surprises.
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