Dota 2: Reach Beta – What You Need To Know

A couple of days ago, we announced that DotaBuff and ESL will be joining forces in order to create a new league that will mainly focus on helping the tier two players make a living of Dota 2 and potentially, getting noticed by some of the tier one organizations.

That said, let’s take a more in-depth look at what to expect from it.

The Beginning

The new league will start at 7 PM CET for Europe. If any player from North America wants to take a shot, he/she has to wait until 6:00 Pacific. According to the information, the first “play session” will only last for 4 hours, whereas from tomorrow on, players will have five hours at their disposal.

Players

The ladder will be open to immortal players and those who received a special code at ESL One Hamburg 2019.  For now, immortal players will be put into the highest division called Pinnacle. If you are not amongst them, you will have to wait for a couple of weeks until the ladder gets available.

In order to join Reach, players have to just sign-in to reach.gg using Steam. However, in order to “proof” the Immortal medal, players have to have a DotaBuff profile. This means that you should enable the in-game option that allows third-party websites to keep track of your games.

Cost

During the beta period, Reach will be free to play for all players that can take part in it. However, once it officially launches, there will be a $6/month or a $56/year cost. That said, if a player has a Dotabuff Plus subscription, there will be no additional costs. This is pretty cool because you essentially get two services for the price of one.

Rankings

As we mentioned above, players will be divided into different divisions, depending on their skills. The immortals who will be placed in the Pinnacle division will be evaluated on a “per-day” basis.

The points distribution for them is as follows:

• During the 1st-3rd game of the day – 6 points for a win, -4 for a loss
• During the 4th-6th game of the day – 4 points for a win, -4 for a loss
• After the sixth game – 2 points for a win and -2 for a loss

This means that players have to make the most out of their first games in order to progress. Of course, it is possible to progress even past the first three games but it’s going to be harder.

On the other hand, players put in Contender divisions will be “seeded” and have their ranks adjusted while playing.

According to the release, this system will be in place for beta weeks, so it is subject to change in the future.

Prizes

The prizes will be different during the beta period and once Season 1 officially begins.

For now, the prizes will be awarded in the form of “Sprints”, which will be divided into Weekday and Weekend sprints. The first ones will be held from Monday to Friday and only take place during the evening. On the other hand, Weekend Sprints will be played during Saturday and Sunday in Captain’s Mode.

The Weekday Sprints will have a $1,5K USD prize pool per region, whereas the prizes for the Weekend Sprints will be $1K USD. Keep it in mind that only the top 10 players will take part in the Weekday prizes and only five in the Weekends.

Final Thoughts

By the looks of it, Reach is definitely a very promising league. This is one of the first big attempts to actively support the Dota 2 scene, something that Valve should have done a long time ago.

Players should be aware that since Reach is in beta, there could be some issues. Having said that, the devs are encouraging everyone to report any bugs they find. This will help them to polish Reach and prepare it for Season 1.

In the meantime, be sure to watch the upcoming DPC tournaments. The Summit 11 begins in just a couple of days from now and by the looks of it, it’s going to be epic.

If you want to learn more about Reach, check DotaBuff’s post.