There’s going to be a Dota 2 tournament on a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The tournament, Nanyang Cruise Cup, will witness four Dota 2 teams from China competing with each other for four days, again, on a cruise ship. Let that sink in for a moment.
Two of the four Dota 2 teams that will be competing in the Nanyang Cruise Cup are The International 2016 champions, Wings Gaming, along with TI4 winners Newbee. According to the organiser, KeyTV, the remaining two teams that’ll compete in the tournament will be determined through an online qualifier. All four teams will be battling one another, on a huge boat, for a grand prize of around US$45,000 (about RM185,860).
The cruise ship, which was elegantly named Sapphire Princess, will be able to accommodate around 2,678 guests along with 1,100 of its own crew. Sapphire Princess will set sail on the 13th of October until the 17th. During this time, the cruise ship will be making stops at Japan and South Korea before returning back to Shanghai on the last day.
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The only minor issue with organising a tournament of this scale would be internet connectivity: there’s apparently none any at sea. Fear not, tournament director, Wing Zilin, did mention that KeyTV will be looking into fixing this problem by renting a satellite. Yes, you read that correctly, a satellite. The entire ship will also be rewired to support the required equipments.
One last thing to note is that KeyTV was also responsible for the Shanghai Major held earlier this year. Which doesn’t quite bode well for what is definitely going to be a massive technical challenge for the organisers.
