The Dota 2 scene in the Philippines has been on the rise over the years and Valve is clearly taking notice of the country’s support for e-sports. Hence, the company has decided that once the Shanghai Major has concluded, the next Dota 2 Major will be in Manila.
The Manila Major will be held in early June and this will be the final chance for teams to prove themselves worthy for a direct invite to Dota 2’s largest tournament of the year – The International 2016, which will be happening some time in mid-August.
The Shanghai Major has recently concluded its online open qualifiers and confirmed the final 16 participating teams. These teams will be battling it out at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China, for USD$3 million (about RM13.2 million). Not only that, it is also confirmed that the group stages will commence on the 25th of February, followed by the main event that runs from the 2nd to 6th of March 2016.
However, this isn’t the first large-scale tournament announced for the Philippines. Back in 2015, ESL One announced that “ESL One Manila” will be happening from the 23rd to the 24th of April 2016. The tournament brings with it a prize pool of USD$250,000 (about RM1 million).
With the arrival of these tournaments, they become a huge step forward for the Dota 2 scene in the SEA region and the fans in the Philippines (or Malaysia, too) must be excited with this piece of news. However, it’s still a long way to go, so teams have ample amount of time to practice to be part of the Manila Major.
(Source: Dota 2 Blog)
