DotA 2 Summit 8 Announced

To compete in the Major and Minor Leagues, teams earn points in order to receive an invitation to The International 2018. The points are awarded based on the total prize pool of the tournament. DOTA Summit 8 is the eighth Minor tournament organized by Beyond the Summit and will begin on 13 December.

Here is the list of teams that will challenge during the DOTA Summit 8:

• OG (invited): received a direct invitation from the organizers.
• OpTic Gaming (King’s Cup America winning team): The team outplayed Digital Chaos by a score of 3-0 and earned a spot on The Summit 8.
• compLexity Gaming (Qualifying Team in North America): CompLexity Gaming will perform at the LAN final of DOTA Summit 8. In the final of the North American qualification, the team beat Immortals by a score of 3-1.
• Sacred (Qualifying Team in South America): The Sacred team won in the South American qualification for The Summit 8. In the course of the qualifiers, they beat Elite Wolves and SG Gaming, and in the finale they met Infamous. The final series ended with a score of 3-1 in favor of Sacred.
• Team Kinguin (Qualifying Team in Europe): Team Kinguin received the first invite to the competition. They defeated Hellraisers in the final, the series ended with a score of 3-1.
• Virtus.Pro (Qualifying Team in Russia): Virtus.Pro defeated the composition of Ukrainian Natus Vincere in the final of the qualifiers. The score was 3-1 and the «Bears» won a ticket to the «minor.»
• LGD Gaming (Qualifying Team in China): Chinese LGD Gaming won a victory over the players from Vici Gaming in the final of the qualifiers. The score of the meeting was 2-0. On the way to the final, LGD beat VG.J, lost to VG, defeated EHOME and Newbee.
• Fnatic (Qualifying Team in South East Asia): As an invited participant, the squad began the qualifying round from the semifinals where they beat Vega Squadron with a score 2-0.
• EG (Invited)

The Summit 8 Format Changes

Initially, it was announced that eight teams would participate in the Summit 8. However, on November 17th the organizers changed the format to nine teams and invited Evil Geniuses. According to the new BTS system, nine teams will be divided into three groups. The top three will be entered in the playoffs. The last participant will be determined in the Wild Card stage where the teams taking second place will compete against the team ranked in third place.

This tournament will be the last Minor of Valve in 2017 and will take place in December in Los Angeles. The total prize money amounts to $300,000 USD and 300 Pro Circuit Points though it is still unclear how this will be subdivided between teams. It remains unknown who will handle the broadcast.