Sources: ESL To Create New Annual Dota Circuit Culminating With Event In Riyadh

The Saudi Arabian owned esports group starts to bring major esports events to Riyadh with it's Dota 2 operations

According to a document I have obtained, ESL is planning to radically overhaul their Dota 2 circuit and add an event to the calendar called The Riyadh Masters taking place in Saudi Arabia’s capital city. The proposal will take their existing Dota 2 properties and streamline them into a way that creates a “tour” that will take place in the gaps between the Dota Pro Circuit and Valve Majors.

ESL staff members distributed a deck – a summarised presentation highlighting key information – to teams at the Lima Major as a pitch for this new idea. The proposal spanned the next two years and promised a greatly increased prize pool as well as an overhaul of the world ranking system. It also commits to providing teams with financial incentives for participation although specifics of what that would entail were not included.

While the document did warn that it was highly confidential and subject to change, the main details are as follows.

It proposes to combine DreamLeague, ESL One and a new event called the Riyadh Masters into “one global circuit,” in a way they claim will compliment Valve’s Dota Pro Circuit and The International. Several slides showed the upcoming calendar for the next two years with the first Riyadh event slated for July. Each of these slides say these dates are subject to change.

DreamLeague will become the main way of qualifying for the Riyadh Masters. Sixteen competing teams will get to play remotely in Europe over a two week period for a $1 million prize pool. Invites will be distributed by world ranking.

ESL One will be a stadium event with a qualifier that will select twelve teams and is slated to take place in Thailand. It will also feature a $1 million prize pool although how it connects to the Riyadh Masters isn’t clear from the details contained in the document.

The Riyadh Masters is the final event of the new look tour and will take place over a matter of “weeks” in an arena. It will be folded into the Gamers8 festival which according to their website begins July 6^th this year. The slide says that it will feature the highest prize pool outside of The International. Gamers8 tweeted earlier that this festival will have $45 million in prize pool but it isn’t clear how this will be broken down.

The commitment to a tournament in Riyadh comes just weeks after an interview with former Washington Post journalist Mikhail Klimentov where ESL FACEIT Group executive Craig “Torbull” Levine dodged questions about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. In it he said that ESL “would never ask players or competitors to compete anywhere in the world that they weren't comfortable in.”

Ever since ESL was acquired by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) it has felt like an event in Riyadh was inevitable. This tournament circuit is likely testing the waters with esports organisations to see how receptive they are to this idea and could herald more tournaments such as this in the future.