The first tournament after the TI10 qualifiers is the Dota 2 Champions League, and it involves some of the best EU and CIS teams in competitive Dota.
What is the Dota 2 Champion’s League?
The Dota 2 Champions League (or D2CL) is a tournament hosted and sponsored by Russian organizers Epic Esports Events and the Russian Esports Federation. Season 1 was held earlier this year, in which Team Spirit emerged out of twenty teams and a full week of nonstop Dota to take the lion’s share of the $25 000 pot. Significantly fewer teams compete in Season 2, and the group stage format has been completely revamped in favor of a single round-robin approach.
This change resulted in one of the longest but incredibly entertaining group stages, where ten of the twelve competing teams fought for the top spots in the standings. The top six will continue in the Division 1 playoffs, while the four remaining teams will go to Division 2 for their own elimination bracket. Joining the top six teams in Division 1 will be two directly invited teams, who were decided based on their previous performances in past tournaments.
Here are the participants for Season 2 of the D2CL
The competitors for Season 2 of the Dota 2 Champions League consist of four European and eight CIS teams. Below are their first matches and schedules:
Division 1
Hellbear Smashers (#1) vs Chicken Fighters (#4)
Hellbear Smashers
- Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard (position 1)
- Daniel “Stormstormer” Schoetzau (mid-lane)
- Viktor “GeneRaL” Nigrini (off-lane)
- Geogrii “Gilgir” Svistunov (soft support)
- Erik “tOfu” Engel (hard support)
Chicken Fighters
- Charlie “Charlie” Arat (position 1)
- Ondřej “Supream^” Štarha (mid-lane)
- Andreas “Xibbe” Ragnemalm (off-lane)
- Adrian “Era” Kryeziu (soft support)
- Petu “Peksu” Vaatainen (hard support)
Schedule: August 4, 2021 18:00 CEST
PuckChamp (#6) vs Team Spirit (Direct Invite)
PuckChamp
- Alexandr “krylat” Krylatov (position 1)
- Semyon “Desperate-” Shvetsov (mid-lane)
- Andrei “meLes” Romanov (off-lane)
- Genadiy “Astral” Motuz (soft support)
- Andrey “Dukalis” Kuropatkin (hard support)
Team Spirit
- Illya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk (position 1)
- Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek (mid-lane)
- Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov (off-lane)
- Miroslaw “Miroslaw” Kolpakov (soft support)
- Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov (hard support)
Schedule: August 4, 2021, 21:00 CEST
Team Unique (#2) vs Nemiga Gaming (#3)
Team Unique
- Artem “spAce” Golubiev (position 1)
- Rostislav “fn” Lozovoi (mid-lane)
- Uladzislau “Petushara” Kazlouski (off-lane)
- Danil “Bignum” Shekhovtsov (soft support)
- Semion “Slayer” Krivulya (hard support)
Nemiga Gaming
- Ilya “Kiritych” Ulyanov (position 1)
- Aleksey “Ainkrad” Diveevskiy (mid-lane)
- Aliaksei “TheChosenOne” Karanevich (off-lane)
- Yevgeny “Heaven” Ponomariov (soft support)
- Oleg “Lodine” Kvasha (hard support)
Schedule: August 5, 2021, 00:00 CEST
V-Gaming (#5) vs Tundra Esports (Direct Invite)
V-Gaming
- Aybek “TA2000” Tokayev (position 1)
- Darhan “hAze” Madihan (mid-lane)
- “destroyed” (off-lane)
- Islambek “ArrOw” Shaudirbaev (soft support)
- “malady” (hard support)
Tundra Esports
- Oliver “skiter” Lepko (position 1)
- Leon “Nine” Kirilin (mid-lane)
- Neta “33” Shapira (off-lane)
- Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu (soft support)
- Adrian “Fata” Trinks (hard support)
Schedule: August 5, 2021,3:00 CEST
Division 2
Fantastic Five (#7) vs Khan (#10)*
Fantastic Five
- “Cridoz” (position 1)
- Ruslan “Askold” Temiraliev (mid-lane)
- “Proletariy” (off-lane)
- Mirlan “Le don” Kozhombaev (soft support)
- Stanislav “633” Glushan (hard support)
Khan
- Timur “layme” Magomedov (position 1)
- Alexander “gwynbleidd” Abakumov (mid-lane)
- Maxim “Shachlo” Abramovskikh (off-lane)
- Dulat “Goddam” Seidimomyn (soft support)
- Anton “antoha” Marchenko (hard support)
Schedule: TBA
Spider Pigzs (#8) vs Winstrike Team (#9)
Spider Pigzs
- Alexander “lightless” Potapenko (position 1)
- Tony “No!ob” Assaf (mid-lane)
- Gleb “Funn1k” Lipatnikov (off-lane)
- “Merlin” (soft support)
- Nikola “LeBronDota” Popović (hard support)
Winstrike Team
- Anton “dyrachyo” Shkredov (position 1)
- Egor “Dame” Lexyutin (mid-lane)
- Yauheni “chshrct” Kastrama (off-lane)
- Daniyal “yamich” Lazebnyy (position 4)
- Nikita “Pantomem” Balaganin (position 5)
Schedule: TBA
After a less than stellar showing in their first few matches, AS Monaco Gambit dropped out of the tournament entirely. They made quite the splash when they first unveiled their roster for the Dota 2 Champions League, which featured Igor “iLTW” Filatov on position 1. iLTW is the current position 1 player for Team Nigma, who is one of the more prominent teams that did not make it to TI10. Taking the place of AS Monaco Gambit is Khan, a Kazakhstani esports organization.
Team Spirit from CIS and Tundra Esports from EU are the two playoff seeds with direct invites for the Dota 2 Champions League. Team Spirit won the TI10 CIS Qualifiers, and they will be one of the eighteen teams competing for the Aegis this October. Tundra Esports were beaten by OG in the grand final of the TI10 EU Qualifiers but their performances in past tournaments were enough to secure them an invite for the D2CL.
