Like any other discipline, Dota 2 comes in all shapes and sizes for particular tournaments that are held all year round. If you wish to know how to get better at the MOBA’s competitive stage, you will have to get into what the tournament categories are.
Every Dota 2 competition has its own classification mechanics, known as Minor, Major, and Premier tiers. This ranking is purely based on several factors, such as prize pools, team levels, sponsors, organizers, and venues, among others.
Of course, to know how to classify your favorite game’s professional tournaments, you need to get into the details to understand how it works. So, today, we will discuss the essence of Dota 2 tournament tiers, as well as explain to you what you can expect from each tier.
The Meaning of Tiers in Dota 2 Betting
Before we dive into all kinds of tournaments, let’s see how tournament tiers are used in betting. If you have been familiar with any betting websites, you will notice that tiers actually affect bookmakers’ choices. The reason for this lies in the fact that professional high-ranking tournaments always generate more betting options and hype around themselves.
For example, the https://ggbet24.com/en platform typically covers endless betting opportunities for major Dota 2 events, like The Internationals, Majors, DPC Regional Tours, and ESL Ones, to name but a few. Such a huge betting coverage, in turn, opens up the doors for bettors to place quality bets on high-rank events.
Things are completely different with less popular local tournaments. Often, betting markets are limited to the match or map winner. Therefore, if you want to have more variety in terms of betting options, opt for more popular tournaments. Now, let’s start by taking a look at the examples of Dota 2 tournament tiers.
Dota 2 Tournament Classification Explained
If you are a Dota 2 fan, you probably know that the game requires a lot of hard work and skill development to master. As it can’t be otherwise, the competitive stage of such a complex game comes with 4 different tiers filled with particular requirements at team levels.
These tiers are mostly based on the prize pool, as follows below:
- Tier 1 ($250,000 or more): LAN championships played by the best teams in the world.
- Tier 2 ($50,000 or more): Offline or online events that typically involve some big names, emerging rosters, and many talented Dota 2 players.
- Tier 3 ($5,000 or more): Local tournaments happen mostly online all year round and allow academy teams and players to show up and make some money.
- Tier 4 ($5,000 or less): Small online contests played without additional hype costs and any top-notch players or rosters participate.
Below, we will look more closely at the Dota 2 tournament tiers mentioned above, so you could get familiar with the names that are held in the MOBA genre on a yearly basis.
Tier 3 Tournaments
These are Minor online-only Dota 2 events in which regional squads take part. The average prize pool of such championships is somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000.
Generally, in 2022 alone, there were more than 60 Tier 3 championships. At the moment of writing this article, we are seeing an ongoing fifth edition of Europe Pro League, a Tier 3 tournament where a total of 10 teams compete against each other for the prize of $20,000.
Even though Minors are mostly played online, more and more location-based tournaments are emerging. They can be sponsored by anyone, but the US, CIS, and SEA are among the most active hosts.
Another feature of such tournaments is that they typically run for a few days. It is not common to see Minor events that run for five days or more.
Tier 2 Tournaments
The 2nd tier events are typically played online or within a local LAN party. They feature some of the best game’s talents from all over the globe. Most of the time, Majors are to define players and teams who will qualify for the Premiers.
In this light, DPC’s different regional qualifiers come in this bracket. These tours ultimately lead to invitations and LCQs for bigger tournaments, like The International. So, if you want to watch some of the top-notch squads defining the new meta, there is nothing better than to stick to a Tier 2 contest.
Tier 1 Tournaments
Sponsored by famous titles and Valve itself, Tier 1 championships are among the most prestigious and high-cost ones.
Winning a Tier 1 is a big deal. Many of the best Dota 2 teams receive worldwide recognition and huge prizes. So, many players consider it a privilege to take part in such events.
In 2022, there were a total of five Tier 1 tournaments, including International 11, ESL One Stockholm, Gamers Galaxy Dubai, PGL Arlington Major, and ESL One Malaysia.