Dota 2 PGL Arlington Major: Everything you need to know
The upcoming PGL Arlington Major is the second and final Dota 2 Major of the 2021-2022 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season.
The tournament serves as the conclusion of the DPC season and features 17 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world fighting for their slice of the US$500,000 prize pool and 4,570 DPC point pool.
More importantly, the Arlington Major is the last chance for teams to secure a coveted direct invite to The International 11 (TI11), Dota 2's marquee million-dollar world championship tournament.
Whether you're a die-hard Dota 2 fan, a casual MOBA enjoyer, or even a newcomer to esports altogether, you wouldn't want to miss out on this event.
Read on for everything you need to know about the Arlington Major:
Results
Day 3: Aster secure upper bracket berth, OG and EG bounce back
Day 5: Talon, Thunder Awaken, Soniqs out as Group Stage ends
Lower bracket finals: Team Spirit defeat Team Aster to face PSG.LGD in grand finals
Grand finals: Team Spirit defeat PSG.LGD 3-1 to win the Arlington Major
Highlights and interviews
PSG.LGD sweep Team Spirit 2-0 to become first grand finalist
The 4 reasons why Team Spirit won that epic game 2 vs PSG.LGD
Schedule and Venue
The Arlington Major will be held from 4 to 14 August in Arlington, Texas, the United States and is split into two stages: the Group Stage and the Main Event.
The Group Stage will take place from 4 to 8 August and will be followed by the Main Event, which starts on 9 August and will be held in front of a live audience in Esports Stadium Arlington.
Prize pool and DPC point breakdown
The teams in the Arlington Major will be fighting for the lion's share of a US$500,000 prize pool and 4,570 DPC point pool.
There is a lot on the line for the competing teams. Not only is the majority of the prize money and DPC points awarded to the top finishers, but teams that finish below eighth place will get nothing for their troubles except headaches from trying to secure visas.
Here's the full breakdown of the Stockholm Major prize distribution:
Champions: US$200,000 and 820 DPC points
2nd place: US$100,00 and 740 DPC points
3rd place: US$75,000 and 670 DPC points
4th place: US$50,000 and 590 DPC points
5th-6th place: US$25,000 and 515 DPC points each
7th-8th place: US$12,500 and 360 DPC points each
Teams
The 17 teams competing in the Stockholm Major are made up of the best teams from the six regions of the Dota 2 competitive scene: North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, and Southeast Asia.
The Arlington Major originally featured 18 teams, but Xtreme Gaming dropped out because the team couldn't secure a visa for their carry player Lou "lou" Zhen.
In fact, roughly half the teams competing in the event will play with at least one stand in, and in Fnatic's case, only two members of their main roster will be in Arlington.
Western Europe has the most representatives in the tournament with four teams, OG Esports, Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, and Entity.
China originally had four teams heading to the Major but only three will actually attend the tournament after Xtreme Gaming dropped out. The three teams are PSG.LGD, Team Aster, and Royal Never Give Up.
Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia each have three teams competing for the region. Team Spirit, Outsiders, and Navi will represent Eastern Europe while BOOM Esports, Talon, and Fnatic will play for Southeast Asia.
North America and South America will each have two teams representing the region. Evil Geniuses and Quincy Crew will play for North America while Thunder Awaken and Beastcoast represent South America.
Here's the full list of teams in the Arlington Major as well as their rosters for the tournament:
Western Europe:
Tundra Esports - Oliver "skiter" Lepko, Leon "Nine" Kirilin, Neta "33" Shapira, Martin "Saksa" Sazdov, Jingjun "Sneyking" Wu
Team Liquid - Lasse "MATUMBAMAN" Urpalainen, Michael "miCKe" Vu, Ludwig "zai" Wåhlberg, Samuel "Boxi" Svahn, Aydin "iNSaNiA" Sarkohi
OG - Artiem "Yuragi" Golubiev, Bozhidar "bzm" Bogdanov, Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf, Tommy "Taiga" Le, Sébastien "Ceb" Debs (stand-in)
Entity - Jonáš "SabeRLight-" Volek (stand-in), Daniel "Stormstormer" Schoetzau, Tobias "Tobi" Buchner, Vladislav "Kataomi`" Semenov, Dzmitry "Fishman" Palishchuk
China:
Royal Never Give Up - Anathan "ana" Pham (stand-in), Lu "Somnus" Yao, Yang "Chalice" Shenyi, Hiu "kaka" Liangzhi, Yap "xNova" Jian Wei
Team Aster - Du "Monet" Peng, Zeng "Ori" Jiaoyang, Lin "Xxs" Jing, Ye "BoBoKa" Zhibiao, Yu "皮球" Yajun
PSG.LGD - Wang "Ame" Chunyu, Cheng "NothingToSay" Jin Xiang, Zhang "Faith_bian" Ruida, Zhao "XinQ" Zixing, Zhao "y`" Yiping
Eastern Europe:
Outsiders - Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev, Danil "gpk" Skutin, Dmitry "DM" Dorokhin, Daniyal "yamich" Lazebnyy, Egor "Xakoda" Lipartiia
Natus Vincere - Alik "V-Tune" Vorobey, Volodymyr "No[o]ne" Minenko, Vladyslav "laise" Lais, Georgii "swedenstrong" Zainalabidov, Alexey "Solo" Berezin
Team Spirit - Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk, Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek, Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov, Miroslaw "Mira" Kolpakov, Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov
Southeast Asia:
BOOM Esports - Souliya "JaCkky" Khoomphetsavong, Erin Jasper "Yopaj" Ferrer, Saieful "Fbz" Ilham, Timothy "Tims" Randrup, Andrei "skem" Ong
Talon Esports - Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon, Rafli "Mikoto" Rahman, Damien "kpii" Chok, Kenny "Xepher" Deo (stand-in), Brizio "Hyde" Putra
Fnatic - TBD, TBD, Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong, Djardel "DJ" Mampusti, TBD
North America:
Evil Geniuses - Artour "Arteezy" Babaev, Abed Azel "Abed" Yusop, Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko, Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen, Tal "Fly" Aizik
Soniqs Esports (formerly Quincy Crew) - Yawar "YawaR" Hassan, Quinn "Quinn" Callahan, Rodrigo "LESLÃO" Santos, Arif "MSS" Anwar, Adrian "Fata" Trinks
South America:
Thunder Awaken - Christian "Pakazs" Savina, Ricardo "Alone" Fernandez (stand-in), Rafael "Sacred" Yonatan, Farith "Matthew" Puente, Jose "Pandaboo" Padilla
Beastcoast - Héctor "K1" Rodríguez, Jean Pierre "Chris Luck" Gonzales, Adrián "Wisper" Dobles, Elvis "Scofield" Peña, Steven "Stinger" Vargas
Format
Group Stage
The Arlington Major will begin with a preliminary Group Stage which will determine seeding for the teams in the Main Event.
The Group Stage will see the 17 teams divided into two groups and will follow a round-robin format where all matches will be a best-of-two. Group A will feature nine teams while group B will feature eight.
At the end of the Group Stage, the Top 4 teams in each group will advance to the upper bracket of the Main Event.
While the fifth and sixth-placed teams of each group will still advance to the Main Event, they will have to start in the first round of the lower bracket. Meanwhile, the remaining teams of each group will be eliminated.
Main Event
The Main Event will be a double-elimination bracket with the eight best-performing teams from the Group Stage starting in the upper bracket while the remaining four teams start in the lower bracket.
The upper bracket will have three rounds, with all matches being a best-of-three. The winners of each upper bracket match will advance to the next round while the losers will drop down to the lower bracket.
One team will qualify for the grand finals from the upper bracket.
The lower bracket will have five rounds and will see the losing teams get eliminated. The first round will feature the bottom four performing teams from the group stage along with the four teams that lost their opening matches in the upper bracket.
One team will qualify for the grand finals from the lower bracket.
The grand finals will feature the two teams that survived the upper and lower brackets duking it out in a full best-of-five series for the right to claim the US$200,000 and 820 DPC points.
How to watch
The PGL Arlington Major will be broadcasted live on PGL's official Twitch channel as well as the in-game Dota TV.
Secondary and tertiary streams will also be made available during the Group Stage in order to accommodate the number of matches that will be played simultaneously during the stage.
Otomo is a long-time gaming enthusiast and caster. He has been playing games since he was 10 and is the biggest Dota 2 fan.
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