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During the weekend of Sept. 17-18, Schloss Rastatt (a 300-year-old castle) will host some of the top teams from the Dota 2 community.
Four direct invites with a wild card team
The tournament will feature four top tear teams that will be joined by a fifth wild card team. Manila Major winners OG and TI3 winners Alliance are already a part of the battling group, with two more direct invites soon to be announced soon.
Additionally, Red Bull is giving one rookie team the chance to claim the wildcard spot at the tournament.
To be eligible for the Open Qualifiers, three of the five players from the team must be from Germany, Austria, or Switzerland — something that should help further that domestic scene. The qualifiers, which are hosted by joinDOTA, started in June, and will be concluded in August.
It’s a great idea by the organizers to let a potential rising talent team get a taste of what it’s like to play on the world stage.
A new tournament model
This competition will run a bit differently than other traditional Dota 2 tournament systems. Instead of the typical elimination competition, teams will fight each other under the Life System, as the organization calls it.
Each team will be given three lives to compete with over the course of the tournament. If a team loses a battle, it loses a life and the winning team then chooses the two participants who will fight each other in the next match.
The last team standing with one or more lives will be crowned the winner.
Audience getting involved through the Hero Challenge
Another great feature of the event, which gives the audience an opportunity to actively participate, is the Hero Challenge. Besides enjoying the battles themselves, the crowd will have the chance to vote for a hero that will be excluded from the banning pool.
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Each picking and banning phase will start off with the tournament’s casters announcing two heroes chosen for live voting. The audience can then pick its favorite hero and the competing teams won’t be able to ban that specific hero.
Furthermore, if participating teams pick the voted hero, they will be rewarded with prizes.
Whether it’ll be AdmiralBulldog’s Nature’s Prophet or Miracle-‘s Invoker, it’ll be up to the crowd — a great audience engagement tactic.
Capitalist to run the show
Austin “Capitalist” Walsh, the well-known Dota 2 caster, has been officially announced as host of the upcoming tournament. The young, charismatic, and energy-fueled American will run the Red Bull Heroicks show, with other cast members being made public soon.
Red Bull — an early promoter of esports
Red Bull Heroicks is not Red Bull’s first adventure into esports. The Austrian company started promoting competitive gaming back in 2008, becoming an important part of the industry’s development through its marketing efforts.
Today, Red Bull is involved with games like StarCraft 2, Street Fighter, Hearthstone, and League of Legends, hosting its own events all over the world. The company is also known for its sponsorships of players, as well as partnering with esports organizations like Team SoloMid and Cloud9.
Red Bull realized early how big esports could become, and acted as a trendsetter for other big companies, making them pay attention to the rising market and sparking their interest to be a part of it.
Another great quality of the company is that it treats its esports athletes the same way it treats its mainstream athletes. Health and nutrition tips ensure excellent performance during training and playing in virtual competitions — another step that brings esports closer to traditional sports.
