After the success of Valve’s Major series of events, with the last two events taking place in Shanghai and Frankfurt, the action now switches to the Philippines where all the very best Dota 2 teams will convene in the third event of Valve’s Dota Major Championships: The Manila Major.
Of the 16 teams competing, 12 have earned their place via a direct invite to the tournament. The other four qualified after being victorious in four regional qualifier events that took place around the world at the end of April and beginning of May.
The prize pool is a massive $3,000,000, as it is for all Valve Major events and the winning team will take home the top prize of $1,110,000. Second place will take home $405,000, with third taking $315,000 and fourth $255,000.
The 16 teams competing are as follows.
Directly invited:
- Team Secret
- Team Liquid
- Evil Geniuses
- MVP Phoenix
- Wings Gaming
- Vici Gaming Reborn
- Fnatic
- OG
- compLexity Gaming
- Alliance
- Natus Vincere
- LGD Gaming
Qualified teams:
- Digital Chaos (Americas qualifier)
- Newbee (China qualifier)
- Team Empire (European qualifier)
- Mineski (South East Asia qualifier)
OG were the winners of the Frankfurt Major back in November 2015, but at the Shanghai Major this past February and March, it was Team Secret who took the top prize, defeating Team Liquid in the final.
The competition at the Manila Major is in two separate stages. The first is a group stage, where the 16 teams are divided into four groups. The second stage is a knockout stage which has both an upper and a lower bracket.
After the results of the group stage are known, the top two teams in each group will enter the upper bracket and face off against each other, while the bottom two teams in each group will enter the lower bracket and battle it out against other third and fourth place teams from the group stage.
In the upper bracket, the winning teams will progress into that bracket’s final with the winner of that match up advancing to the grand final.
In the lower bracket, teams that lose in the upper bracket’s knockout stage will drop into the lower bracket at various stages (depending on when they lose in the upper bracket) and they will play off against other lower bracket teams until one team progresses into the grand final.
The two grand finalists then battle it out for the $1,110,000 top prize.
The groups for the initial stage have been drawn and are thus:
- Group A – OG, Team Empire, Newbee, compLexity Gaming
- Group B – Wings Gaming, Digital Chaos, Team Secret, Natus Vincere
- Group C – Team Liquid, Alliance, Vici Gaming Reborn, Fnatic
- Group D – Evil Geniuses, Mineski, MVP Phoenix, LGD Gaming
Given that this is one of the majors, the interest in the esports betting markets will be great. Currently there are two teams that are the favourites to win, with Bet365 Esports having OG and Team Liquid as 9/2 joint favourites at the time of writing.
NewBee are 5/1 shots, Wings Gaming 7 to 1, LGD Gaming 9 to 1, VG Reborn and Team Secret 10 to 1 with Alliance 12 to 1. The esports bookies seem to think that these teams are the most likely victors with all other teams 20 to 1 bar and you can back Mineski as the 200 to 1 outsider to win the event.
Valve’s Major Tournaments are always huge for esports and esports betting, so do tune in from the June 3 through until the June 12 to see what other markets are available.
2016 StarCraft II StarLeague Season 2 Challenge Blasts Into Action
It has been a little while since we have had a top quality StarCraft II tournament to sink our esports betting teeth into, given the number of Dota 2, League of Legends and Counter Strike: Global Offensive betting events that have been taking place in recent times.
So it is rather pleasant to discover that starting from the 2nd June, the 2016 SSL Season 2 gets under way with 24 of the very best Korean SCII players participating.
A host of the very best Korean players including the likes of ByuN, soO, Hurricane, Trap, Rogue, hero, Zest and Maru will pit their wits against each other in this exciting and unusual tournament.
What is different about this event is that for the group stage, each player will pick a “home” map. They will then face each of their group opponents on their home map, as well as also taking on their opponents on their home maps too. Players can pick the same map and it will be played twice if this is the case.
The 24 players are split into four groups of six teams (details of which are below) and the top three players will progress onto the second phase of the tournament – The Group Stage. The bottom three players in each group are eliminated and will need to qualify for this event again through next season’s qualifiers.
The four groups are as follows:
- Group A – Bomber, TY, Cure, Trap, Hush soO
- Group B – GuMiho, Classic, sOs, Hurricane, Curious, Trust
- Group C – aLive, Impact, Rogue, ByuN, jjakli, Dear
- Group D – Losira, Zest, Maru, Super, hero, Reality
Between them, the competitors consist of 10 Protoss players, 9 Terran and five Zerg players.
Check out your esports betting provider for all the latest betting on this event when the action kicks off on the 2nd June be sure to have a look at our esports odds tool for updated information from a range of esports betting sites like SkyBet, Pinnacle, and Betway, in addition to Bet365.
