The Busiest Season in Dota?
There is no such thing as too much Dota, right? The start of 2025 is unprecedented in how packed it is with third party tournaments and associated qualifiers, so today we would like to have a look at the next couple of months to help you navigate through the myriad of competitions and what they mean for the scene.
Fissure Playground and Fissure Universe
The first Fissure Playground is already underway, but that is only the first in the series of tournaments planned this year by FISSURE. Previously known for organising BetBoom Dacha tournaments, this year the TO is expanding, with at least 13 tournaments planned by the end of 2026.
From our understanding, the Playground is going to be their premium, $1.000.000+ tournaments, while the Universe series will be smaller, online-only events. The former, notably, featured only five regions and five slots across their qualifiers, giving North and South America a single shared spot.
The first tournament in the planned series features 16 teams, 11 of which were invited directly. It also used the Swiss-system, though we hope that in the latter iterations of the tournament the organiser will consider full bo3 format for the entirety of the group stage.
Blast Slam
Blast is a relative newcomer to the Dota scene, with a rich history in Counter-Strike. Their second tournament, scheduled for the start of February is again an invitation-only event that uses a round-robin group stage for seeding into a single-elimination playoff bracket.
In our opinion a bo1 group-stage followed by a single-elimination playoff can result in some very interesting upsets, making for an excellent show. That said, given a more volatile format, we would love to see less invited teams with qualifier slots instead, to further increase the potential for unique and unexpected storylines.
It is also a tournament with no NA or SA representatives this time around, which is unfortunate. That said, we are certain it will produce some very interesting games and considering the dates there is a chance a patch will come out some time during the playoffs, spicing things up even further.
PGL Wallachia Series
There are already two $1.000.000 tournaments announced by PGL: Season 3 and 4 of Wallachia are scheduled for the start of March and mid-April respectively. These tournaments also use a swiss-system for the group stage, with a double-elimination playoffs for eight teams.
Last Wallachia was impressive, both in terms of match quality and the storylines it created. It was a first international LAN victory for South America with some of the strongest individual performances we’ve ever seen, though it should be noted that some of the notable teams were absent from the tournament.
We can only speculate about it for now, but considering PGL is the TO that is sub-contracted for TI, there is a chance Wallachia results will be weighed more heavily when it comes to direct invites to the biggest Dota tournament of the year, hence the best teams will want to be there. However, we already know that BetBoom Team and Parivision will not be participating in the third season of PGL Wallachia, which is surprising, but they are the only notable absentees in the tournament.
EPT Tournaments
Finally, there are ESL Pro Tour tournaments, which all lead up to the Riyadh Masters — potentially the biggest tournament of the year in terms of prize pool. EPT Tournaments include DreamLeague and ESL One series.
One defining characteristic of these tournaments is that they use EPT Points for direct invites. There are only four invited teams in these tournaments, and extensive qualifiers across seven regions to determine the rest of the participants.
This is, in our opinion, the most competitive invitation format across the scene, as it gives better chances for newer teams to prove themselves. It also results in higher level of competition within the tournaments, as it primarily consists of the most relevant teams at the time.
The closest EPT Tournament is DreamLeague Season 25 that will feature 16 teams and will have a double-group stage, with a very short double-elimination playoff. ESL One Raleigh is scheduled for early April and it will be a 12-team tournament with an extended double-elimination playoff. Later this year, the last EPT Tournament, DreamLeague Season 26 will finalize the EPT table.
Closing Thoughts
Professional Dota has never been that packed, as it is at the start of this year. There are, however, several points we would like to raise.
First of all, while we are seeing a lot of tournaments, there are some of them that don’t have any qualifiers, or the qualification slots are limited. We feel like the presence of the latter is what allows new talent to grow in the scene.
Secondly, there is potential for spectator and athlete fatigue. Tournaments are great, but we had a similar year before, with nine Majors across 2017/2078 and at times it felt like it was too much.
Finally, outside of the EPT system, there aren’t too many incentives for the teams to not switch their rosters. This creates a higher level of competition, perhaps, but it also potentially destabilizes the scene.
What do you think about the start of 2025? Share your thoughts on what team you are rooting for and what tournaments you are most excited to watch in the comment section below.
First, but I can see a typo on 2018 it's written 2078 (FUTURE DOTO)
With NA being officially dead in really don't see much point in watching pro tournaments anymore. I'll still probably catch TI when it rolls around, but part of what drew me in over a decade ago was that there was a home team to root for (EG) who actually did fairly well and ended up winning a TI the second year I was following the scene.
Damn, I am disappointed
We are gonna see same two teams in final all time and its boring xdd