Mars Dota 2 League (MDL) 2017

Mars Media will be holding their fifth esports tournament, the Mars Dota 2 League 2017 which will take place between the 5th and 9th July. Over the course of four days, the best dota teams will get to battle it out in the matches held at the Optics Valley International Tennis Center in Wuhan, China for a prize pool that has yet to be announced.  

The last Mars Dota 2 League 2016 Autumn, the winners were top team Evil Genuises who won against Newbee with the unbeatable record 3:1. EG took home their first prize of a spectacular $112K. 

EG Winners MDL 2016

The format of the MDL 2017 will have two groups of eight teams competing in matches in a best of three. The best four proceed to the upper brackets in best-of-three, while the losing teams move in the lower brackets for hopefully another chance to compete in best-of-five grand finals.    

After the TI 7 qualifiers would have taken place, the top eight squads are expected to be at the top of their game, showing fierce competition in the upcoming esports tournament. The four teams who received a direct Invitation include Invictus Gaming, Newbee, Team OG and Evil Genuises. Four units had to go through qualifying rounds, from the China region, the two Dota squads are LFY and LGD Gaming. The European qualifier was cancelled and so the slot was given to Vici Gaming, as for the South East Asian team was Clutch Gamers.  

Evil Geniuses

EG are a top team that need no introduction, receiving a direct invitation to the MDL. EG lost to OG at the Kiev Major 2017 but came out of out on top at the Manila Masters winning against Newbee. Will they be able to pick up from their loss in the Epicenter 2017 to reach the semi-finals?

OG

Team OG are also a favourite Dota unit, having won four Majors so far and a regular participant in the annual International event. In the last two tournaments, the Manila Masters and the EPICENTER, OG have not done so great ranking them in fifth to eighth place. Will they step up their game in the MDL 2017?

Invictus Gaming

IG are another Dota 2 team that was invited to participate. IG have recently lost to Team Secret in the EPICENTER and in the Manila Masters, they lost to NP.  Does Invictus Gaming have what it takes to reach the Semi-Finals?

Newbee

Newbee, the runner-up of last Mars Dota 2 League 2016, seem to be on a winning streak for they have won their most recent esports tournaments, Galaxy Battles and ZOTAC Cup Masters. They ranked in second place at the Manila Masters in the finals, losing to Evil Genuises with the score 1:3. Have Newbee got a surprise in store at Mars Dota 2 League 2017?