Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Valve decided to move The International 10 to a later date so as to not threaten the health and wellbeing of the teams and players. Unlike real-life Dota2 players, however, artificial intelligence does not have to worry about the deadly virus.
BOT TI is an interesting concept first introduced by the prominent esports tournament organiser Beyond the Summit in 2018. The idea is for AI to determine which Dota2 character is the best by pitting AI-controlled teams of the same heroes against each other in a series of play.
The rules and format of BOT TI also vastly differ from any regular Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) tournament. Each match is played on a custom map, which forces interaction between AIs to begin as soon as the timer hits zero, consequently making matches much shorter than usual.
All matches last only 30 seconds, include varying levels of experience and items, and are all played in a best-of-three (Bo3) series. While each AI-controlled hero moves and acts on its own, they will all use the skills, talents and items that are most commonly used by the players throughout the season.
The first round is played with all heroes at level five with no items, the second at level 15 with 10,000 gold’s worth of items, while the final round will feature all heroes at level 30 with 25,000 gold cap. As an additional rune, BTS banned Blademail and Black King Bar, since they were deemed too powerful.
The final catch with BOT TI is the Bloodseeker Rule, which bans the hero from the competition if AI misbehaves. The name of the rule is a reference to the BOT TI2 bracket error from last year when the match results were mixed up.
��BTS is excited to announce that BOT TI is returning,�� said Beyond the Summit.
“Bots can��t get COVID so they are totally unaffected by the pandemic right now. However, the Bots are wearing masks and social distancing as a sign of solidarity to their human Dota player brethren.”
Unlike how it was in 2019 when the tournament lasted for almost a month (July 8 �C August 4), the third season of BOT TI will be condensed into a five-day schedule, starting on Wednesday, September 23 and running until Sunday, September 27.
- Round of 128 (September 23-24)
- Round of 64 (September 25)
- Round of 32 and Show Match (September 26)
- Top 16 (September 27)
Further details are yet to be revealed as the investigation in ongoing. Valve Corporation will continue to study the case and then decide whether additional sanctions are necessary.
Team PlusOne’s ousting from the BTS Pro Series means their previous results in the competition have been nullified, thus awarding forfeit wins to 4 Zoomers, Evil Genuises, Quincy Crew, beastcoast, Midas Club, CR4ZY, Plasma, business associates and Thunder Predator.
“Team PlusOne have been removed from BTS Pro Series due to multiple, confirmed incidents of match fixing. All previous match results will be nullified,” read the announcement from Beyond The Summit.
“We have provided relevant information and evidence to Valve. PlusOne are currently banned from all future BTS tournaments.”
Team PlusOne are relatively unknowns in the Dota2 esports scene since they do not field any high-profile players. The only two members of the roster that have some sort of international recognition are the Argentinian support Nicol��s “Wij” Moreno and Canadian-Chinese support Yixaun “xuan” Guo.
Wij began his Dota2 career in July 2016 with Vultur and later played for Gorillaz-Pride, Infamous Young and Team Unknown, who he represented at the MDL Chengdu Major, World Electronic Sports Games 2019 LatAM North and Epulze Global Dota 2 League: South America Division 1.
Xuan, whose career began in October 2014, has previously played for Boreal eSports, Void Boys, ROOT Gaming, EverNova, Demon Slayers and T1. He has featured at numerous Dota2 Major qualifiers, while his most notable achievement to date is a runner-up finish at DreamLeague Season 12 with Demon Slayers.
The remaining three players on the Team PlusOne roster – Alejandro “Jano” Moreno, Chedrin “Ched” Asinas and dnm – are still largely unknown in the professional Dota2 scene.
Although the whole team was ejected from the BTS Pro Series, the tournament organisers confirmed that only Xuan, Ched and Jano had been permanently suspended from participating events affiliated with Beyond The Summit. It is still unclear whether dnm and Wij were involved in any match-fixing activity.
“At this time, we are indefinitely suspending xuan, Ched, & Jano from competing in all BTS events.”
“The other two players, dnm & Wij, are permitted to compete in future BTS tournaments at this time.”
This is, unfortunately, just one of many recent match-fixing scandals in professional esports. Just a month ago, Cyber Legacy’s Dota 2 academy team, CyberTRAKTOR, were involved in suspicious activity during WePlay! Pushka League Division 2.
The BTS Pro Series Season 2: Americas group stage continues this Wednesday, when CR4ZY will clash with Plasma and business associates will take on 4 Zoomers. The playoffs are slated to kick off on Thursday with top eight teams duking it out for the largest slice of the US $50,000 prize pool.
]]>Beyond the Summit revealed the details of the tournament this week, confirming that only six teams will take part, instead of the eight we have seen in the last three years.
The best CS: GO teams in the world will battle it out for their slice of the $150,000 prize pool, a figure that remains unchanged since the tournament was first established.
The favourites for the event include Team Liquid and the recently-improved ENCE.
In addition to Team Liquid and ENCE, we will get a chance to see Ghost Gaming, NRG Esports, Renegades and Team Vitality, who will join the fight.
All the spotlight is on Team Liquid, who have won the CS_Summit 2, and ENCE, who are considered to be among the best in the world, but we cannot look past NRG Esports, who have won the previous tournament (CS_Summit 3).
The format of the tournament is yet to be announced, however, due to fewer number of teams, we can expect it to be modified in comparison to the previous CS_Summit tournaments, which were played in a BO3, double-elimination brackets.
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While all eyes are set on Team Liquid to justify their number two rank in the world, it will be NRG, who will look to make it two in a row after winning the CS_Summit 3 back in November. However, we must take into consideration NRG had it easier last time out, as they did not have to face off against Liquid or ENCE, who could prove to be a real threat on the road to 2nd title in a row.
The participating teams and their current world rank:
- Team Liquid; 2nd
- ENCE; 5th
- Renegades; 7th
- Team Vitality; 10th
- NRG Esports; 11th
- Ghost Gaming; 31st
Will NRG win for the second time in a row or can Team Liquid show their strength to the world?
One thing is for sure �� CS_Summit 4 is a tournament no CS:GO fan wants to miss. We’ll follow with great interest.
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