EPTDreamLeague began back in 2013 with the goal to create a prestigious league for North America and Europe to compete in. The GD Studio and DreamHack put on quite a show, attracting Na`Vi, Alliance, Virtus Pro, Fnatic, EG, and Team Liquid to compete. James and Bruno made sure to keep people entertained between the games while Tobi and Draskyl made up one hell of a casting duo. DreamLeague was a terrific success despite being subject to much of the same viewing issues many tournaments faced at the time, most notably the long delays due to any number of technical difficulties as well as teams being hit by DDOS attacks in the middle of their matches. Despite this some people actually looked forward to the inevitable delays and how the time would be filled; it made DreamLeague stand out during a time that it wasn’t uncommon for casters to just cut to a music break during long pauses.
Dream Big
Years later that same spirit is still alive and well in the DreamLeague studios. The people may have changed but the creativity shown by the studio remains unique and the more relaxed atmosphere had still set it apart from most other online leagues and tournaments. DreamLeague Season 10 will not have the iconic online league portion of the event but due to its status as a Minor it will feature eight teams you may not have expected to be earning the first DPC points of the new season. CompLexity, ROOONS, Infamous, The Final Tribe, Vega Squadron (previously Team Lithium), Na`Vi, Royal Never Give Up, and Tigers will fight amongst each other with some incredibly high stakes as the winning team will receive 120 DPC points, $125,000, and a direct invite to the Kuala Lumpur Major.
Originally Team Liquid was also supposed to be taking part in DreamLeague but citing health reasons as the cause, they pulled out of the tournament and were replaced by Team Lithium. However Lithium ran into trouble themselves as MagE- was unable to secure a visa in time, and so Dendi will be playing as Lithiums mid for the duration of the tournament. With Lithium and Na`Vi in the same group we may see a second clash between Dendi and his old team, the first of course being when Dendi stood in for Team Secret and reunited with Puppey to which Na`Vi won 2-1. Due to Lithium using a stand-in they will be penalized and only earn 60% of the points they would be getting if they had their full roster.
There are a few teams attending with real possibilities of making it to the Major— CompLexity, Tigers, Royal Never Give Up, and Na`Vi to be more precise. While any of these teams could be upset by their competitors it would be hard to imagine all of them being taken down by Infamous, ROOONS, The Final Tribe, or Vega Squadron. Never say never though as we have seen crazier upsets happen as everyone tries to settle into the post-TI meta. DreamLeague marks the start of a much more compact DPC this year as we will only have five Minors and five Majors compared to the never ending stream of tournaments the first season produced. This makes every point earned much more valuable, and presence at the Majors a requirement for teams that want a direct invite to TI9.
