The Dota 2 Pro Circuit calendar will now have one less Major event in its schedule.
Los Angeles-based shoutcasting studio and tournament organizer Beyond the Summit (BTS) has cancelled its upcoming Major. The group were unable to close a related partnership and financing deal with Next Generation Esports (NGE), the production company responsible for Rocket League’s official esports coverage.
Yesterday, Dota 2 shoutcaster and Beyond the Summit co-founder David “LD” Gorman posted a TwitLonger message, in order to announce the cancellation of the event.
“BTS was exploring the possibility of running a major together with NGE in March 2018 as part of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit,” said LD. “Unfortunately, the event ended up not making sense for us and NGE, so it won’t be happening.”
On the Reddit thread corresponding to the announcement, LD provided more details regarding the cancellation. Both BTS and NGE could not consider the event financially feasible—at least in terms of it being officially considered as a Pro Circuit Major.
“We couldn’t figure out a financial model with NGE that would allow us to run an event that we felt was worthy of being labeled a Major,” said LD.
Beyond the Summit’s scheduled Major was first revealed by Team Secret director of operations and community figurehead Matthew “Cyborgmatt” Bailey before the first day of the International 7 group stage. The event had both BTS and NGE indicated as the organizers.
With the loss of this Major, the total number of qualification points for TI8 has been significantly reduced. Seeing how Virtus.pro shot straight up to the top spot of the Pro Circuit leaderboards after winning the ESL One Hamburg Major two weeks ago, the fact that there will be one less Major in the calendar will heavily impact the road to TI8.
That is, of course, assuming that the event does not get replaced by another Major from a different organizer. Whether this will happen or not has yet to be seen, however.
Meanwhile, the eighth edition of The Summit, BTS’ original event series inspired by StarCraft tournament HomeStory Cup, will push through as a Minor this December 13.
