Unfortunately due to visa issues, LGD Gaming are unable to join us for DreamLeague Season 19.

Similarly, due to the late time of their withdrawal, we were left unable to invite a replacement team from China, or any other region where applying for visas would be necessary for them to join us.

The team replacing LGD Gaming for DreamLeague Season 19 is Nigma Galaxy — read the next FAQ for more info.

In a unique situation where LGD Gaming were confirmed as unable to compete just two days before the tournament start, this meant that in choosing a replacement, we would have to return to the original team selection process using the rankings from the date and time of the original invites, but were forced already to exclude all regions except Western and Eastern Europe in the selection process due to the visa requirements and the time that would take.

Between the two regions and using the team rankings at the time, Western Europe was the next eligible region over Eastern Europe for a slot, and Nigma Galaxy were the next eligible team from WEU for invitation.

It gets more complicated, despite the EPT Ranking System having decided our final invite, as Nigma will be playing with a roster different to the one registered for the DPC — read the next FAQ for more info.

Nigma Galaxy were the highest ranked eligible team from the next eligible region, Western Europe, and as such were chosen to replace LGD Gaming in DreamLeague S19.

After accepting their invite, Nigma Galaxy informed us that they will be playing with Miracle- as a stand-in for the full duration of the tournament — this would normally have an effect on how the EPT ranking would assign slots within the region, and could push them below other eligible teams from WEU, at which point they would be uninvited from DreamLeague.

However, due to the fact that the replacement deadline is long passed (the 23rd of March for this season), a decision was made in this instance for them to retain the slot per Section 3.1.3.2 of the Dota 2 EPT Rulebook.

Still have questions? Reach out to us on Twitter @ESLDota2!

With the ESL Pro Tour for Dota 2 we want to complement Valve’s DPC ecosystem while supporting the Dota 2 scene and helping it grow.

You can find our Community Streaming Guidelines here.

Although it's something we would have liked to include, there will be no qualifiers for events in the first EPT Season.

For information on our EPT Ranking and Invite system, please head to the EPT ‘How it works’ page

There are no plans currently to have live audiences at DreamLeague events, as they will be entirely online events with teams flown in to various countries in Europe to compete.

Reach out to us on Twitter@ESLDota2!