WITH live events still on a hiatus, three of the leading esports tournament organisers in the region (Epic Esports Events, RuHub, and Beyond The Summit) have teamed up to deliver BEYOND EPIC. The tournament features two groups of six who will play a single round-robin. Teams with a 2-0 record earn three points, a 2-1 victory offers two points, a loss of 1-2 will provide a single point, and a straight 0-2 loss will leave the losers with nothing at all.

The leaders at the top of each group will earn entry into double-elimination play-offs in the upper bracket, whilst teams finishing in third and fourth will enter the lower bracket. Those in each group finishing fifth or sixth will be taking the least scenic route out of the competition. As in the group stage, all matches will be best-of-three series (with the finals culminating in a best-of-five) showdown.

With Europe’s top teams taking part, no team is going to have an easy ride out the group stage, let alone all the way to the finals. Team Secret’s hopes and morale should be high going into this one, having won BLAST Bounty Hunt last week, with a convincing 3-0 victory in the final over OG. While Secret will definitely be going into this to cement the top spot, OG will go in as a top seed also, and the two-time champions of The International will be looking to turn the tables. Safe to say, these are two teams you can expect to be challenging for the final stage.

Here’s an updated schedule for Beyond Epic. Save the dates and don’t miss any of our series!

Keep Safe and Keep Gaming #StarsAlign #epicgg pic.twitter.com/a7EtqeUC4e

— Team Nigma (@TeamNigma) June 16, 2020

Those who have been following competitive Dota 2 for a while will also have their eyes on Team Nigma, although they lost their first match to OG, 1-2 on June 16. They are certainly a team capable of an upset, and always seem to make beating them a difficult task for any opponent.

Their form may have taken a dip – finishing seventh/eight at ESL One Los Angeles (EU Online), but they managed to turn this around placing fourth at ESL Birmingham (EU Online) and third in BLAST’s Bounty Hunt. If you’re looking for a team capable of taking down the two aforementioned favorites, you’ll struggle to find a better choice than Nigma.

This brings us to the wildcard of the tournament: the late addition of CIS team B8. Having only been introduced on June 15 due to a late withdrawal from Natus Vincere, not even the squad themselves expected to be here finishing third overall in the qualifiers. Having only been established by founder & Dota 2 veteran Danil “Dendi” Ishutin back in January, we’re yet to see the squad consistently reach larger tournaments.

Though we may not expect B8 to be lifting the trophy in just under two weeks time, they are certainly worth watching closely in the group stage. They will likely be priced handsomely, therefore, if they can draw on talisman Dendi’s experience they may be able to upset some of the competition.