Boston Major's Play Format Have Dota 2 Fans Wary

The 2016 Boston Major of DOTA 2 is more than halfway with the semi-finalists ready to battle it out. From 16 teams, only 4 are left to battle it out and be declared the champion. This will be the last major tournament for the year with teams preparing for the new season in 2017.

For this DOTA 2 tournament, the prize pool is at $3,000,000 with the champion taking home $1,000,000. While the contest is indeed almost done, the Boston Major was not without its own hiccups. For instance, Execration was not able to join the tournament despite getting a direct invite due to visa issues.

Even before the Boston Major started, fans and analysts alike were surprised to learn about the changes to the substitution rule. While it almost went by unnoticed, some groups were in favor of the new rule as it had the ability to change the game. Some though are starting to question the logic behind using a single elimination bracket for this DOTA 2 tournament.

Unlike the Boston Major, past DOTA 2 tournaments utilized the double elimination format. Thus after the first round, the group will be divided into the winners bracket and the losers bracket. Teams would continue to compete and be eliminated once two losses are incurred.

A single elimination means that a team gets eliminated after losing and this is where the problem starts. Under the Boston Major, Valve had 8 teams going through qualifiers with the remaining 8 getting direct invites. Thus a really good DOTA 2 team stood the chance of being eliminated outright.

Faceless for instance had a strong showing during the regional qualifiers but ended up being eliminated from the Boston Major with zero wins. Meanwhile Wings Gaming and Evil Geniuses, ranked #1 and #2 are respectively going to the tournament, both received direct invites but had the bad luck of facing each other on the first round. This is not to say that the other teams are no good.

The danger of the Boston Major using a single elimination format is that luck becomes an even bigger factor. Many DOTA 2 tournaments in the past have shown this to be true with high-tiered teams often getting eliminated with lower-tiered teams. With this play format thought, the bracketing becomes that important as well.

Hopefully DOTA 2 teams and fans alike will voice out their opinion on the pros and cons of a single elimination format. What is left for now is to watch the rest of the Boston Major. The semi-finals will be played later with Evil Geniuses taking on OG on the first game and the second will see Digital Chaos battling it out with Ad Finem.