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Electronic Sports League has announced that the Dota 2 ESL One event will be played in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in December.
Set to unfold at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC), ESL One Kuala Lumpur boasts a robust prize pool of USD $1m.
The ESL Kuala Lumpur 2023, which will run from December 11-17, promises to be an electrifying event, spotlighting 12 elite Dota 2 squads from across the globe. Commencing with a three-day Group Stage, two clusters of six teams will vie for supremacy in a single round-robin format.
The upper echelon, the top six teams, will then secure their spots for the live Playoffs, scheduled between December 15 and 17, in a double elimination format.
Shane Clarke, holding the reins as the Director of Game Ecosystems – Dota 2 at the ESL FACEIT Group, shared insights about the decision to reroute another ESL One edition to Malaysia.
“We know Dota fans across South-East Asia have been eagerly waiting for the return of ESL One for over a year now,” he said.
“This December, we’re bringing back ESL One, bigger & more accessible than ever before, as we move the tournament from Genting to Kuala Lumpur for the first time.”
Historically, ESL has brought Dota 2 tournaments to Malaysia on three occasions, albeit in Genting. Encouragingly, the most recent event, ESL One Malaysia 2022, garnered an impressive viewership, peaking at 363,000 and logging close to 9.68 million watch hours, according to online sources.
Intriguingly, there might be a schedule clash. The ESL One Kuala Lumpur 2023 is seemingly coinciding with another titan of a competition, the Mobile Legends: Bang Bang M5 World Championship.
Latest updates indicate that this championship, marking the culmination of the MLBB 2023 season, will span two venues – Kuala Lumpur for the Wildcard stage and the Philippines for the Main stage – in November and December.
