Mars Media has confirmed that its upcoming Dota 2 Major will indeed be hosted at Disneyland® Paris, as Esports Insider exclusively reported on February 8th.
The MDL Disneyland Paris Major will be the fourth Dota 2 Major of the 2018-2019 DPC season, taking place over May 4-12th.
Zhang Yu, CEO of Mars Media commented on the event in a statement: “We are very excited and proud to bring our own MDL to France thanks to Aymeric Magne and his team at Disneyland® Paris. We couldn’t have hoped for a better place and partner to host the very first MDL outside of China. We are looking forward to collaborating with Disneyland® Paris which marks our first, but not last, foray into the western esports market.”
Six online regional qualifiers will determine the teams that will end up competing in the Disney Events Arena in front of 6,300 spectators. This is the first time that the Mars Dota 2 League, other wise known as MDL, will be hosted outside of China.
Aymeric Magne, Director of Disneyland Paris Event Group added: “We are extremely proud to team up with Mars Media to co-produce a Dota 2 Major for the first time in France. Disneyland® Paris will host the best teams in the world for nine days promising our visitors a spectacular one-of-a-kind experience. This new event will further consolidate Disneyland® Paris’ position as a go-to destination for live events as well as a major esports partner in Europe.”
So far in this DPC season there have been three Majors: The Kuala Lumpur Major hosted by PGL, The Chongqing Major hosted by StarLadder & ImbaTV, and DreamLeague Season 11 hosted by DreamHack. Each event had had $1,000,000 (£760,475) up for grabs.
Esports Insider says: This is an exciting Major for a whole number of reasons and it’s great to see it finally confirmed so players and fans can start to look forward to it. Valve and Mars Media taking Dota 2 to another country, which is honestly rather underutilised, and at Disneyland no less, is great for esports. We expect to see the arena sell out not long after tickets are made available. We can’t wait to see the Disneyland resorts make further strides in esports!