jDAwards: Best Tournament Series of 2014?
This year saw the introduction of many new tournament series such as; DreamLeague, ESL One, XMG Captain's Draft and The Summit. As the Summit 2 draws to a close, and with no major tournaments until the end of the year, we can finally answer the biggest question of them all in our joinDOTA Awards. What was the best tournament series of 2014?
Today is the last day of the joinDOTA Award nomination posts, but voting for all the categories will remain open until the 10th December. The winners will be announced on Sunday 14th December.
The SummitLaunched with the hope of mimicking the success of the Home Story Cup style event that was so successful in Starcraft2, The Summit put on two seasons in 2014, both offering very unique additional content for the viewers. Although, both iterations did encounter technical difficulties for viewers, aside from the TI4 qualifier hubs, the Summit was the only tournament which allowed viewers to learn more about the personalities behind the nicknames. StarLadderIn 2014 Starladder hosted three seasons and expanded to include a StarSeries for Korea and China. The highlight was probably season IX, which culminated in a LAN Finals that included Team EG, Team DK and Invictus Gaming and an incredible variety of heroes with 67 of the 107 in the pool getting some play time. StarLadder has become a staple of the DOTA2 competitive scene, and is one of the most consistent.ESL OneThe ESL's flagship DOTA2 tournament after testing the water with the ESL Major Series in 2013 opened in 2014 with ESL One Frankfurt. Hosted in June, the tournament is widely considered to be one of the best of the entire year, with the broadcasting team a mix of the biggest names from all three major studios. However, the ESL One New York struggled to live up the hype of its predecessor. XMG Captain's DraftThe only major tournament series this year to use any other format aside from captain's mode, XMG Captain's Draft organised by DotaCinema was a huge success with viewers as well as players, giving a refreshing change from the monotonous tournament formats. Although neither season 1 nor the soon to be completed season 2 featured a LAN Finals, it was still a big hit. The International 4The focal point of the year delivered as usual, with an incredible $10 million prize pool thanks to the community contributions. The qualifiers for the TI4 this year were brought to life by the collective effort by joinDOTA, BeyondtheSummit and the GD Studio. However, the elimination of Western opposition early on as well as the playstyle of the Chinese finalists did make for a very anti-climactic finale to the monumental tournament.D2CLThe D2CL hosted three seasons in 2014, with season four also featuring a LAN finals in Bucharest, Romania. Despite a $50,000 prize pool for each season, the organisation still managed to attract big names to each season, with the last installment delivering some brilliant action between Team Tinker and Navi. However, the D2CL did come under fire for certain admin decisions over the course of 2014. D2LSponsored by HyperX, the D2L did deliver some unique matches this year, in particular season four where the top 4 teams were flown into Las Vegas to compete at the live finals at CES 2014, where Fnatic staged some huge surprises with Excalibur as a stand-in. Recently it has lost its relevance but is still the only place to regularly hear the voice of Aaron "Ayesee" Chambers.DreamLeagueDreamLeague season 1 was a groundbreaking event. It was the first event to feature a compendium outside of TI, offer consistent post-match interviews with teams, as well as include a professional studio and panel for post-match discussions. Although issues in the organisation of the second season did damage the brand, the GD Studio did their best to save the sinking ship in Phase 2 and 3.WECOne of the only major Chinese tournaments to feature a star-studded list of international invites, the WEC had an impressive $162,000 base prize pool. The finale was an explosive finish, with EG and Clou9 as the finalists. However, due to scheduling clashes the WEC was forced to cancel its Western qualifiers for the event, which would have perhaps made for a more unique mix of teams. WCATHe second largest prize pool of the year with $472,000, the WCA invited eight teams to compete in China including Cloud9, Alliance and Navi. Despite a glittering prize pool, technical issues plagued the tournament, with Alliance and C9's 100 minute game ultimately declared a draw due to game crashes. Also the WCA scratched the anticipated all-star match to plug a sponsor with their all-girl Hyper X team.
What was the best Tournament series of 2014?
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