Boston Major 2016 is the fourth major tournament from Valve, which took place from December 3 to December 10, 2016 in Boston, America. Congratulations to the team, which took first place in this tournament, and this is the third of four majors that this team won. Boston Major is the first Dota 2 tournament that was held according to the Single Elimination system - for elimination, and the first tournament from Valve, which the legendary captain Puppey missed, taking fourth place with Team Secret at the regional qualifiers. A lot of negativity poured out on Valve due to their choice of Single Elimination, perhaps it was this format that did not allow such giants as Newbee, Wigns and Virtus Pro to go far, and the Ad Finem team, which was a second division team before the tournament, to take second place.
During the week of LAN finals, 85 games were played, good start games showed, oddly enough, outsiders of the tournament Wings Gaming, Newbee, Team NP who have best results for first 10 kills. The worst first 10 kills went to EHOME, LGD Gaming and Digital Chaos. As for the first bloodsheds, the top three were Evil Geniuses, Newbee and LGD FY, while the worst in this ranking were WG Unity, Team NP and EHOME. Interestingly, Team NP showed the best results in the first 10 kills, while almost always giving First Blood to the opponent. It is worth noting the game EHOME, which stably “feeds” at the beginning of the game, nevertheless, stays afloat and sometimes, even with such a start, confidently wins 
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Representatives Asian region Boston Major 2016 had the most, 9 out of 16 teams can be attributed to this region, while all of them they performed just awful, not a single team was able to oppose anything to its rivals from Europe and America. The sensation of the tournament was the defeat of the Newbee team, the unofficial leader of China, in the first match of the playoffs, to the team from the open qualifications of Europe - Ad Finem, which is where it all ended for them in 8-16 lines of the tournament table.
If for some reason you missed the games of this event, the editors of our site have highlighted for you best matches of Boston Major 2016, which you should definitely watch, all of them are available on Dota TV: 
- Virtus Pro vs Newbee (game 2)
- vs WG Unity (1 game)
- Virtus Pro vs IG Vitality (game 2)
- Ad Finem vs
The echoes of the match for the title of world chess champion, which took place in New York, have hardly subsided when tomorrow, December 3, another major competition for fans of intellectual games starts in Boston, and that is what e-sports discipline is. 16 best teams, who have flown to America from all over the world, will compete for the title of champion of the autumn season and a substantial cash reward. Over the course of the week, the world of eSports will plunge headlong into the most anticipated end-of-year Dota event - The Boston Major. All detailed information about the tournament - in our material.
Organizers
It is generally accepted that in competitive Dota, as in most sports, the end of the World Championship is the beginning of a new season. Last year, the developer company Valve announced the start of final tournaments for each time of the year (except summer, since then the World Championship itself is held - The International) called “majors”. Thus, last season the autumn (Frankfurt), winter (Shanghai) and spring (Manila) majors were held.
The most successful from all points of view was the tournament in the Philippines, co-organized by the European company PGL. Valve must hold the home tournament in America at the highest level, so they decided not to take risks and again entrusted the production to this studio. PGL has many years of experience, including The International tournaments, and an excellent reputation.
Venue
As is already clear from the name of the tournament itself, the competition will be held in Boston, the capital of Massachusetts. The venue for the final part of the tournament, which will be held from December 7 to 10, will be the Wang Theater, which can accommodate about three and a half thousand spectators. The group stage will take place directly at the hotel where the players live, and their training rooms are also located there.
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Prize fund
As before, the total prize pool for the tournament is $3 million, but compared to previous majors, the distribution of funds has changed slightly. Instead of $1.1 million, as it was last season, the winning team will receive 100 thousand less - $1 million. The silver medalist will receive $500 thousand, and the third and fourth places will receive $250 thousand each. Teams that took places from 5th to 8th, will go home with $125 thousand. The main losers of the tournament - the eight teams eliminated in the first round of the playoffs - will also be left without a monetary reward. Their earnings will be $62.5 thousand.
Format
The modification in the distribution of prize money is primarily due to a change in the tournament format. Valve decided to try a harsh innovation by removing the lower bracket from the playoff stage. This means that the team that loses a series of matches leaves the tournament - the classic Olympic system. While the players are not entirely happy with this format, the audience should benefit from this, since the teams will give their all on stage.
16 teams are divided into 4 groups, where they will fight among themselves according to the GSL system: the teams are distributed in pairs, then the winners of the first meetings play a match for first place, while the losers determine the outsider of the group. At the end of the gaming day, the loser of the winners' match and the winner of the losers' match meet, where they will compete for 2nd-3rd place in the group. All 16 teams advance to the playoff stage, which will take place in the Wang Theater building. The first places from one group will meet the last ones in the other, and the second places will face the third. Losing in the playoffs means elimination from the tournament.
Participants and schedule
The representatives of the East have a numerical advantage - six teams represent China, and three more from Southeast Asia. The hosts of the tournament are represented by four teams at once (if we take into account the Canadian-American composition of Team NP), two more from Europe, and our “bears” will single-handedly defend the CIS-Dota. The score 9-7 for representatives is not in favor of the West. True, the major has never been conquered by anyone other than the Europeans: OG became champions twice, as well as Team Secret once.
Opponents in the first matches:
Group A
* Wings Gaming, China - WarriorsGaming.Unity, Malaysia
* Digital Chaos, USA - LGD Forever Young, China
Group B
* Newbee, China - MVP.Phoenix, South Korea
* Virtus.pro, Russia - Team NP, Canada
Group C
* LGD Gaming, China - Team Faceless, Singapore
* Evil Geniuses, USA - compLexity Gaming, USA
Group D
* EHOME, China - Ad Finem, Greece
* OG, European Union - iG.Vitality, China
The start of matches in group A and B is scheduled for 18:00 Moscow time on December 3, quartets C and D start at the same time, only on the 4th. The group stage will be followed by a two-day weekend, followed by the start of the knockout stage on December 7th.
Broadcast
The GameShow TV channel together with Mail.Ru will cover the tournament for the Russian-speaking audience. Professional casters and esports analysts in live will analyze specific matches and help even unprepared viewers understand all the intricacies popular game. Also, guests of the broadcast during the broadcast of the final competitions of The Boston Major will be the famous sports commentators Viktor Gusev, Kirill Nabutov and Vladimir Stognienko.
The Game Show TV channel is organizing a broadcast of The Boston Major Dota 2 tournament
* for the first time in the history of the majors, the CIS region will be represented by only one team;
* America has never been represented by four teams at Valve tournaments;
* one of the main contenders for victory in the Boston Major, Wings Gaming and Evil Geniuses, took last place in the last tournament, which was held in Manila;
* the only player who will not be able to defend the Manila Major title is Amer “Miracle-” al-Barqawi - best player last season;
* Greece will be represented at Valve tournaments for the first time in history. This is the merit of the Ad Finem team, which managed to leave behind the competition such formidable rivals as Team Secret and Team Liquid;
* six participating teams are mononational: iG.Vitality, LGD, EHOME and Wings Gaming - China, Ad Finem - Greece, WarriorsGaming.Unity - Malaysia;
* current world champions Wings Gaming are the youngest team in the tournament. The average age of its players is 19.8 years. The oldest are Koreans MVP Phoenix - 23.6 years;
* six teams are debutants at the majors: Team NP, Ad Finem, WarriorsGaming.Unity, LGD Forever Young, Team Faceless and iG.Vitality;
* only four teams took part in all four seasons: Evil Geniuses, Newbee, LGD and OG;
* The 16 players who flew to Boston are participants in all four majors.
Follow the progress of The Boston Major with “Championship”. We remind you that the match with the participation of the Russian team Virtus.pro begins tomorrow, December 3, at 18:00 Moscow time. Don't miss the broadcasts on the GameShow TV channel!
Last weekend, all participants in the next tournament were determined Dota 2 with the meaningful prefix “ major".
The best teams from five regions will meet at LAN -finals in Boston from December 3 to 10 and will compete for a substantial prize fund of $3 million. First tournament from Valve the new season is preparing many surprises and pleasant emotions, a fair portion of which eSports fans received already at the qualification stage. Here are the main conclusions from the qualifying stage and a presentation of the teams that won the last tickets to the Boston Wang Theater all European players.
Among Russian fans Dota 2 there was an opportunity to cheer for a team that could compete with world leaders. New line-up Virtus. pro lived up to expectations. Exit to major from the European zone can be considered a success. The team clearly took the training process in the off-season very seriously. This is evidenced by a large selection of gaming strategies and confident play on a large number of characters. In addition to good individual preparation, the “bears” demonstrated real character, which CIS teams often lack. In the fight for a slot V.P. beat the leaders of the region in recent years: Team Liquid and Team Secret. Virtus. pro finished the group stage as the sole leader, but lost with a score of 2:0 in the first match of the upper bracket Team Liquid , which she chose for herself as her semi-final opponent. The guys were able to work on their mistakes and improve in the final of the lower bracket, where the draw brought these teams together again.
The main disappointment of the qualifications was the weak performance Team Secret . Estonian captain of the “secret” - Klement “ Puppey “Ivanov will miss the tournament from Valve . A fusion of the vast experience of European supports and high level The game mechanics of three natives of the South Asian region looked quite promising on paper. And nothing foreshadowed trouble: the team finished the group stage in second place with seven wins and two defeats. But in the playoffs Puppey and his team was unable to take a single card. Perhaps the most demanding games have exposed communication problems that were previously mitigated by individual skill.
Missing LAN -final of the Ukrainian Natus Vincere and Team Liquid , flying the flag of the European Union, is hardly a surprise. The reasons for the failures of these famous teams, perhaps, lie in the transfer policy of the organizations. During the summer reshuffle window, the managers of the Ukrainian team decided not to make substitutions, despite last place“born to win” at the main tournament of the year - The International 2016. Based on the results of the group stage Na`Vi scored only 2 points out of 9 and shared the last line in the table with Escape Gaming and Fantastic Five . Such a sharp drop in results forced the organization’s leaders to announce a change in the roster Dota 2 immediately after the end of qualifications.
The main discovery of the selections in Europe can be called the team Ad Finem . The Greek five are one step away from reaching the final stage The Manila Major and took fourth place during the group stage of the qualifications for The International 2016. A d Finem is translated from Latin as “to the end”, and the name of the team fully reflects the attitude of all team members to the game. This friendly five has not changed its composition for more than a year, and now this stability has borne fruit. A.F. took only fourth place during the group stage, but literally swept away its opponents in the playoffs. They were replayed with the same score 2:0 Team Secret in the semi-finals and Team Liquid in the final of the upper bracket.
I came to the junction. On the last gaming day, four teams fought for the championship title: OG and Evil Geniuses, Digital Chaos and Ad Finem. It came as a surprise to everyone
very weak game of the “Evil Geniuses”, who were exhausted after meetings with Wings Gaming and Virtus.pro. The Americans were unable to show their best game, and thus OG received an easy ticket to the grand final - 2:0 in favor of the European team.
Next on stage were the teams Digital Chaos and Ad Finem. Despite the fact that DC was playing at a home tournament, the crowd supported the Greeks in every possible way. When the Ad Finem players acted successfully, a noise arose, and the spectators greeted each won battle with applause and shouts of “Ad Finem, Ad Finem!” Charged with the energy of the fans, Ad Finem first managed to inflict Digital Chaos its first defeat in the tournament, and then took advantage of the enemy’s confusion and reduced the match to a score of 2:0. It seems that the Greeks themselves did not believe what had happened!
Ad Finem - OG, map 3 - the best game of 2016 in
The tradition of the majors was not broken: again, two European teams met in the decisive match of the tournament. For OG, this was already the third final - the team defended the title of the reigning champions of the Manila Major, while no one took Ad Finem seriously before the start of the competition, because the team attended an official tournament from Valve for the first time in history. It seemed that even OG fans wanted Ad Finem to win, because the Greeks managed to make the whole world fall in love with them during these four days of the playoffs.
And although the match ended with a score of 3:1 in favor of OG, no one can blame Ad Finem. The team put all their strength into the battlefield and fought with more than dignity, and the victory on the third map will definitely go down in history as one of the best games in the entire history of Dota. It seems that the Greeks did not leave anyone indifferent. Even when the OG players lifted the championship trophy, shouts of “Ad Finem!” could be clearly heard in the hall. It's time Verros "Maybe Next Time" Apostolos, a player in the support position of the Greek team, change your nickname to a more suitable one!
Prize fund distribution
1. OG, European Union - $1 million.
2. Ad Finem, Greece - $500 thousand.
3-4. Evil Geniuses and Digital Chaos, both USA - $250 thousand each.
Symbolic team of the major
Johan "N0tail" Sundstein- the Danish player of the first position, once again demonstrated true skill, which is determined by the ability to perfectly read the game and act exclusively according to the situation, bypassing all templates. He truly deserves to lift the major championship trophy for the third time!
Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan- the Pakistani was the only “Evil Geniuses” player who played the entire tournament consistently. The center of the American team always defended his line, even if he played a weaker hero. He once again confirmed that his level is extremely high.
Gustav "s4" Magnusson- the Swede clearly showed the whole world that a high-quality player can play in any position. Despite the fact that s4 has only been playing in his new role for a couple of months, he perfectly feels and understands his new role, and continues to delight the audience with his excellent performance.
Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka- the Finn is, without a doubt, the best player of the tournament, and his play in the support position serves as an example to follow even for the most famous “supports”. This is the case when you can safely forget about the prefix “one of”: JerAx is the best player in the world in the fourth position at the moment.
Giorgos "SsaSpartan" Gannakopoulos- no team can reach heights without a good captain. The leader of the Greek team not only charged his teammates with his explosive energy, but also played superbly in every match. Just look at his Rubick on the third map of the grand final!
Hero of the tournament
Teams for a long time could not find a use for Legion Commander, although the hero was improved with each patch. And in the playoffs of the Boston major, he turned out to be one of the most in demand, and most importantly, the most successful. Out of nine maps, he lost only one, which is 89% win rate!
* Gustav "s4" Magnusson became the second player in the world to win both The International and the Major. The first to achieve this achievement Clement "Puppey" Ivanov;
* Tal "Fly" Aizik and Johan "N0tail" Sundstein became the first players in the world to win three Valve tournaments;
* 16-year-old Anatan "Ana" Pham- the youngest winner in the history of majors;
* Major finals have so far only featured European teams;
* This was Valve's first tournament in which Greek players participated. So far, the biggest cash rewards for the Greeks have been the prize money from MLG Pro League Season 2 - $16,725;
* Thanks to the victory, Johan "N0tail" Sundstein and Gustav "s4" Magnusson's earnings from prize tournaments officially exceeded $1 million.
OG once again performed her Dream Green, showing a filigree performance. Tal "Fly" Aizik confirmed his status as one of the best, if not the best, captain of our time. Despite the loss of three players in the off-season, he managed to build a fighting team and achieve the desired result in the shortest possible time. Separately, I would like to note the simply fantastic atmosphere that the audience created at the Wang Theater. Even being thousands of kilometers away from the tournament venue, one could feel the incredible atmosphere that reigned in Boston!
The results of the group stage draw have become known The Boston Major in America, which will pass from 3 to 10 December at Boston's Wang Theater with a total capacity of ~3500.
The group stage is scheduled for December 3-4 with GSL format in the best-of-3 series. Then all teams enter the main event with a single-elimination bo3 bracket and a bo5 grand final. The first place of the group chooses an opponent for the first match between the 3rd and 4th places of the other group.
| Group A | Group B |
| Wings Gaming | Newbee |
| Digital Chaos | Virtus.pro |
| LGD.ForeverYoung | Team NP |
| WarriorsGaming.Unity | MVP Phoenix |
| Group C | Group D |
| Evil Geniuses | O.G. |
| Team Faceless | EHOME |
| LGD Gaming | Ad Finem |
| compLexity Gaming | Invictus Gaming Vitality |
After the group stage The Boston Major there will be a break of two days, and already December 7-10 There will be a main event with an unusual format for such a tournament.
The Boston Major
Sixteen of the world's strongest teams will compete at the first Major tournament of the 16-17 season in the American city of Boston, where the total prize fund of the tournament is three million US dollars, the champion will take the main title and $1,000,000. Champions of the last Major steel in Manila O.G., and first place on The International 2016 occupied by the Chinese team Wings Gaming.
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