Manila Major Tournament for "Dota 2" is still months away but the excitement is nearing its fever pitch. Aside from the excitement from seeing the best eSports players from around the world in one location, the current development on the game also revealed its own fair share of drama.
One of the most intriguing stories for the tournament was the changes in team roster for the upcoming games. According to Polygon, "recent Shanghai Major winners Team Secret have released two members of its roster, replacing them with players from The 2015 International 'Dota 2' Championship winning team Evil Geniuses - namely, carry player Artour 'Arteezy' Babaev and offlane player Saahil 'Universe' Arora."
No reasons were given for the shakeup in the lineup. However, the early announcement of roster changes is due to the newly enforced rules by Valve where teams have to finalize their roster on a specific date or else lose their direct invite to the game. According to the official blog for "Dota 2," the deadline for final team roster was last March 27. The same blog post has also revealed the ticket prices and tournament dates, "This Major will be produced by PGL, with the main event to take place June 7 - 12 in the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila, Philippines. With three seating tiers available, pricing for event tickets will be ₱200/100/50 per day for the weekdays, and ₱400/200/100 per day for the weekend days."
While established teams with direct invites have finalized their roster, there are some teams who are slowly but surely getting the attention worldwide. According to Redbull.com, the South Koreans are finally making waves in the game - just like most of the eSports they clearly dominate. According to the blog post, "MVP have locked the same roster for both Manila and The International 6. It looks unlikely that they'll have to qualify for Manila as a direct invite must surely be on the cards for the now-formidable force from South Korea."
