During the Frankfurt Major finals, Valve proudly announced the next big Dota 2 Tournament: The Shanghai Major. After fall comes winter, so now the best teams will have another opportunity to take a chunk from the $3,000,000 prize pool. Things will definitely be different compared to the first Major. Since then, the Meta has changed and teams that were forgotten are becoming relevant once more. Alliance is now in what seems like an unstoppable winning streak and are becoming one of the favorite teams that will compete in Shanghai. Still, there’s a lot of stuff that can happen. The competing teams are still figuring out this new patch and it’s probable that they’re saving some strategies for this Major. There’s a mix of excitement and nostalgia as this Major approaches; it feels like Ti3 once again, and the main concern teams are experimenting is figuring out how to beat Alliance before it’s too late. Combine this with having to also worry about teams like OG, LGD Gaming, EG, Secret, EHOME and VG and you have one of the toughest championships that we’ve ever seen in Dota 2.
The Shanghai Major 2016 | Facts:
- Group Stage: 02/25/ – 02/28/2016
- Main Event: 03/02/ – 03/06/2016
- Location: Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, China.
- Prize Pool: $3,000,000
- Format: Offline Playoffs
- 16 Teams
- Live-Stream
- Betting Odds for all matches
- Tickets will be available for sale from January 10 at 12:00 PM SGT. More info here.
The Dota 2 Shanghai Major Main Event – Playoffs
Main Event Predictions
Day 1 >> Day 2 >> Day 3 >> Day 4 >> Day 5
Grand Final: 
Team Secret vs. 
Team Liquid 3 : 1
Start Time: March 6, 06:00 CET
Semi Finals: 
EG vs. 
Team Liquid 0 : 2
Start Time: March 6, 03:00 CET
Upper Bracket Main Event | Playoffs
| Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
|||
 Alliance |
1 | ||||
| Team Liquid |
2 | TL |
2 | ||
| vs. | TL |
0 | |||
 MVP Phoenix |
2 | MVP |
0 | ||
 LGD |
0 | vs. | |||
 OG |
1 | Team Secret |
2 | ||
| Team Secret |
2 | Team Secret |
2 | ||
| vs. | |||||
| EG |
2 | EG |
1 | ||
 Fnatic |
0 | ||||
Betting Odds for the Shanghai Major Main Event Winner ->
Lower Bracket Main Event | Playoffs
| Round 1 |
Round 2 |
Round 3 |
Round 4 |
Round 5 |
|||||
 EHOME |
1 | A. |
1 | ||||||
 Archon |
0 | E. |
0 | A. |
1 | EG |
2 | ||
| vs. |  C. |
0 | EG |
2 | |||||
 Spirit |
0 | LGD |
0 | C. |
2 | ||||
| CompL. |
1 | C. |
1 | ||||||
| vs. | |||||||||
 VP |
1 | OG |
1 | ||||||
 VG |
0 | VP |
0 | OG |
1 | MVP |
2 | ||
| vs. | F. |
0 | MVP |
0 | |||||
 CDEC |
0 | F. |
1 | F. |
2 | ||||
 N. |
1 | N. |
0 | ||||||
Outright Winner Odds and Bets:
Bet365 is the first esports bookmaker offering some betting odds for the Dota 2 Shanghai Major 2016 tournament. Read more about the first outright winner betting odds.
check current odds at Bet365 >>
BET365 INFO: Find Dota 2 betting in the menu on the left: E-Sports
check current odds at Bet-at-Home >>
Bet-at-Home Info: Find Dota2 betting in the menu on the left: All sports > E-Sport
Invited Teams:
Of the 16 teams, 8 earned a direct invite to the event based on their performance in the latest Valve tournaments and also other major championships around the world. They invited the winners of The International 2015, the Frankfurt Major and WCA among others. While Valve normally invites team to the International according to a fixed amount of spots per region, they just chose the 8 best teams in the competitive scene -independently of their region- for this Major. The following teams will go directly to the Main Event:
 OG |
 Evil Genius |
 Team Secret |
 EHOME |
 CDEC |
 Vici Gaming |
 Virtus.Pro |
 Alliance |
Qualifiers for the Shanghai Major:
Just like the Frankfurt Major, there will be 2 Qualifiers:
The Open Qualifiers were held from the 3rd to the 6th of January 2016. Two amateur teams from each region had the opportunity to qualify for their respective Regional Qualifier. To determine the qualified teams, each region featured two Open Qualifiers to give the teams more chance to go to the Major. Even though these qualifiers were intended for amateurs, a lot of experienced Dota 2 pros with new teams also competed. Some of the winner squads of these qualifiers were formed by players known in the scene, like ixmike88, Faith and Pajkatt. In the end, the following teams won a spot in the Main Qualifiers:
- Americas:
Team Freedom, 
Elite Wolves - China:
CDEC Avenger, 
TongFu - Europe:
Mamas Boys, 
London Conspiracy - SEA:
Mineski-X, 
Extremist Dota2
>> Read the full Shanghai Majors Open Qualifiers 2016 Recap
The Regional Qualifiers -or Main Qualifiers– took place from January 7 to the 10th. These qualifiers combined a round robin format and a double-elimination bracket. First, each region was divided into two groups for the round robin. The top two teams from each group went to a double elimination bracket where the two best earned a spot for the Shanghai Major. Sadly, not a single team from the Open Qualifiers was able to qualify to the Shanghai Major like it happened in the Frankfurt Major with Team Unknown. Some of the teams that won these qualifiers, like Liquid and LGD Gaming, showed a level much superior to the rest of the teams competing, so it’s probable that we’ll see them getting direct invites more frequently for the upcoming tournaments. In the end, these were the results:
- Americas:
Team Archon, 
CompLexity - China:
LGD Gaming, 
Newbee - Europe: Team Liquid,
Team Spirit - SEA:
Fnatic, 
MVP Phoenix
>> Read the full Shanghai Majors Reginal / Main Qualifiers 2016 Recap
Group Stage:
The Group Stage will start on the 25th of February 2016. This stage exists to determine the starting bracket of each team for the double-elimination bracket at the Main Event in March. Teams will be divided into four groups where the top two of each group will go to the Upper Bracket and the rest to the Lower Bracket. >> Read more about the Shanghai Group Stage with group standings and match results
The Shanghai Major 2016 Livestream
You might also be interested in:
- Manila Major 2016 (06/07/ – 06/12/2016)
- EPICENTER – Dota 2 – 2016 (05/09/ – 05/15/2016)
- ESL One Manila 2016 (04/22/ – 04/24/2016)