ESL Pro Tour: Teams Qualify for Direct Invitation to EWC 2026
DreamLeague Season 29 was the final tournament of the ESL Pro Tour Season 2025/2026, where teams had the opportunity to earn a direct invitation to the Esports World Cup 2026 in Dota 2.
Following the group stage of DreamLeague, Team Falcons, Team Liquid, and MOUZ secured their spots at EWC 2026, as REKONIX, GamerLegion, Nigma Galaxy, and ex-HEROIC — who could have displaced them from the top of the ESL Pro Tour standings — were eliminated from the tournament.
ESL Pro Tour Season 2025/2026 Leaderboard
| Place | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tundra Esports | 16710 |
| 2 | PARIVISION | 14510 |
| 3 | Aurora Gaming | 13230 |
| 4 | Xtreme Gaming | 10560 |
| 5 | Team Yandex | 10400 |
| 6 | Team Spirit | 10300 |
| 7 | Team Falcons | 8125 |
| 8 | Team Liquid | 4650 |
| 9 | BetBoom Team | 2860 |
| 10 | MOUZ | 2760 |
| 11 | PlayTime | 2662 |
| 12 | OG | 2180 |
| 13 | Virtus.pro | 1975 |
| 14 | Natus Vincere | 1775 |
| 15 | GamerLegion | 1172 |
| 16 | Vici Gaming | 655 |
For OG, which did not participate in the last championship in the current season with EPT prizes, the first results of the playoff matches secured their invitation to the EWC. Virtus.pro earned a direct invite after Vici Gaming was eliminated in the first round of the lower bracket.
Natus Vinceres' loss in the first round of the upper bracket and their subsequent match against PlayTime in the lower bracket secured BetBoom Team a spot at the EWC. By defeating NaVi and BB in the lower bracket, PlayTime secured the final invite to the Esports World Cup 2026, sending Natus Vincere to the qualifiers.
As a reminder, Team Spirit has been invited to the Esports World Cup 2026 as the title defender from the previous tournament in the series, while Vici Gaming secured victory at ESL Challenger CN Season 3 — the EWC qualifier for China.
The tournament organizers also changed the slot distribution between regions, increasing the number of Eastern European qualification spots to four.
Slot distribution by region:
- Eastern Europe — 4 slots
- Western Europe — 2 slots
- North America — 1 slot
- South America — 1 slot
- Middle East and Southwest Africa — 1 slot
- China — 1 slot
- Southeast Asia — 1 slot
DreamLeague Season 29 took place from 13.05.2026 to 24.05.2026, with PARIVISION becoming the tournament champions. During the event, 16 teams competed for a prize pool of $1,000,000 and 28,300 EPT points. You can find a detailed recap of the championship in our report.
The Dota 2 Championship as part of the Esports World Cup 2026 will take place from 06.07.2026 to 18.07.2026. 24 teams will compete for a prize pool of $2,000,000.
As CyberScore previously reported, the dates for the open qualifiers for the Esports World Cup 2026 have been announced.
by CyberScore