Chinese tournament organizer Imba TV announced that the company will host its Dota 2 competition, Imba i-League in Shanghai, featuring a ¥1.2M RMB ($185K USD) total prize pool money and eight Chinese Dota 2 teams, including PSG.LGD, Invictus Gaming, Royal Never Give-Up, and Vici Gaming.
The competition will start on April 3, and be played in ImbaTV’s esports venue. In addition, the event has partnered with Shanghai Aegean Shopping Park, a semi-outdoor shopping complex and food court in Shanghai Minhang District. The event will be not only broadcasted on the Chinese live-streaming platform DouYu online, as well as in the shopping park for live audiences.
In Dota 2 and CS:GO esports, Imba TV was previously in a long-term partnership with Ukraine tournament organizer Starladder, and had a co-branded Dota 2 competition series called Starladder ImbaTV League (SL-I). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Valve’s low supportive activations on Dota 2 and CS:GO, the SL-I League is more likely suspended because the competition has not been hosted since October of 2019.