Epic Esports Events (part of ESforce Holding) will organize the fifth Major of the Dota Pro Circuit 2018-2019 season, EPICENTER Major. The tournament’s final stage will be held in Moscow on June 22-30. The winning team will claim $350 000 of the $1 000 000 total prize pool and receive 4950 DPC points on its way to the year’s most anticipated esports event, The International 2019.

The group stage of EPICENTER Major will be held on June 22-23 in accordance with global guidelines for Majors. The results of the group stage will decide the upper- and lower-bracket seeds between the participant-teams, followed by Double Elimination playoff system. Playoffs start on 24 June in a studio format. The final days of the playoff stage will be held on 28-30 in the CSKA Arena formerly known as “VTB Ice Palace”. For the first time in the history of EPICENTER Dota 2 series, the tournament will offer visitors a perfectly unobstructed viewing angle from any side of the arena thanks to the 360°-view stage design.

16 teams from all around the world will participate in EPICENTER Major. 15 of them will compete for their spots in the open and closed qualifiers in Europe (3 slots), CIS (3), China (3), Southeast Asia (2), North America (2), and South America (2) regions. The winner of the previous Minor will be the final participant of EPICENTER Major.

Dates and formats of the EPICENTER Major open qualifiers will be announced on April 2 immediately after the conclusion of the qualifiers for the fourth Major in DPC 2018-2019 season. The closed qualifiers will take place on May 15-19.

Tickets and passes for the tournament’s final stage, which will take place on June 28-30 in Moscow, are already available for purchase on epicenter.gg website, starting from 490 rubles for single-day tickets. Holders of three-day passes traditionally receive bonuses and gifts depending on the passes’ tier, including: early access to the stadium, guaranteed access to autograph sessions, and more. Detailed information regarding the contents of gift sets will be available later.

Epic Esports Event specializes in hosting international competitions and is the organizer of EPICENTER tournament series in Dota 2 and CS:GO in Moscow and Saint Petersburg since 2016. The first tournament of the series in Dota 2 was recognized as the best European event in Live Entertainment nomination according to a prestigious European award EUBEA 2016. The first Major Dota tournament in the history of the Russian esports, EPICENTER XL, took place in 2018 in Moscow and became the second most viewed tournament in Dota 2 in 2018 and the most viewed tournament in Dota 2 held by a third-party organization.

Tournament teaser available via this link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udwihXCK2vg

*supported by Valve, Dota 2 publisher.

**supported by Valve. Minors’ prize pools and DPC points pools are smaller compared to these of Majors’. The winner of a Minor-class tournament receives a direct invitation to an upcoming Major-class tournament.

ESforce Holding is one of the world’s largest esports organizations and the leader of electronic sports in Russia. The holding company integrates all key areas of the esports business, from organizing international tournaments and professional content creation to publishing and advertising activities as well as online retail sales of esports-themed merchandise. ESforce owns over 220 popular online resources with a combined audience of 12 million followers and 114 million annual unique visitors, which provide a 90-percent reach to esports broadcast viewers in Russia and the CIS as well as access to a significant share of relevant international audiences. In 2018, the holding became part of the largest technology company in Russia, Mail.Ru Group.

Armenia has introduced a legislation with the intention of tackling gambling addiction. The law will come into force when the parliament passes the bill.

Atom Janjughazyan, Minister of Finance, said: “The bill is aimed at enhancing regulatory restrictions of the gambling sector, which will enable making infatuation with gambling a lot more difficult. The current regulations allow gambling through automated devices and bookmaking machines in the entire territory of the country. It is recommended to organise it only in the four settlements where casinos are allowed to operate. Participating in organised games will only be allowed after validating age.”

He added that persons having court sentences related to gambling addiction will be restricted from entering gambling venues.

Armenian Vice Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan has proposed a bill in the parliament to add further regulation to gambling industry. The bill seeks to amend the existing gambling law.

“These will limit the activities of bookmaking offices in the territory of Armenia, and gambling through the well-known devices at filling stations and different public locations will be banned,” said Simonyan on social media in regards to the slot-machine type bookmaking equipment that are mainly located at CNG stations across Armenia, Armenpress reported.

The territory has walked around other gambling proposals, which include a total ban on sports betting. The Ministry of Finance also expressed the intention of changing how gambling operators are taxed in the country in order to get taxes directly from revenue.