Pinnacle has expanded its presence in esports by incorporating Dota 2 into its Pinnacle Cup tournament, featuring a range of teams from across Europe, Russia and the CIS.

A total prize pool of £100,000 is on the line, with a winning prize of £50,000, with ‘some of the very best Dota 2 teams’ from across the continent taking part, including Viking.gg, Spirit, Hellbear Smashers and Extremum.

Kicking off on 5 May and organised in cooperation with Relog Media, the Pinnacle Cup will feature a 10-team round-robin stage, followed by a best-of-three elimination bracket and a playoffs stage, concluding with semi-finals and a best-of-give grand final on 30 May.

“After a fantastic start to the Pinnacle Cup, we are delighted to carry on this series with Relog Media, expanding further into the esports ecosystem,” said Paris Smith, CEO of Pinnacle.

“The heart of what we do at Pinnacle is engaging with the esports community, and with the introduction of The Pinnacle Cup – Dota we plan to deepen that connection with the wider esports audience. 

“There is no better way for us to continue this journey, than branching out into Dota 2, where we can continue offering fans the best connection to their favourite esports teams and players.”

Continuing as a partner of the event, GRID will work to provide ‘the very best in esports betting and content’ for Pinnacle Cup fans, making use of its streaming and data input technologies.

Additionally, the partners will cooperate on the development of a ‘comprehensive selection of both pre-game and live betting markets’ including low margin odds to maximise value to customers, whilst also utilising streaming service Twitch as a broadcasting platform, with the aim of enhancing fan-facing content and strengthening the overall viewing experience.

First taking place in March, the initial tournament featured a range of Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) teams including HellRaisers, CPH Flames and GamerLegion, with online payments platform Trustly acting as an ancillary sponsor.

Milutin Pecic, CEO of Relog Media, remarked: “As passionate Dota 2 players at Relog Media, it’s an absolute pleasure to dive into the Dota 2 community with Pinnacle alongside us. 

“We hope this is just the start of our offerings to the competitive teams across the globe. Pinnacle’s track record and success in Esports so far made it an easy decision for us to go forwards. We also had a ton of fun in the CSGO edition of The Pinnacle Cup. A proud day for us all here at Relog Media.”

Source: Pinnacle Esports YouTube Channel

Pinnacle breaks into Dota 2 with tournament expansion