India’s first esports tournament around custom game mode, Red Bull River Runes is coming to scout talent in the country for the best mid-player role in Dota 2. From 1 September to 24 November, Indian gamers will have the opportunity to make a mark on the international esports scene with Red Bull R1v1r Runes.
The tournament will be played on a game map that is a modification of the popular Dota 2 game, in a one-versus-one format rather than the regular five-a-side team system. The online qualifiers will take place from 7 September to 9 November and the offline qualifiers will be from 1 September to 14 October across 14 cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Dehradun, Nashik, Ahmedabad, Indore, Chennai and more. The winners of the online and offline qualifiers will battle it out in the finale on 24 November and get an opportunity to visit ESL Genting 2019.
R1v1r Runes is an arcade game created as a modification to Dota 2, which can be played at the Steam Workshop. The biggest difference between the regular Dota 2 gameplay and that of R1v1r Runes is that while Dota is conventionally a 5v5 format, R1v1r Runes is a 1v1 matchup. In the 1v1 format, the game is only played in the mid-lane, with the other two lanes disabled. In order to win, players must destroy the opponent’s tower or kill the enemy hero twice.
Nodwin Gaming has collaborated with Red Bull to execute Red Bull R1v1r Runes in India. Nodwin Gaming founder and chief executive officer Akshat Rathee said, “Red Bull R1v1r Runes comes with a new kit of opportunities for gamers across the country, especially for the lone wolves who miss out solely because of not being able to find a team. And for R1v1r Runes you don’t need a team, it’s all you and your opponent. With esports at the apex of growth in the country, we would not want to let any gamer’s talent go unseen. We at Nodwin Gaming with a collective effort and a sole goal of providing the best for our gamers will ensure the same.”
Another modification is that heroes in R1v1r Runes begin the game at level six, which means that most heroes will have abilities from the moment the game begins. Level six is usually the stage at which heroes are able to unlock their most powerful ability, known as an ultimate.
In Dota 2, strategy on the part of the team sees heroes rise to gain their ultimate. With heroes starting R1v1r Runes with their ultimate already in place, a completely different strategy will be needed in the 1v1 game. Apart from their ultimate, gamers will also be granted three items when they start the game. The first item is the Blink Dagger, which allows a hero to be teleported to a certain distance. The second item is a Bottle, which can be consumed three times to get 100 health and 50 mana each time and the third item is an Observer Ward, which provides vision anywhere on the map for five minutes after being placed.
AFK Gaming co-founder Nishant Patel noted “With the emergence of various media outlets and esport organizers dedicated to Dota 2 in India, the domestic scene has never looked brighter for budding professionals of the game. Tournaments such as the ESL India Premiership with a prize pool of five lakhs for the winning team have upped the ante of the local circuit. The amount of energy and money invested into making the Dota 2 scene in India more prosperous has only been going up since 2011. The time for making an entrance in the scene and lay your investments is now.”
Over the weekend, OG have won The International 8. ‘Topson’, ‘ana’, ‘7ckngMad’, ‘JerAx’ and team captain ‘N0tail’ have lifted the Aegis of Champions for the first time, live on stage in Vancouver, Canada, sharing between them a first prize jackpot of more than $11,200,000 – the biggest prize ever awarded in the history of esports.
The new mid-player ‘Topson’ and now Ti8 Champion was discovered through his gameplay strats and mid hero gameplay. The 20-year old Finnish Topias ‘Topson’ Taavitsainen, has spent less than a year in the pro Dota 2 scene, but he’s been playing MOBAs since he was just eight years old. Topson’s breakout moment in the Pro Circuit came less three months ago.
The game has rapidly attracted numerous adventure seekers. A Dota 2 enthusiast, Krish Gupta added, “R1v1r Runes is an interesting concatenation of the traditional 1v1 match-up with numerous additions that make the game much more fun to play. I would definitely recommend this game to others and I look forward to playing this with friends.”
