Rivalry announces SEA DPC JV with Blacklist International
Fresh from reporting their first profitable month back in October 2022, esports betting company Rivalry has teamed up with the Filipino esports organisation Blacklist International to enter a team into the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC).
Over the course of the DPC, teams can earn points which, if they manage to earn enough over the course of the DPC season, culminates in qualification for the richest esports tournament in the world, The International.
The partnership fulfils the dream of Tryke Gutierrez, the CEO of Tier One Entertainment, the esports division of which is Blacklist International, who had long dreamed of putting together an all-Filipino Dota 2 team.
New Team Name
This latest Rivalry esports adventure will see the new team, which has been named Blacklist Rivalry, enter the SEA Dota Pro Circuit Division 1, in place of Singaporean team RSG which resigned their spot in the league.
The annual tournament features the best Dota 2 teams in the world playing off across a series of two-division regional tournaments in an attempt to win through to a Major tournament.
They will slot into a division that features other top esports organisations including Fnatic, BOOM Esports, Talon Esports, Team SMG, Execration, Lilgun and an as-yet-unknown team that will replace T1.
To prepare the team for the competition, which runs over three “tour” periods; winter, spring and summer, Blacklist recently agreed a deal with Predator Gaming to provide hardware for their bootcamp for the team ahead of the start of Tour 1 in mid-December.
The Blacklist team has already enjoyed great success in mobile esports, being recently crowned World Champions of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang. The team also has teams competing in Legends of Runterra Free Fire and Call of Duty Mobile.
All-Star Roster
In preparation for participation in the DPC, Blacklist had been busy signing up what it feels is a ‘dream team’ of Filipino players to represent Blacklist Rivalry over the course of the season.
The team comprises three members of the TNC team that defeated the huge favourites OG at The International in 2016, Kuku, Raven and eyyou.
They are joined by Karl, who played the last two seasons with T1 and Tims, a former BOOM Esports player who has played on a team that has won a DPC Major.
CEO of Tier One Tryke Gutierrez stated that he was delighted to get the chance to “compete against the best in the world with this roster. This is a dream come true, yes, but we have much bigger dreams and aspirations for this group.”
Certainly, anyone with a keen interest in Philippines esports online betting will be watching how the new Blacklist Rivalry team performs in their inaugural DPC season, which starts in just a few days time.
