Liquipedia app just got new player and team pages. Download the app here!Liquipedia app just got brand new player and team pages with schedule, results, stats, achievements and more. Download the app on iOS and Android!Liquipedia app major update: Revamped player and team pages with schedule, results, stats, achievements and more. Download the latest version on iOS or Android and read our update blog here.
Beyond The Summit
From Liquipedia Dota 2 Wiki
Beyond The Summit
Company Information
Focus:
Event Organization
Founded:
2012-03-??
Defunct:
2023-03-27
Location:
Headquarters:
Los Angeles
Awarded Prize Pools:
$5,998,857
Links
Beyond The Summit (often abbreviated as BTS) was an esports production company based in Los Angeles, California.
History[edit]
Online beginnings[edit]
Beyond The Summit began as a small online-only operation in 2012, in the early days of Dota 2, run by LD and GoDz as casters. Their first tournament was the Gigabyte Dota 2 Masters with a prize pool of $5,000, featuring Asian powerhouses such as Team DK and eventual winners LGD Gaming. This was followed-up with the BeyondTheSummit World Tour, featuring the best teams from both East and West. They would also specifically focus on the developing professional scene in Southeast Asia by hosting The Inaugural, with a $3,000 prize pool.
Founding in Los Angeles[edit]
In February 2013, Beyond The Summit announced an ambitious plan to expand itself into a proper esports operation, complete with a studio.[1] The crowdfunded campaign exceeded its $25,000 goal, raising nearly $40,000, allowing LD and GoDz to found Beyond The Summit, studio included, in Covina, Los Angeles.
Its first offline tournament was The Summit, with a $132,350 prize pool (with in-game sales). The theme of the tournament aimed to recreate the style of StarCraft 2's TakeTV's Homestory Cup, with a casual, behind-the-scenes aesthetic that would become a common style of its tournaments. This nature of production led to multiple skits and content pieces beyond produced, many of which becoming popular in the community.
Crowdfunded era[edit]
The Summit was a success for Beyond The Summit, and continued as a series of tournaments for many years. The Summit 2, held 6 months after the first iteration, nearly tripled the prize pool to $310,912. Although this was the peak of the The Summit's prize pool, it nevertheless became a stable source of prize money for the top teams of the growing Dota 2 professional scene. 6 iterations of The Summit were played before it was rebranded as "DOTA Summit" in 2017, paying out over $1m in prize money over 3 years.
Beyond The Summit also started hosting online-only regional tournaments in the Americas, Southeast Asia and Europe. These tournaments would carry smaller prize pools — $10,000 — but provided much-needed money for the grassroots scene.
During this time, Beyond The Summit also expanded into the Super Smash Bros. scene. In November 2015, they would host their first such event, Smash Summit.
Valve Majors era[edit]
In 2015, Valve structured the Dota professional circuit into "Majors" — large, offline tournaments, with multi-million dollar prize pools. As a small operation that avoided venture capital funding, however, Beyond The Summit was unable to match these prize pools, but continued to provide entertainment as a third-party organiser in the scene. This, however, meant that fixture clashes became inevitable with Valve's own tournaments.
In June 2017, Beyond The Summit rebranded its "The Summit" events into "DOTA Summit", starting with DOTA Summit 7, featuring a $100,000 prize pool. DOTA Summit 8 was given Minor status in the new Dota Pro Circuit of 2017-18, boosting its prize pool to $300,000; DOTA Summit 11 was given the same status. DOTA Summit continued for 6 iterations, ending with DOTA Summit 12, paying out over $1m in prize money over 4 years.
Beyond The Summit also hosted I Can't Believe It's Not Summit!, a tournament replacing a delayed DOTA Summit 10. They also hosted the BTS Spring Cup in Europe, the Americas and Southeast Asia, their first set of regional online tournaments after a 3-year hiatus.
During this time, Beyond The Summit expanded further into other titles. Named after their flagship Dota 2 series, they held their first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament cs_summit 1 in April 2017, and their first Rocket League tournament Rocket League Summit in August 2019.
COVID era[edit]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, all tournament organisers, Beyond The Summit included, switched to an online-only model. BTS rebranded its regional tournaments as "BTS Pro Series", and mostly-hosted tournaments in the Americas and Southeast Asia regions, as well as the European and CIS regions in 2020. These tournaments were the main source of income for many teams during 2020 and 2021, and offered a prize pool of about $50,000 each.
Despite the pandemic, Beyond The Summit was able to host more glamorous online tournaments during this time. Together with Epic Esports Events and RuHub, they hosted the BEYOND EPIC series in Europe and CIS as well as China. DOTA Summit also made a return in its 13th iteration, in the Southeast Asia, Americas and Europe and CIS regions.
Dota Pro Circuit Tour era[edit]
With the COVID-19 pandemic easing in 2021, Valve announced the return of the Dota Pro Circuit in a new format, with Regional Leagues and international Majors for the best-performing teams, and qualification to The International based on points gained at these events. Beyond The Summit was given the rights to host the North American Regional Leagues for that year, for both Seasons 1 and 2.
The subsequent year, they were granted the rights to the Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe Regional Leagues for all three Seasons (rebranded "Tours"), marking the return to their studio in Los Angeles.
During this time, Beyond The Summit continued to host BTS Pro Series. BTS Pro Series 12: Southeast Asia featured South American team Hokori as they prepared for The International 2022, marking the only time a team participated in BTS Pro Series outside of its home region.
Decline and closure[edit]
During 2022-2023, Beyond The Summit hosted what would later be revealed as its final Dota 2 tournaments, continuing the BTS Pro Series in Southeast Asia and the Americas, through to its 14th iteration. BTS Pro Series 14: Americas was won by Shopify Rebellion — formerly under Evil Geniuses, this roster notably rarely attended third-party events in the Americas, marking the team's first and only return to BTS Pro Series since the second Season in 2020. BTS Pro Series 14: Southeast Asia was won by Talon Esports, who would use this momentum to secure third at the Lima Major.
On February 27th, 2023, LD announced the closure of Beyond The Summit in an emotional statement,[2] citing the 2023 economic headwinds, and changes in the esports industry no longer making a relatively-small operation like Beyond The Summit viable. The end of Beyond The Summit was considered an "end of an era" for many players, talent and fans across multiple esports titles.[3][4][5]
Its final event was Smash Ultimate Summit 6 in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which closed with a heartfelt farewell.[6]
End of an Era: Beyond The Summit Was One of Dota 2's TreasuresBeyond The Summit played a significant role in shaping the esports scene of Dota 2. The company pioneered grassroots tournaments in the early years of Dota 2, before the inception of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit. Its events, particularly The Summit, are still cherished by the community for its creative skits and for allowing professional players to cast tournament games.
Moreover, Beyond The Summit contributed to the growth of emerging teams in Southeast Asia and North America through its BTS Pro Series tournaments. The company also led the way in broadcast innovation for Dota 2 esports, introducing the 'teamfight recap' feature before Valve integrated it into its native client and pioneering the use of battle passes in third-party tournaments in the Source 1 version of Dota 2.
Beyond The Summit's presence in the Dota 2 community will be greatly missed, as its contributions to the game and its esports scene have been invaluable.
Vignesh Raghuram, AFK Gaming ([4])
Skits and vignettes[edit]
The Summit and DOTA Summit were designed to be light-hearted and casual in nature, often taking place in a house or common area, with players and coaches on-site. This allowed Beyond The Summit to film various humorous skits and content pieces during these events. Several of these videos became popular in the community, some even becoming memes. Some of the most well-known examples include:
- Remember When I Kicked You: A video featuring several players talking about their kicks from teams, some infamous in nature (such as Aui_2000 being kicked from Evil Geniuses after winning The International 2015). The video parodies a Saturday Night Live video, which itself parodies the original scene from The OC, which was seen as overdramatic due to the camera effects.
- LGD Ame Fan: From 2017-2019, Reddit user LGDAmeFan posted various roster shuffle rumors that turned out to be true. As a result, people began to speculate about LGDAmeFan's true identity. Quinn (then known as "CCnC") was a popular guess, as he had played in North America and Europe (where LGDAmeFan's predictions centred around), taken part in multiple international LANs (to gain inside information), but had not yet found his footing as a top-tier player (such players would be less likely to risk their reputation). This video parodied the whole situation, with Quinn visiting Ame in secretive fashion for advice, and several of Ame's unusual predictions became true.
- Amazon EEcho: An advertisement for an Amazon Echo, overlaid with several of EternalEnvy's funniest phrases, such as "get back" and "drop your stick".
Tournaments[edit]
S
Tournament
Date
Prize Pool
Location
P#
Winner
Runner-up
Jan 27 - Feb 18, 2023
$40,000
North America
South America15 participants
Nov 19 - Dec 10, 2022
$40,000
North America South America16 participants
Sep 21 - Oct 7, 2022
$40,000
North America South America9 participants
Apr 26 - May 29, 2022
$40,000
North America South America13 participants
Feb 5 - Mar 6, 2022
$50,000
North America South America13 participants
Nov 29, 2021 - Jan 22, 2022
$75,000
Southeast Asia8 participants
Oct 29 - Nov 14, 2021
$40,000
North America South America9 participants
May 25 - Jun 6, 2021
$50,000
North America South America8 participants
Oct 21 - Nov 8, 2020
$100,000
North America South America10 participants
Jun 13 - 29, 2020
$50,000
North America South America10 participants
Gallery[edit]
Logos[edit]
Logo prior to April 2018.
References[edit]
- ↑ David "LD" Gorman (2013-02-09). "BEYOND THE SUMMIT - ESPORTS STUDIO". Indiegogo.
- ↑ David "LD" Gorman (2023-02-27). "On the Future of Beyond the Summit". Twitter.
- ↑ Kurt Lozano (2023-02-28). "Beloved Dota 2, Smash studio Beyond the Summit lay off staff, shuts down after 11 years". Yahoo! Esports SEA.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Vignesh Raghuram (2023-02-27). "Beyond The Summit Shuts Operations After 11 Years of Shaping Esports". AFK Gaming.
- ↑ Cale Michael (2023-02-27). "Beyond the Summit lets go of all full-time staff in emotional goodbye". Dot Esports.
- ↑ Beyond the Summit - Smash (2023-03-27). "Tweek vs あcola - GRAND FINALS Ultimate Summit 6 - SSBU Singles | Sephiroth vs Steve". YouTube.