MLG Columbus to feature Dota 2

Major League Gaming has announced that Valve's Dota 2 will be featured for the first time on the MLG Pro Circuit, debuting at the final event of 2013 in Columbus, Ohio.

The Columbus, Ohio event is scheduled to run from November 22 through November 24.

Dota 2 and Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops II will also make an appearance at the MLG Fall Invitational at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida on October 18 and 19, with $30,000 up for grabs in total for both games. MLG Executive Vice President Adam Apicella confirmed that the winner of the Full Sail event will be invited to compete in Columbus.

"After about a year of teasing with a Dota 2 tournament, MLG finally brings the game to their Columbus stop," Dota 2 analyst Bruno Carlucci told GameSpot. "They have an interesting challenge now since they not only have to cater to a new audience, but also one that has been waiting for this for so long that they'll expect, even need, for the sake of the American scene, something amazing. It's a hard task ahead of them, but one that can potentially be very rewarding to everyone."

Previously, MLG announced that Blizzard’s StarCraft II will not be held in Columbus, marking the first time in more than three years that the game will not be featured at a Pro Circuit event. Redbull eSports will be running a StarCraft II event on the same weekend at an undisclosed location.

MLG announced in June that it would stop working with Blizzard to produce the North American qualifiers for this year's second StarCraft II World Championship Series.

"After coordinating on WCS America Season 1 and careful consideration, we have decided to transition away from operation of WCS America and refocus efforts on producing our own eSports competitions," MLG CEO Sundance DiGiovanni said in a statement at the time.

Riot Games' League of Legends, which has also made many consecutive appearances at MLG events, has not been mentioned for Columbus as of yet. Officials from Riot Games declined comment to GameSpot if League of Legends would be present at the Columbus event.

In an interview with GameSpot last year, Riot's VP of eSports Dustin Beck hinted that there are sometimes exclusivity contracts in place with leagues regarding running other ARTS/MOBA titles.