Beyond The Summit
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Beyond The Summit
Company Information
Focus:
Event Organization
Founded:
March 2012
Defunct:
March 27th, 2023
Location:
Headquarters:
Los Angeles
Total Prize Money:
$6,001,857
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 turn Beyond The Summit into a proper esports operation, 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 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.
Crowdfunded era[edit]
The Summit was a success for Beyond The Summit, and allowed the tournament to become a series 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 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 would also start 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 would also move 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 would also host 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 would also expand 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 would host 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 an emotional 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])
Tournaments[edit]
S Tournament
Date
Prize
P#
Location
Winner
Runner-up
Jan 28 - Feb 16, 2023
$39,500
12 teams
Southeast Asia
Jan 27 - Feb 18, 2023
$40,000
15 teams
North America
& South America
Nov 21 - Dec 10, 2022
$40,000
10 teams
Southeast Asia
Nov 19 - Dec 10, 2022
$40,000
16 teams
North America & South America
Sep 21 - Oct 07, 2022
$40,000
9 teams
North America & South America
Sep 21 - Oct 07, 2022
$40,000
9 teams
Southeast Asia
Apr 26 - May 29, 2022
$40,000
13 teams
North America & South America
Apr 25 - Jun 01, 2022
$40,000
13 teams
Southeast Asia
Feb 06 - Mar 06, 2022
$50,000
12 teams
Southeast Asia
Feb 05 - Mar 06, 2022
$50,000
13 teams
North America & South America
Dec 01, 2021 - Jan 22, 2022
$205,000
8 teams
Southeast AsiaNov 29, 2021 - Jan 22, 2022
$75,000
8 teams
Southeast Asia
Oct 29 - Nov 14, 2021
$40,000
9 teams
North America & South America
Oct 29 - Nov 14, 2021
$60,000
9 teams
Southeast AsiaSep 07 - 26, 2021
$40,000
10 teams
North America & South America
Aug 09 - 22, 2021
$50,000
8 teams
North America & South America
May 25 - Jun 06, 2021
$50,000
8 teams
North America & South America
May 25 - Jun 06, 2021
$50,000
8 teams
Southeast Asia
Apr 13 - May 20, 2021
$205,000
8 teams
North America
Apr 12 - May 22, 2021
$75,000
8 teams
North America
Mar 02 - 21, 2021
$40,000
16 teams
North America & South AmericaJan 19 - Feb 28, 2021
$205,000
8 teams
North AmericaJan 18 - Feb 27, 2021
$75,000
8 teams
North America
Dec 08 - 20, 2020
$40,000
8 teams
North America & South America
Oct 21 - Nov 08, 2020
$100,000
10 teams
North America & South America
Oct 21 - Nov 08, 2020
$100,000
10 teams
Southeast Asia
Sep 12 - 27, 2020
$50,000
10 teams
Southeast AsiaSep 07 - 22, 2020
$50,000
10 teams
North America & South America
Jun 13 - 29, 2020
$50,000
10 teams
North America & South America
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.