Puppey is bringing back the Dota 2 FACEIT Players League

Team Secret captain, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, has announced that he is leading the reestablishment of the FACEIT Players League (FPL) for Dota 2.

The FPL is an invite-only league that allows top players to play in a highly-competitive environment where they can showcase their skills. Matches in the FPL are played in Captain’s Mode with Elo points and bragging rights at stake.

In an announcement post on his personal Twitter account, Puppey said that he has already reached out to the managers of teams as well as individual free agents in order to populate the reinvigorated FPL.

While the FPL had leagues in both North America and Europe when it was first active from 2016 to 2018, the reestablished FPL will so far only be operational in Europe.

FACEIT is one of the best platforms for high-level play in various games, and is notably the most widely-used platform for top-tier matchmaking in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

In-house leagues were especially prevalent during the earlier days of Dota 2 as an avenue for pro players as well as up-and-coming talent to play and showcase their skills in an environment that was much more competitive than pub games on Dota 2’s normal matchmaking system.

Current pro players such as Team Nigma’s Ivan “MinD_ControL” Ivanov, Natus Vincere’s Idan “MagicaL” Vardanian, and Jonathan “Bryle” Santos De Guia, to name a few, were notably discovered after impressive showings in in-house leagues such as FPL.

In-house leagues fell out of favor when the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) started in 2017, however, as pro players had to devote more time to competing in periodic tournaments, qualifiers, and scrimmages.

With the DPC suspended indefinitely by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, however, pro players apparently now have more time on their hands to compete in in-house leagues alongside the scene’s shift to online competition.