A million-dollar Auto Chess competition is going down in October

Auto Chess competition is heating up, with developers Drodo Studio and Long Mobile announcing an invitational tournament with a million-dollar prize pool this October in Shanghai. The tournament will be a collaboration between Drodo Studio, Long Mobile, and esports company ImbaTV.

The invitational will feature a mixture of directly invited top players and individuals who make it in through a series of regional qualifiers. Though the Auto Chess team has not yet revealed the exact date of the event, it’s the highest prize pool for any organized Auto Chess competition so far.

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Since Auto Chess debuted as a Dota 2 modification in late 2018, the “autobattler” genre has seen a massive increase in interest from players and developers alike. Last month, Drodo Studio and Valve Corporation agreed to develop their own separate versions of the game (Valve’s version is titled Dota Underlords). Two weeks ago, Riot Games announced its own version, Teamfight Tactics. Drodo Studio has come out ahead with today’s announcement, as neither Valve nor Riot have yet announced their own high-profile competitive events for their respective autobattlers.

Drodo Studio has dedicated much of its time towards capturing the Chinese market, teaming with Chinese mobile games publisher Dragonest in order to develop the mobile version of Auto Chess in March. With Shanghai as the announced location for the October event, it’s likely that many of the invited players will be Chinese professionals. However, Drodo Studio’s announcement promises to bring in worldwide talent for the million-dollar event.