Great Expedition

### Prize

Group stage winner: Independent Championship matchKnockout stage winner: Undisputed Championship match

### Editions

3

The **Great Expedition** to the End (abbreviated as **GE**) is an annual prediction tournament created by DPS founder Scorpion for the Discord-based promotion. It was supposed to be DPS' annual flagship tournament and is spread over the course of four months, starting from the month of September and concluding at DPS Finish Line.

The winner of the group stage gets a one on one DPS Independent Championship opportunity at NJPW WrestleKingdom. The best placed 8 predictors qualify for the knockouts stage where they compete in one on one matches. The finals takes place annually at DPS Finish Line with the winner being awarded a shot at DPS Undisputed Heavyweight Championship at WWE Royal Rumble.

The second edition was cancelled midway due to multiple reasons.

The GE returned in 2020 with a revamped format for future editions to avoid the problems of the past year.

## Format

### 2018-2019

GE follows a round-robin-cum-knockouts format where participants compete with each other in a round robin stage, predicting against each other until all possible combinations are exhausted. The predictor with most wins secures the highest position in the GE. In the case multiple predictors have the same amount of wins, the one with lesser losses places higher. In the case the number of losses is also the same then their total points tally *(predictors are given one point for each correct prediction which are added into their total points tally*) is used as the tiebreaker. The winner of the group stage earned an Independent Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom and the overall winner earned an Undisputed Championship match at Royal Rumble.

This format faced multiple problems due to the vast schedule and managing the tournament became a tedious task, which ultimately lead to the 2019-20 GE being cancelled midway.

### 2020-Present

The new compact format of the GE introduced some changed. Instead of one block of sixteen for the round robin stage, the field is now four blocks of four predictors with the Predictors being seeded. The second stage will be a double-elimination bracket, as opposed to the previous single-elimination. Nobody will be eliminated coming off of the first stage, however the bottom eight ranking predictors will start the second stage in the LOSERS bracket. This makes the first stage that much more important to win. The winners of all four blocks will compete in a fatal four-way match to decide the group stage winner who will challeng for the Independent Championship. The overall winner of the second stage will earn a DPS Undisputed Championship match. The grand finals of the tournament will be a two-falls match. The second fall is only needed if the winner of the loser's bracker beats the winner of the winners bracket, because in double elimination, everyone must be beaten twice to be eliminated, unless you start in losers bracket.

## Past Winners

* Overall: DealerTokes
 2019-20
 2020-21
* Overall:

## 2018-19

The first edition of the GE was announced on August 17, 2018 by DPS founder Scorpion. Sixteen predictors were chosen to participate from the roster with the first round of matches beginning on Monday Night Raw, September 3, 2018.

### **Group Stage**

The group stage concluded at ROH Final Battle, December 14, 2018 with Icon vs BenjaminEarl (c) for the Television Championship, a title which was frequently contested in GE matches.

The final standings for the group stage were,

### **Knockout Stage**

#### Quarter-finals

* DealerTokes defeated Mr Leeb (Monday Night Raw, 17/12/18)
* BenjaminEarl defeated TooRare (Monday Night Raw, 17/12/18)
* Scorpion tied with SteveChandler (Monday Night Raw, 17/12/18)\*

* Dan defeated Mark (Monday Night Raw, 17/12/18)

\*Rematch: Scorpion defeated SteveChandler (SmackDown Live, 18/12/18)

#### Semi-finals

* DealerTokes defeated BenjaminEarl (NJPW WrestleKingdom 13)
* Dan defeated Scorpion (NJPW WrestleKingdom 13)

#### Finals

* DealerTokes defeated Dan (DPS Finish Line 2019)

## 2019-20

The second edition of the GE was announced on August 18, 2019 and commenced on September 9, 2019, on an edition of Monday Night Raw. Sixteen predictors were chosen via qualifiers among which all reigning champions were granted direct qualification. This edition was later cancelled and is ultimately inconclusive.

## 2020-21

The third edition of the GE was announced on September 2, 2020 and commenced on the subsequent Monday Night Raw. Sixteen predictors were chosen via qualifiers among which all reigning champions were granted direct qualification. New rules were introduced for this edition and subsequent GEs.

### **Group Stage**

Darius Shade defeated Icon, Cody Lee and Oni at WWE Clash of Champions: 3rd Anniversary Show to become #1 contender of DPS Independent Championship.