Valve announces Dota 2 Regional Leagues for the next DPC season
The International 2020 takes place from 18 to 23 August and shortly after the dust settles over Stockholm, Sweden, the next DPC season will get underway. Since the 2015 – 2016 season, the Major/Minor system has been in place. For the upcoming 2020 – 2021 season, things will change drastically. Valve recently announced the Dota 2 Regional Leagues for the next DPC season with some massive changes.
The Dota 2 Regional Leagues
The DPC is evolving in the upcoming 2020 – 2021 season with Dota 2 Regional Leagues to represent competitive Dota 2 in a more scheduled and consistent way during the year. This will provide a better structure for the development of Tier 2 and Tier 3 teams, instead of the Major/Minor approach where most of the money is funnelled into the top tier teams.
Valve explains what the Dota 2 Regional Leagues is all about:
“Starting after TI10, the Dota Pro Circuit will introduce a new system that presents competitive Dota in a more scheduled and consistent way during the year and features a better structure for the development of Tier 2 and Tier 3 teams. The year will be divided into 3 seasons. Each season will be composed of 6 regional leagues, leading into a Major with the best teams in the world. The Dota year will conclude, as usual, with The International.”
The six Dota 2 Regional Leagues will be broken up into the following:
- Europe
- China
- SEA
- CIS
- North America
- South America
Each season will run for roughly six weeks. At the end of each season, a Major will be held with a $500,000 prize pool featuring the top 18 teams from all regions. Each of the six leagues will have a $280,000 prize pool per season. The leagues will feature two divisions in each region, with eight teams in the Upper Division and eight teams in the Lower division. This means that a total of 96 teams will be participating across the globe.
After each season, the bottom two teams of the Upper Division get relegated to the Lower Division, while the top two teams of the Lower Division will be promoted to the Upper Division. The bottom two teams of the Lower division will be eliminated from the league. They will be replaced by two teams from Open Qualifiers.
Valve explains that:
“For the inaugural season, Valve will allocate the initial teams to the Upper and Lower divisions. Teams will also have to declare the region they choose to participate in (and be eligible for that region) before the season starts. Remaining slots will be filled through qualifiers after The International 2020 concludes.”
Dates for the next DPC season are as follows:
- S1 Fall League: Oct 5th – Nov 15th
- S1 Major: Dec 11th – Dec 20th
- S2 Winter League: Jan 4th – Feb 14th
- S2 Major: Mar 12th – Mar 21st
- S3 Spring League: Apr 12th – May 23rd
- S3 Major: June 25th – July 4th
Further, Valve mentioned that dates outside the ones above are available to third-party tournaments.
Qualifying for The International 2021
First of all, there won’t be open qualifiers for The International 2021. Instead, the top 12 teams at the end of the third season in terms of DPC points won throughout the three seasons, will qualify for The International 2021. The remaining spots six spots are decided via regional “final chance” qualifiers. These qualifiers will consist of the eight best teams from each region that didn’t manage to qualify for The International 2021.
Based on the information provided by Valve, it looks like the 2020-2021 DPC season will start on 5 October 2020. While there are some concerns about the Dota 2 Regional Leagues, specifically about the calendar and non-DPC events going forward, this does look like a largely positive change.
Header image via Valve
