Introducing Regional Leagues

Authored by blog.dota2.com and submitted by wykrhm

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 in 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.

Each of the six leagues will feature a prize pool of USD 280,000 per season. Leagues will feature two divisions with 8 teams in the Upper Division and 8 in the Lower division, for a total of 96 teams participating across the world. After each season, the 2 bottom teams of the Upper Division will swap places with the top 2 of the Lower Division. The bottom 2 teams of the Lower Division will be eliminated from the league and replaced with 2 new teams coming from Open Qualifiers to allow for new teams and talent to be introduced into the scene over time.

We believe the consistency and regularity of the league throughout the year, paired with a flat and deep prize pool distribution will, over time, nurture healthy and strong Tier 2/3 competition.

The leagues will have a duration of six weeks, and each region will consist of a full Bo3 Round Robin among all teams. In order to make it easier to follow your favorite region and teams, all matches will be in consistent date and time slots throughout the year for each region.

All Upper Division matches will be presented from studio broadcasts. All Lower Division matches will be featured on DotaTV.

Each region will have 3 competition days a week, schedule will be as follows, All times in PST. Each slot represents a Best of 3 series:

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 3AM China SEA SEA China SEA China 6AM China SEA SEA China 9AM Europe Europe CIS CIS Europe CIS 12PM Europe CIS CIS Europe 3PM SA SA SA 6PM NA SA NA SA NA 9PM NA NA

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 3AM China China SEA 6AM SEA SEA China China SEA China SEA 9AM CIS CIS CIS CIS 12PM Europe Europe Europe Europe CIS Europe 3PM SA SA SA NA 6PM SA SA 9PM NA NA NA NA

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.

1st Place USD 30,000 500 DPC points Qualifies to the Major Playoffs 2nd Place USD 28,000 300 DPC points Qualifies to the Major Group Stage 3rd Place USD 27,000 200 DPC points Qualifies to the Major Wild Card Stage1 4th Place USD 26,000 100 DPC points Qualifies to the Major Wild Card Stage2 5th Place USD 25,000 50 DPC points 6th Place USD 24,000 7th Place USD 23,000 Relegated to Lower Division 8th Place USD 22,000 Relegated to Lower Division

1st Place USD 17,000 Promoted to Upper Division 2nd Place USD 16,000 Promoted to Upper Division 3rd Place USD 15,000 4th Place USD 11,000 5th Place USD 9,000 6th Place USD 7,000 7th Place Eliminated from Lower Division3 8th Place Eliminated from Lower Division3

1Only EU, CN, SEA and NA

3Replaced by an Open Qualifiers Team

For a team to be eligible to participate in a region, 3 or more of the players need to reside in the area they are competing in. Additionally, teams will be able to use a stand-in for up to 4 of their matches as long as that stand-in is either competing in a lower division or not competing in a league at all.

If a team decides to change regions, they will have to enter the region through open qualifiers and climb through that region’s Lower Division.

For the duration of each season, from the beginning of the league until the end of the Major, all rosters will be locked. After the Major concludes and until the beginning of the next season, roster changes will be possible. Each player change will incur a 15% penalty on current points for that team.

The season will conclude with a Major tournament featuring 18 teams from all regions and sporting a prize pool of USD 500,000 plus DPC points.

The 18 participating teams are the top spots from each regional Upper Division. Regions will have a fixed amounts of slots throughout the year:

North America and Southeast Asia: 3 slots.

Format: 6 teams Bo2 round robin. Top two teams advance to the Group Stage. Four teams get eliminated.

Format: 8 teams Bo2 round robin. Top two teams advance to the Playoffs upper bracket. 3rd to 6th place advance to Playoffs lower bracket. Two teams get eliminated.

1st Place USD 200,000 500 DPC points 2nd Place USD 100,000 450 DPC points 3rd Place USD 75,000 400 DPC points 4th Place USD 50,000 350 DPC points 5th Place USD 25,000 300 DPC points 6th Place USD 25,000 300 DPC points 7th Place USD 12,500 200 DPC points 8th Place USD 12,500 200 DPC points

At the end of the third season, the top 12 teams with the most DPC points will qualify for The International 2021. The remaining spots will be decided through six regional final chance qualifiers, each with the 8 best teams from each region that haven’t been invited to TI. There won’t be open qualifiers to TI.

The dates for each season are as follows:

S1 Fall League: Oct 5th – Nov 15th

S1 Major: Dec 7th – Dec 19th

S2 Winter League: Jan 4th – Feb 14th

S2 Major: Mar 8th – Mar 20th

S3 Spring League: Apr 12th – May 23rd

S3 Major: June 21st – July 3rd

Dates outside of this range will be available for third party tournaments.

Gandalior on February 26th, 2020 at 01:34 UTC »

OG vacation strat nerfed

Ivanp2k on February 26th, 2020 at 01:30 UTC »

Okay valve, there is now no reason to not add a pro circuit tab in game to make this x10 easier to follow, alongside updating the app! We have set schedules, dates and allocated slots. No reason why it shouldn't be shown off more.

RaTeDSFoRSaLt on February 26th, 2020 at 01:23 UTC »

“Starting after ti10”, good to see them planning this out half a year early to give everyone plenty of time to prepare for this