Dota Pro Circuit

The Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) is a professional tournament format system of Dota 2, a competitive five-on-five video game. It was introduced in 2017 by the game's developer, Valve, to determine which teams are eligible to obtain a direct invitation to The International, the premier annual tournament for the game produced by them. The DPC replaced the former Dota Major Championship series (2015–2016), which was criticized due to Valve's non-transparent and unpredictable nature for handing out International invitations.

Dota Pro Circuit
GenreDota 2 professional tournament circuit
FrequencyAnnual
Years active2017–present
Organized byValve
Websitewww.dota2.com/procircuit

History

From late 2015 until early 2017, Valve sponsored a series of smaller-scale, seasonally held tournaments known as the Dota Major Championships.[1][2] Their format was based on the tournament series of the same name that Valve also sponsored for their first-person shooter game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Including The International 2016 and 2017, which were considered to be the cumulative Major of their respective seasons,[1][3] the series had five other events, which were the Frankfurt Major,[4] Shanghai Major,[5] Manila Major,[6] Boston Major,[7] and Kiev Major.[8] Following the International 2017, the Majors were replaced with the DPC due to criticism by teams and fans for Valve's non-transparent and unpredictable nature for handing out International invitations.[9][10][11][12]

For the first season (2017–2018), teams' scores were determined by the total score of the top three point-earning players on them, with points being carried over if a player changes teams during the season.[13] Qualifying points are weighed more heavily towards Majors than Minors.[11] The qualifying points in every tournament awarded 50% to the champions, 30% to the runners-up, and 10% to the semi-finalists. If there was a third-place decider match held, the points were awarded 15% to the 3rd-place finishers and 5% to the 4th-place finishers.[14][15] The ranking of a team was calculated only by the accumulation of the top three players with the highest qualifying points. A team was allowed to change its roster twice in a specified time period, but would automatically lose its eligibility to obtain a direct invitation if they changed its roster after the second mid-season roster period had passed.[14]

Starting with the second season (2018–2019), there were a number of adjustments to the rules, with the primary one being that both Major and Minor events are held in pairs, with qualifiers for each set to run in exclusively scheduled windows, as direct invites to them are now forbidden. In contrast with the previous season, the overall number of them decreased from 22 to 10, with the season beginning in September 2018 and concluding in June 2019. The number of direct International 2019 invites was increased from eight to twelve, with each of the six regions being given a single qualifying slot.[16][17] The qualifiers for Majors ran first, and teams who failed to qualify for it were eligible to compete in the Minor qualifiers a few days later. The winner of a Minor tournament is granted a reserved slot in the associated Major. Valve also removed roster locks that previously prevented teams that made changes mid-season from qualifying for points for the season. Instead, all points are directly assigned to teams rather than individual players. Removing a player from the roster reduces the team's total points by 20 percent, with adding a replacement player having no penalty.[18] In addition, Valve also implemented a rule that only allows for a single team owned in an multi-team organization to compete in The International and the qualifiers leading up to them. The rule also includes cases in which individual players have financial ties to other teams.[19]

Format

In the Dota Pro Circuit, a "Major" is a sponsored Dota 2 tournament that has two teams from the North American, South American, Southeast Asian, Chinese, European, and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) regions, a minimum prize pool of $500,000, which Valve adds $500,000 of their own towards, and concludes with a LAN finals.[9] In addition, a "Minor" championship tier exists and follows the same rules, but with a minimum prize pool of $150,000 instead.[9] Teams are awarded "Qualifying Points" based on their results in the tournaments, which are publicly listed on a leaderboard.[10][11][13][20] The top twelve teams at the end of the season earn direct invites to that year's International, with a single qualifying spot being offered to each of the six regions. Major and Minor events are held in pairs, with qualifiers for each running in scheduled windows. The qualifiers for Majors run first, and teams who fail to qualify for it are eligible to compete in the Minor qualifiers shortly later. The winner of a Minor tournament is granted a reserved slot in the associated Major. All points are assigned to teams rather than individual players. If a team decides to removing a player from their roster, it will reduce their total points by 20 percent; adding a replacement player has no penalty.[21] To avoid conflicting dates, Valve directly manages the scheduling of the entire circuit.[11]

Seasons

2017–2018
  Minor   Major
Tournament Dates Location Organizer(s) Winner
Starladder i-League Invitational #3[22] October 11–15, 2017 Kiev Starladder Team Liquid
PGL Open Bucharest[23] October 19–22, 2017 Bucharest PGL Mineski
ESL One Hamburg 2017[24] October 26–29, 2017 Hamburg ESL Virtus.pro
AMD Sapphire Dota PIT League[25] November 2–5, 2017 Split One Game Agency Team Liquid
Perfect World Masters[26] November 20–26, 2017 Shanghai Perfect World Newbee
DreamLeague Season 8[27] December 1–3, 2017 Jönköping DreamHack Team Secret
MDL Macau[28] December 4–10, 2017 Macau Mars Media OG
Dota Summit 8[29] December 13–17, 2017 Los Angeles Beyond the Summit Virtus.pro
Captains Draft 4[30] January 4–7, 2018 Washington, D.C. Moonduck Team Secret
ESL One Genting 2018[31] January 23–28, 2018 Pahang ESL Newbee
Starladder i-League Invitational #4[32] February 1–4, 2018 Shanghai Starladder Team Liquid
ESL One Katowice 2018 February 20–25, 2018 Katowice ESL Virtus.pro
The Bucharest Major[33] March 9–11, 2018 Bucharest PGL Virtus.pro
GESC Indonesia Dota 2 Minor[34] March 16–18, 2018 Jakarta GESC Evil Geniuses
DreamLeague Season 9[35] March 21–25, 2018 Stockholm DreamHack Team Secret
Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018[36] March 29 – April 7, 2018 Shanghai Perfect World Mineski
Starladder i-League Invitational #5[37] April 12–15, 2018 Kiev Starladder OpTic Gaming
EPICENTER XL[38] April 27 – May 7, 2018 Moscow Epic Esports Events PSG.LGD
GESC Thailand Dota 2 Minor[39] May 11–13, 2018 Bangkok GESC VGJ.Storm
MDL Changsha Major[40] May 14–20, 2018 Changsha Mars Media PSG.LGD
ESL One Birmingham 2018[41][42] May 23–27, 2018 Birmingham ESL Virtus.pro
China Dota 2 Supermajor[43][44] June 2–10, 2018 Shanghai
  • Perfect World
  • PGL
 Team Liquid

2018–2019
  Minor   Major
Tournament Dates Location Organizer(s) Winner
DreamLeague Season 10 October 29 – November 4, 2018 Stockholm DreamHack Tigers[45]
The Kuala Lumpur Major November 9–18, 2018 Kuala Lumpur PGL Virtus.pro[46]
The Bucharest Minor January 9–13, 2019 Bucharest PGL EHOME[47]
The Chongqing Major January 19–27, 2019 Chongqing StarLadder Team Secret[48]
StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor March 7–10, 2019 Kiev StarLadder Vici Gaming[49]
DreamLeague Season 11 March 14–24, 2019 Stockholm DreamHack Vici Gaming[50]
OGA Dota Pit Minor April 22–28, 2019 Split, Croatia Dota Pit Ninjas in Pyjamas[51]
MDL Disneyland Paris Major May 4–12, 2019 Marne-la-Vallée Mars Media Team Secret[52]
StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 2 June 12–16, 2019 Kiev StarLadder Ninjas in Pyjamas[53]
Epicenter Major June 22–30, 2019 Moscow Epic Esports Events Vici Gaming[54]

2019–2020
  Minor   Major
Tournament Dates Location Organizer(s) Winner
Dota Summit 11 November 7–10, 2019 Los Angeles Beyond the Summit Invictus Gaming[55]
MDL Chengdu Major November 16–24, 2019 Chengdu Mars Media TNC Predator[56]
WePlay! Bukovel Minor January 9–12, 2020 Bukovel WePlay! Nigma[57]
DreamLeague Season 13: Leipzig Major January 18–26, 2020 Leipzig DreamHack Team Secret[58]
StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor March 5–8, 2020 Kiev StarLadder Team Aster[59]
ESL One Los Angeles 2020[60] March 15–22, 2020 Los Angeles ESL Cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic[61][62][63]
OGA Dota Pit Minor 2020 April 23–26, 2020 Split, Croatia One Game Agency
Epicenter Major May 2–10, 2020 Moscow Epicenter
N/A June 11–14, 2020
N/A
Singapore Major June 20–28, 2020 Singapore ONE Esports
gollark: You can check github for repos with "wiki" in the name/description written in Rust.
gollark: Not featureful ones, though.
gollark: There are, in fact, wikis written in Rust.
gollark: I run a personal DokuWiki instance for notes and stuff.
gollark: I am not.

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