Dota 2 news » Introducing Regional Leagues

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.

Regional Leagues:

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:

Schedule:

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.

Prize Distribution:

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.

Majors

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:

Europe and China: 4 slots.
North America and Southeast Asia: 3 slots.
CIS and South America: 2 slots.

Majors Format

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

EU League 3rd place.
EU League 4th place
CN League 3rd place
CN League 4th place
NA League 3rd place
SEA League 3rd place.

Group Stage:
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.

EU League 2nd place
CN League 2nd Place
NA League 2nd Place
SA League 2nd Place
CIS League 2nd Place
SEA League 2nd Place
1st Wildcard
2nd Wildcard

Playoffs:
Format: 12 teams Double Elimination.

Upper Bracket:
EU League 1st place
CN League 1st place
SEA League 1st place
SA League 1st place
NA League 1st place
CIS League 1st place
Group Stage – 1st place
Group Stage – 2nd place

Lower Bracket:
Group Stage – 3rd place
Group Stage – 4th place
Group Stage – 5th place
Group Stage – 6th place

Prize Distribution:

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.

Dates

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.