Valve has revealed several changes for the 2023 Dota Pro Circuit, and it paints a very different picture than the previous DPC season.
The Dota 2 competitive scene will undergo major structural changes for the 2023 DPC season. The biggest change will be to tours, which will be just half as long as previous seasons’. The upper and lower divisions will also run sequentially. In addition, Valve appears to be changing which esports hosts are in charge of specific regions. One fan-favorite company appears to exiting entirely from Dota 2.
The first major change will be the duration of the tours. Instead of lasting for six weeks each as they have in previous seasons, the 2023 DPC will feature three-week tours. The long length of previous seasons was a common criticism from fans. By taking up so much of the year, the DPC made it difficult for third-party hosts to run events without conflict.
Pro players including Tundra’s Wu “Sneyking” Jingjun have specifically requested this change, and Valve has listened. The 2023 DPC tours will be even more intense than in previous years, with the same amount of matches squeezed into half the time.
In addition, the upper and lower divisions of all regions will now run at different times. The plan appears to be to run the upper divisions of each region first, then start the lower division once it has concluded. All six regions will still start at the same time and there are no reported changes to the majors.
Considering that both upper and lower teams could be invited to the same third-party tournaments, the sequential order could lead to the same conflicts with third-party organizers.
In addition to massive changes to the tour structure, the 2023 DPC will also swap some tournament organizers.
According to a social media post from Beyond The Summit co-founder David “LD” Gorman, BTS will no longer host a regional division of the Dota Pro Circuit as of 2023. He shared the surprising announcement on October 12 days before The International 2022. The North American company previously hosted 11 DPC tours across both divisions of Southeast Asia and Western Europe.
Valve has not issued a statement clarifying its move, but suddenly changing tournament hosts will have a drastic impact on the Dota 2 esports scene. Beyond The Summit is one of the longest-running hosts in the game with tournaments dating back to 2012.
LD’s statement seems to imply that BTS will separate entirely from Dota 2. If so, it will be a major loss for the game’s competitive history.
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