The final Dota Pro Circuit event of the 2018-2019 season has been announced, and fan reaction is mixed.
Russian tournament organizer Epicenter has announced its return to the Dota 2 space with the Epicenter Major. It is scheduled to be the final event of the Dota Pro Circuit season, and is teams’ final opportunity to earn a direct invite to The International 2019.
Details of the tournament were announced on Epicenter’s website.
The Epicenter Major will take place in Moscow and will follow the standard format for Dota Pro Circuit major tournaments. The field will include 16 teams with Chinese, European, and CIS qualifiers awarding three slots each while North American, South American, and Southeast Asian qualifiers will award two. The final spot will be awarded to the winner of a yet-to-be-announced minor tournament hosted by StarLadder.
The event will have 15,000 Dota Pro Circuit qualifying points on the line alongside a $1 million prize pool. The first-place winner will receive $350,000 alongside 4,950 qualifying points. According to the statement, the qualifying point distribution will reflect that of past majors.
The Epicenter Major will begin June 22. A date has not yet been announced for the open qualifiers, though the closed qualifiers will begin on May 15.
The announcement of the Epicenter Major likely means the Americas will not host a single prominent Dota 2 event in 2019. South America is yet to have a notable Dota 2 tournament. Though North America has often been an underserved market for Dota 2 tournament organizers, The International long called Seattle home, which gave domestic fans looking for a live experience a guaranteed destination. However, The International 2019 is set to take place in Shanghai, which leaves Dota 2 tournament goers in the western hemisphere out of luck.
Of the 10 DPC events in the 2018-2019 season, five have been booked for Europe and two have been allocated for the CIS region. Southeast Asia and China have both hosted a DPC major. Though the unnamed StarLadder minor tournament does not yet have a confirmed location, the organizer typically only hosts live events in Ukraine or China.
Though the Epicenter Major is sure to be an impressive event, Dota 2 fans still have one more major to get through before then. The MDL Disneyland Paris Major will begin on May 4.
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