Valve Announces New Dota Pro Circuit rules

The new year in competitive Dota 2 will feature some significant changes in the Dota Pro Circuit.

To introduce greater structure to the new competitive season, big changes will be made to the DPC. The revamped system affects DPC points adjustments, player regulations, team ownership, and schedule improvement.

In the recently concluded season, top teams rarely changed their rosters since DPC binds qualifying points to individual players. This year, points will be associated to the registered teams. Removing a player from the roster will reduce the team’s current DPC points by 20% and the team will not earn any additional points brought in by new players.

The DPC season will feature Major and Minor tournaments in pairs. There will be no direct invites for either of these tournaments. Instead, Valve will run Major Qualifiers followed by Minor Qualifiers. Teams who fail to qualify for the Major can participate in the Minor Qualifier.

The winner of the Minor tournament will be given a reserved slot in the upcoming Major tournament that will commence four days after the conclusion of the Minor event.

Valve also detailed new rules for team ownership leading up to next year’s International. Organizations with multiple teams can still participate in DPC Majors and Minors. However, only one of these teams will be eligible to compete in The International 2019 regardless of their DPC points standing.  

The 2018-2019 season is set to begin on September 15, just a few weeks after the completion of The International 2018. There are five Major and five Minor tournaments scheduled for the next DPC season.

Valve is still accepting proposals from event organizers for the scheduled 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit.