Valve announced a new system for the competitive season of Dota 2 2017-2018 on September 15 dubbed “Dota 2 Pro Circuit”. This is an eight-month season of tournaments that will identify the participating teams for The International 8. For those who missed the announcements and to those who don’t follow Dota 2, we are here to give you all the information you need about this whole thing! Here’s everything about Dota 2 Pro Circuit.

Dota 2 Pro Circuit Introduction

As announced on the official blog, the “Dota 2 Pro Circuit” is a season of third party tournaments in partnership with Valve from October 2017- June 2018. These tournaments have two tiers – Minor and Major.

Dota 2 Pro Circuit Minor Championship 2017-2018

Dota 2 Minor Championship 2017 2018. Image snipped from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net

Minor tournaments are the ones with at least a total of $150,000 USD prize pot. Moreover, Valve will sponsor $150,000 as a supplement amount to the base prize pot of each Minor Championship. Most of the Minors in the pro circuit have a total of $300,000 pot.

Dota 2 Pro Circuit Major Championship 2017-2018

Dota 2 Major Championship 2017 2018. Image snipped from: http://wiki.teamliquid.net

Meanwhile, Major tournaments are the ones with a minimum of $500,000 prize pool. Similar to Minors, Majors will also receive sponsorship from Valve but in the amount of $500,000 each event.

As of today, October 11, there are already 16 Minor and 11 Major Championships lined up in this season which will kick off tomorrow with StarLadder Invitational Season 8.

The “Qualifying Points” for TI8

Qualifying points are rewarded to winners of tournaments that are part of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit. This will determine the participating players in The International 8. However, Qulaifying Points are being rewarded to individual players instead of the whole team. The more qualifying points a player gains, the higher the chance of being directly invited in TI8.

Points to be rewarded are based on the amount of the prize pool. The total points every tournament will also be scaled based on its proximity to the TI8, the closer the tournament to TI8, the higher total points will be rewarded. For more information about the qualifying points, read Valve’s official guidelines here.

Why did Valve implement this system?

This is a very unique system not only in esports but in all kinds of competitions, in general. The Dota 2 Pro Circuit is a solution to the problem of having an “unfair judgement” as to which teams should receive direct invites for the annual biggest event, The Internationals. Its structural nature is more efficient in determining the participating teams and players for TI rather than the traditional performance-based invitation.

This also provides chances for third-party event organizers to highlight their tournaments with a direct partnership to Valve.

These measures were noticeably taken by Valve following the series of complaints about the company’s way of handling tournaments and events. One of the instances that highlighted such concern was when a popular Dota 2 commentator made statements about the problems in Dota 2 competitive scene along with other issues. According to him:

“A more structured qualification is run for Major events / The International. This is a more complicated solution which there is no perfect answer, but the most logical part is to remove the invite system we currently use and bring in minors, majors and a way to qualify for such events which is clear for all to follow instead of the guessing game we currently play.”

Apparently, Valve listened to the concerns of the community, thus bringing us the Dota 2 Pro Circuit for a Competitive 2017-2018 Season.