DreamLeague announced the qualifiers details for the third Major of the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season and it’s very likely that the schedule will not be welcomed by any of the Chinese teams.

According to the official announcement made by DreamLeague today, the Chinese closed qualifiers are to take place on the Chinese New Year’s Eve and on the first and second day of the New Year. The New Year’s Eve has always been extremely important in the Chinese culture, and in fact, it kind of goes the same for any country in the world. For this DPC season, Valve implemented a new rule which doesn’t allow any direct invites to the Minors and Majors, so everyone, be them TI8 winners or previous Major Champions, must play the qualifiers. More than that, the Majors are extremely important due to the amount of DPC points awarded. Namely 4,950 points, the prize for winning a Major this season is basically a guaranteed spot at The International 2019.

With all these in mind, DreamLeague announced the closed qualifiers for China to take place February 4-6. The Chinese New Year’s eve is on the 4th of February and the first reaction to the DreamLeague Stockholm Major qualifiers schedule came from the PSG.LGD Manager, Pan Fei who told us “this schedule is a pain in the ass”.

DreamLeague Season 11 Stockholm Major is scheduled for March 14-24 with $1,000,000 prize pool on the line and a total of 15,000 DPC points spread among all the 16 teams attending it.

Here is some information about the CORSAIR #DreamLeagueMajor. You cannot sign up yet, but you can read up on the schedule and format structure 👇https://t.co/tmdmxSqaga — DreamHack Dota (@DreamHackDota) January 4, 2019

DreamLeague Stockholm Major qualifiers full schedule:

Open qualifiers:

January 24-25 – open qualifiers #1

January 26-27 – open qualifiers #2

Closed qualifiers:

Format:

2 GSL Groups of 4 teams

Results seed into 8-team Double Elimination bracket

Top half into the Upper Brackets

Bottom half into the Lower Brackets

Best-of-three games

Closed Group 1 (SA/CIS/SEA) February 1-3

February 1:

Group: A/B Initial. A/B Winners Match

February 2:

Group: A/B Losers Match. A/B Decider Match

Bracket: Winner Round 1. Lower Round 1

February 3:

Bracket: Winner Final. Lower Round 2. Lower Final

Closed Group 2 (NA/EU/CN) February 4-6

February 4:

Group: A/B Initial. A/B Winners Match

February 5:

Group: A/B Losers Match. A/B Decider Match

Bracket: Winner Round 1. Lower Round 1

February 6:

Bracket: Winner Final. Lower Round 2. Lower Final

Zhang “xiao8” Ning who is currently the EHOME coach declared for VPEsports “this schedule is forcing the CN teams to give up the Spring Festival holiday and also, we cannot take a break. We have to keep up the training intensity.”

For a team like EHOME the New Year small vacation was something that they really looked forward to as they are set to embark tomorrow on a long flight to Romania for the Bucharest Minor, and in the eventuality of winning the Minor, from Romania they will be flying straight to the Chongqing Major which will be held January 19-27.

“I think this schedule is not very considerate to CN teams. For instance, as a father of two, FY obviously would like to spend time with his family during the Spring Festival, which is also the most important traditional holiday for the Chinese. But this schedule has made it very awkward and inconvenient for all the Chinese teams,” said the PSG.LGD Manager, Pan Fei to VPEsports.