The Expansion of Dota 2 Tournament Series in 2018
The Dota 2 tournament series, known as the Valve Majors, will be expanding in 2018. In the past, Valve organized two $3 million tournaments each year, but now they will be giving third-party organizers the opportunity to host the Valve Major tournament series.
Changes to the Dota 2 Competitive Circuit
The Valve Majors were highly prestigious events in the Dota 2 competitive circuit, second only to The International in terms of prize pool and recognition. This led to smaller tournament organizers downsizing their own Dota 2 events. To address this, Valve will now designate certain tournaments as “Major” or “Minor” based on their prize pool. Majors will have a prize pool of at least $500,000, while Minors will have a prize pool of $150,000. Valve will also match these amounts, bringing the overall prize pool of the 2018 Majors and Minors to at least $1 million or $300,000.
Qualifying Process and Global Representation
In addition to the prize pool requirement, the events must also have LAN finals and qualifiers for each of the six major Dota 2 regions. This ensures representation from Europe, China, Southeast Asia, the CIS region, North America, and South America at the Valve Majors. Furthermore, players will be awarded qualifying points, which will determine their eligibility to attend The International next year. This incentivizes teams to participate in as many events as possible. The Majors will provide a larger amount of qualifying points, and events with higher prize pools and those held closer to The International will also award additional points. Roster changes will be facilitated by considering the top three point earners for each team.
The Impact of these Changes
With more global representation and increased number of events, these changes to Valve’s biggest esport, Dota 2, will certainly have an impact. It will be interesting to see how these changes shape the competitive landscape.
esports, Dota 2, Valve, Majors, Minors, tournament series, competitive circuit, prize pool, qualifiers, global representation, qualifying points