posted by SmittyW.,
Valve finally announced all the details about the 2021 DPC. However, they met criticism especially from the South American scene. We've waited an eternity, but we are finally back on track! Valve announced the 2021 DPC season on Friday – the first open qualifiers for the new regional leagues are already underway. The first of two official seasons paving the way to TI10 is officially kicking off on 18 January 2021. For this Dota Pro Circuit season, Valve decided to stage regional leagues that lead to a Major each.

Each league features two divisions, a lower and an upper one. While the exact qualification process of each region may differ, the divisions themselves work the same way: eight teams fight in the divisions over the top spots. In the upper division, teams compete for Major tickets, whereas the teams in the lower divisions want to be promoted to the upper div. As in any other league, the bottom two teams are relegated or eliminated respectively.



Majors in March/April and June



This DPC, we are treated to two Majors. The first one will start on 25 March and continue until 4 April. The second one will take place 2-13 June. In each Major, 18 teams will play for DPC points and spots at the first Dota 2 world championship in two years. The participants of the Major will be determined by the league standings. Only the top finishers of each regional upper division will play Majors. The seed distribution looks as follows:

  • EU: Top 4
  • CN: Top 4
  • SEA: Top 3
  • CIS: Top 3
  • NA: Top 2
  • SA: Top 2


tavo displeased with qualifier invites



While most of the Dota cosmos is quite happy that the DPC has returned, some disagree with Valve's invite policy. Otávio 'tavo' Gabriel argues that Valve's practice didn't make sense. According to him, Valve stated that "the invites [to the upper division, editor's note] were based on stable rosters and results". However, his team included three players (Anderson '444' Santos, William 'hFnk3' Medeiros and Leonardo 'Mandy' Viana), who attended the DreamLeague Season 13: The Leipzig Major.

At the same time there is "no open qualifier for first division, and we might have to play an open qualifier to play for a slot on 2nd division," which was "frustrating". The criticism towards the lack of open qualifiers for the highest divisions is supported by several voices from the scene. Caster Kyle 'Kyle' Freedman said: "Nine months of waiting for the DPC, and you're telling me these guys won't even get a shot to play in a QUALIFIER for division 1??" Besides South America, also most other regions do not feature an open system, meaning teams that received no invite need to wait at least until season 2 to get their shot at the upper division.



Dota 2 commentator Moxxi pointed out that SA also lacked the infrastructure and really suffered from the COVID pandemic. SA teams struggled with high pings in online tournament and couldn't just move to the US to play.



What do you think about the lack of open qualifiers for South America's upper division? Have your say in the comments!

Photo credit: StarLadder

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