Dota Pro Circuit 2020 format changes: A greater focus on the growth of lower tier teams

Dota Pro Circuit is the official Dota 2 league that decides who gets directly invited to The International at the end of the season. The best professional teams and the biggest esports tournaments in the world are all part of it. Right now we’re at the third DPC edition and things are going well, or at least that’s the feeling you get at a first glance. But in spite of this, Valve has announced new changes to the Dota Pro Circuit 2020 format.

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Dota Pro Circuit 2020 New Format: The Regional Leagues

Starting with next season, the game’s circuit will be much more focused on the development of lower tier teams. Right now, one of the big problems with professional Dota is that it rewards almost exclusively the big teams.

If you’re one of the top 20, you can do this professionally and make a living at it. If not, chances are you’re either a streamer or a content creator or don’t play professionally at all. At least not for money. Because there’s little to be gained outside of important events.

What Dota Pro Circuit 2020 will bring is stable regional leagues with two tiers.

• Eight teams in the Upper Division, eight in the Lower Division.
• At the end of each competitive season, the bottom two teams from each Upper Division are relegated.
• The top two teams from each Lower Division are promoted, while the bottom two teams of these divisions are eliminated, in order to make room for new competitors.

Of course, these competitors will need to go through Open Qualifiers, and this guarantees that the best in the world are constantly competing against each other and that the circuit is more stable. It’s one thing to have 20 constant names and it’s another thing to have 96 of them.

Each league will get its own prize pool: $280,000 per season. This is a reasonable amount that will likely generate more interest in the pro scene. A total of 96 teams plus coaches is more than 500 people. That’s a lot of Dota 2 professionals compared to what we have today.

In addition to prize money, a league also offers DPC points to its top 5 Upper Division competitors.

In total, there will be 3 seasons or leagues per year. Each season will consist of a Round-Robin competition held in both Divisions of each league. Its duration will be 6 weeks. Every match is Bo3.

Dota Pro Circuit 2020 Majors

At the end of each season, a Major will take place. So instead of 5 majors, we will have just 3. But the overall Dota Pro Circuit 2020 format ensures that we’ll have a lot more action than we do right now.

Majors will also have a different format. Instead of 16 teams, there will be 18. But only 12 of them will get to compete in the Playoffs. These teams will be determined based on their season performance.

The prize pool for a Major will be just $500,000 instead of $1 million. The number of DPC points and their distribution will also change dramatically: just 500 for 1st place and as much as 200 for 8th place. Apart from the top 8 teams, nobody receives any prizes.

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