The Dota Pro Circuit is the highest level of Dota 2 competition that ranks teams for placements toward Valve-sponsored tournaments. The top teams in the rankings earn invites to Valve’s sanctions Dota 2 Majors and The International. The DPC Rankings were first established after The International 2017.
The Dota Pro Circuit 2023 is a massive campaign comprised of six regional leagues. Regions include Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, Southeast Asia, North and South America. Each regional league spans three weeks at most, where teams will play single round-robin best-of-three series to determine their placement among their regional opponents.
© Dota Pro Circuit
It was all eyes on the Major champions in DPC 2023, which was the one and only Gaimin Gladiators. The Western European representative bagged every single major of the season, cementing themselves as the strongest. Alongside Gaimin was a close rival from the same region, Team Liquid, which came in at a close second for three consecutive majors.
Yet, the WEU showcased their thriving region once more when the four WEU candidates include the two mentioned, Tundra Esports and also Quest Esports, took the top four finishes at Bali Major 2023. Unfortunately, Quest didn’t quite make the cut in the top twelve teams with highest DPC points on the DPC Leaderboards since they merely debuted in their first major.
Going down the DPC leaderboards, 9Pandas of Eastern Europe is fourth place, with Evil Geniuses from the South America region following closely at fifth. Moreover, this establishes them as the strongest team in their respective region. We could say the same for PSG.LGD at sixth place too, but considering they are the only Chinese team featured in the top-twelve rankings. It’s not a good look in retrospect to how dominant China was just prior to the International 10 (TI10).
Shopify Rebellion at seventh, which is the remnants of ex-EG players, hails from North America, even after their former org left for their South American counterpart. Considering the lacklustre competition in NA, Shopify is the most reliable we can expect out of the region. Then, there’s Talon Esports at eighth place, whose region, Southeast Asia, also has been diminishing in terms of performance. Yet, after Talon’s phenomenal performance in Riyadh Masters 2023, fans are convinced that Talon might just be SEA’s last hope at TI12.
Down the list, but just short of mere points, are beastcoast (ninth), Team Spirit (tenth) and TeamSoloMid (eleventh). For the most part, these teams got their standings by winning their respective regional leagues in DPC 2023 Tours. These teams typically flop on the grander scheme of things, such as the majors.
Lastly, BetBoom Team at twelfth place with a massive point difference from the other teams. Despite the controversy and penalty at Bali Major, BetBoom managed to secure just enough points to make the cut.
Image source: Gaimin Gladiators
Valve first announced the Dota Pro Circuit system during the 2017 season, alongside significant changes to the Major Championship circuit. The motive behind the system was to replace direct invites for The International with a qualifying circuit organized by third-party tournament organizers.
During the first season (2017-2018) a total of 22 events were held. The initial number of events was deemed too heavy and taxing on the teams, and in the following season (2018-19), Valve lowered the tournament cap to only 5 majors and 5 minors for each season. Additionally, events will be held in pairs with qualifiers determining the Major, then Minor participants. The 2020 season continued with the same trajectory until it was cut short due to the pandemic.
For the most part, the Dota Pro Circuit’s goal remained unswayed when it comes to determining the deserving invitees for the Internationals. Since its introduction in 2017, different teams have held the title of DPC champions. Coincidentally, neither of these teams won TI as the highest ranked team in the rankings. Team Secret (former DPC 2019 champ), Virtus.pro (former DPC 2018 champ), and most recently, PSG.LGD have all failed to unify a DPC and a TI crown. The achievement is yet to be achieved by a team.
For the 2022 season, Valve decided to revamp how their tournaments worked and opted for regional leagues to nurture the amateur scene with the Division 2 bracket while still keeping the tier-S teams occupied with Division 1 and majors. Previously, many teams that didn’t make the cut in DPC found it challenging to maintain finances to polish their crafts.
It almost seems like a heavy monopoly of the DPC, reserved only for the financially stable Esports orgs and teams.
© Dota Pro Circuit
The 2022 season received a slight makeover from last season’s Dota Pro Circuit system. Teams still have to go through regional qualifiers to earn a spot, but there are three tours instead of two.
With DPC open qualifiers concluded, it’s time to break down how the Dota Pro Circuit 2023 season will look like and what betting options are available for you. Additionally, our Dota 2 news section is getting bi-weekly updates on the best odds and betting slips out there. But before you go ahead and place your first bets, here’s all you need to know about betting on the Dota Pro Circuit 2023.
During the International 10 (TI10), the Chinese powerhouses were fan favorites, hailing with the glory from Singapore Major 2021 and WePlay AniMajor. However, there are new champions in town, and they are the unexpected underdogs from CIS region.
Team Spirit left the crowd in awe after sweeping PSG.LGD and other formidable teams to win the International 10. Besides the grand finalists, Team Secret also reached a new milestone by placing third, the furthest the org has reached since their debut. This goes to show that much has shifted in terms of power gap between regions, and how a unsuspecting CIS squad pulled off a heist.
We saw Evil Geniuses of all powerhouses, take a disappointing tumble from what fans expected of the North American giant. Nonetheless, EG is still a massive favourite, especially since Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka revealed he’s playing for the team.
Representing CIS, Virtus.pro also made their best International run thus far. A testament to VP’s overhauled roster of young blood, which many fans have disregarded as a better team than the founding VP roster that was led by Alexey “Solo” Berezin. However, despite the decent run they had, Egor “Nightfall” Grigorenko, the team’s prodigy has left for EG.
Last but not least, Southeast Asia’s T1 rose to the challenge as a strong team to look forward in DPC 2022. They outwitted heavy favorites to secure seventh-place.
All said and done, TI10 was a year of outstanding newcomers and Chinese teams’ consistent strength. The impact of familiar powerhouses falling off have convinced many to revamp rosters beyond the typical roster shuffles we saw in the past decade.
Hence, expect Team Spirit’s victory to just be the beginning of what’s more to come. New teams of young guns, old teams with refreshing rosters, and loyal teams that intend to play together for another year.
As the name suggests, the Dota 2 Pro Circuit schedule will depend on a region’s respective time zone. The DPC open qualifier was quite the celebration as teams flock for their debut at the DPC 2021. We will cover the progress and eventually finalized eighteen hopefuls qualified for every Tour.
Now, it will be a hassle to keep track of the daily matches from every region but fret not. We got you covered in tracking the entire Dota Pro Circuit 2023 season with schedules and predictions and what the best Esports bookmakers has to offer.
Individual schedules are available on the main Twitter profiles of the regional organizers.
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