Dota 2: Dota Pro Circuit 2019-2020 system changes

After the hugely successful 2018-2019 season, which ended with the record-breaking The International 2019, Valve made a few important changes to the rules of the 2019-2020 DPC tournament system, but not all of them were good.

Points and bonuses for both the Major and the Minor were the first things Valve fixed – which used to be one of the main complaints of the season. The percentages are split, with the ranking gap narrowed. At the Major, this year’s first place only received $300,000 compared to $350,000 last year, and the difference is split evenly.

As for the Minor, the winning team only received $72,000 compared with $125,000 last year. This is quite a large number, but it ensures that the teams attending the event have more money to operate.

In general, this change is considered good, especially for tier 2 teams that do not have many opportunities to receive large amounts of bonuses. Unfortunately, Valve did nothing to protect players from being kicked from the team.

Organizations can remove a player from the roster at any point during the season as long as it happens before the season’s final Minor begins. Teams can use a replacement member in the online qualifiers, but if the 5 officially signed members do not appear at the LAN of the tournament, the organization’s points will be deducted by 40%.

If the transfer is while the team is preparing to attend the Minor or Major that they have won the right to attend, the organization will be deducted an additional 20%. However, this is not enough to prevent the organization from changing personnel. Take for example Team Liquid, they replaced Matumbaman while having won the right to participate in TI – this was also the main concern raised by many players at the time.

TI’s regional qualifiers have also changed, instead of directly inviting or leaving open qualifiers, the top 8 teams based on DPC points from each region with the same roster will be invited. This will reduce the risk of players making their own team bets on qualifiers and a lot of tier 2 teams will have a better chance of making it to TI10.

In addition, Valve also merged the Minor and Major qualifiers into one, to save time for the players, as well as simplify the selection process. Not only does it solve one of the biggest complaints from players, but it also gives the team more time to prepare paperwork and avoid visa problems.

Another small change that could affect many players is that no one can work for a team that has qualified for TI and join another roster. This could lead Clinton “Fear” Loomis to either retire completely or take on the coaching position entirely since he is both the owner of Evil Geniuses but plays for J Storm.

All in all, these are good changes to make DPC better, but some of these changes don’t seem to be enough. Specifically, the top teams still need to participate in the online qualifiers even though DPC has a leaderboard, and players can still be kicked from the lineup that won the right to participate in TI.

DPC season 2019 kicks off from November 7 with the first Minor, while qualifying begins this September 30.