The 2021 Dota Pro Circuit

As we start a new year amidst positive news regarding the vaccine for COVID-19, we wanted to share with you our plans for the Dota Pro Circuit season 2021.

This year’s competition is slated to start on January 18th, and will consist of 2 seasons, leading up to The International 10. As previously announced, each season, will consist of a six week League portion leading up to a Major. After two seasons, there will be qualifiers for the remaining slots for The International 10 happening in Stockholm in August. The calendar for the two seasons is as follows:

Season 1: January 18th – February 28th. (March 14th for China with a break in the middle)
Major 1: March 25th – April 4th

Season 2: April 13th – May 23rd
Major 2: June 2nd – June 13th

Given that several teams experienced a lot of roster changes throughout the year and performance has varied among teams from the previous DPC season, we will not be using previous season’s DPC points as a way to seed teams into the leagues but rather selecting the top 4 teams in best form from each region to be directly qualified to the Upper division, while a series of qualifiers, closed and open, will determine the remaining 12 teams in both divisions.

At the end of the league, the top teams from each region’s upper division will qualify to the Major. For the first major, the distribution of the 18 slots will be as follows:

EU: Top 4
China: Top 4
SEA: Top 3
CIS: Top 3
NA: Top 2
SA: Top 2

The bottom two teams of the Upper Division in each Region will be relegated to the Lower Division, while the top two teams of the Lower Division will be promoted. The bottom two teams of the lower division will be eliminated from the league and open qualifiers will decide which are the two teams that will occupy those slots on the next season.