picture source: Valve
The annual players meeting with Valve ahead of The International brings dazzling news about the 2017-2018 competitive season.
Valve announced changes to the competitive season following The International 2017 on the 3rd of July. Back then they only mentioned that third party tournament organizers that will have a minimum $150,000 prize pool, a six region qualifier process (NA, SA, SEA, CN, EU, and CIS), and a LAN component for their event, will be sponsored by Valve with another $150,000 to turn their event into a Minor while those who can put a minimum $500,000 prize pool on the table will be sponsored with another half million dollars by Valve to make their event a Major.
With that being said, last night, at the players meeting with Valve in Seattle, it was announced that the upcoming competitive season will have 11 Majors and 11 Minors. All these events will grant players (not the teams/organizations) qualifying points counting for The International 2018 invites. TI 8 will still have regional qualifiers but the directly invited teams will be decided purely on their points accumulated throughout the season. It was not announced yet how many teams will receive an invite to TI 8 but the points system will be revealed before the next competitive season starts.
More than that, Valve will launch an official leaderboard of individual player Qualifying Points and team Qualifying Point Ranking. The entire qualifying points system will be made public before the new competitive season will start so every team out there can plan ahead their schedule.
How it works:
Qualifying Points will be granted based on placing high in Majors and Minors and will accumulate on individual players
Qualifying points will be awarded based on the total prize pool of a tournament, and whether the tournament is a Major or a Minor, with Majors giving more points per prize pool dollar
The total points per tournament will partially scale based on the time of year, with tournaments closer to The International awarding additional points
Roster lock seasons will still exist, and players switching teams during the approved periods will retain their Qualifying Points
Only the top 3 point earners on a team will contribute towards a team’s effective total Qualifying Points
2017 - 2018 Majors and Minors schedule:
Starting - Ending Date Minor/Major Organzier Prize pool
11 - 15 October 2017 Minor StarLadder $300,000
19 - 22 October 2017 Minor PGL $300,000
26 - 29 October 2017 Major ESL One $1,000,000
20 - 26 November 2017 Minor Perfect World $300,000
1 - 3 December 2017 Major Dreamhack $1,000,000
4 - 10 December 2017 Minor MarsTV $300,000
13 - 17 December 2017 Minor BTS $300,000
12 - 14 January 2018 Minor GESC $300,000
15 - 21 January 2018 Major Dreamhack $1,000,000
23 - 28 January 2018 Minor ESL One $400,000
5 - 11 February 2018 Major PGL $1,000,000
20 - 25 February 2018 Major ESL One $1,000,000
2 - 4 March 2018 Minor GESC $300,000
8 - 11 March 2018 Major BTS + NGE $1,000,000
16 - 18 March 2018 Minor GESC $300,000
30 March - 7 April 2018 Major Perfect World $1,000,000
17 - 24 April 2018 Minor Perfect World $300,000
27 April - 7 May 2018 Major EPICENTER $1,000,000
11 - 13 May 2018 Minor GESC $300,000
14 - 20 May 2018 Major MarsTV $1,000,000
25 - 27 May 2018 Major ESL One $1,000,000
4 - 10 June 2018 Major PGL $1,500,000
Obviously, Valve’s intention with the new Minors/Majors system is to stabilize the entire competitive scene, from tier 3-4 teams to the very top. With a total of 22 Minors and Majors played from October this year to June 2018, the top tier teams will clearly have to choose their battles.
Valve’s plan for the next competitive season is nothing else but a long time waited reinvigoration of the entire Dota 2 ecosystem. From broadcasting studios, which are very few at this moment, commentators and analysts, to behind the scenes people working for events, tournament admins, in game observers and so on, everyone should benefit from this huge change and more people are likely to finally be able to make a living from esports, even though they are not professional players with a wall full of trophies.
We are looking at an exciting year to come for esports as a whole, as Valve just raised the bar for the entire industry. A one million Dollars Major held every month, with a total of 14.9 Million Dollars injected only in tournaments leading up to The International should finally legitimize esports as a real industry.