Next year, Valve will oversee the entire competition to give birth to a major league with 100% official tournaments. While Steam's firm has only three events in its name, the deal will be quite different in 2018. Valve intends to sponsor the Maximum of third-party competitions while introducing a ranking system linking them all. Or how to bring eSport closer to what is done in traditional sports.
Valve has divided the tournaments into two categories: the Minors and the Majors, each of which must offer a minimum of $ 150,000 / € 132,000 and $ 500,000 / € 440,000 prize pool respectively. They will also have to qualify teams in all regions (North America, Latin America, China, Europe, Commonwealth and Southeast Asia). It should be noted that Valve will take care of the schedule so that the Minors and Majors do not overlap.
The ranking will be based on giving QP points to track the results of each one over the months. They will be awarded according to the rank of the tournament but also the size of the prize pool. They will also increase as we approach the International so that the tension related to the competition rises. In short, there will be no guaranteed invitation.
In other words, the revolution is coming and Valve has copied what is being done elsewhere to shape his global league.
