'Dota 2' Major and Minor Valve-Sponsored Tournament Schedule for 2017–2018 Revealed
The International 2017, Valve's flagship tournament for "Dota 2" is currently underway. Following this year's TI, however, teams will face a new professional landscape with Valve's new Majors and Minors tournament system all of which will affect who will get direct invites to Seattle.
In the interim between Internationals, teams often experience what is known as the post-TI shuffle. Teams undergo roster changes often based on their performance in the tournament and sometimes whole teams are dropped in favor of a new one. The end result is instability in the competitive scene making it harder for Valve to choose who will get the golden ticket to the annual tournament.
This season will be different, however, with the revamp of the existing Valve-sponsored Major tournaments. These are currently held on a bi-annual basis and feature a $3 million base prize pool.
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"Dota 2" blogger and Team Secret manager Matthew Bailey posted the new schedules of the upcoming Majors on Twitter. By the looks of it, there is big money in store for teams next season.
In the new system, there will be a total of 22 tournaments with 11 Majors featuring $1 million prizes each as well as 11 Minors with $300,000 prize pools. Each tournament will also feature a set amount of points to be awarded to the winning team with the top six getting direct invites to The International.
The tournaments will also feature a tier system where top teams compete exclusively in the majors. Good teams can choose to compete in both Majors and Minors, while lower-tier teams can only compete in the Minors.
Aside from streamlining the selection process with regard to who will receive invites to Seattle, it also creates opportunities for players to break out into the pro scene. With this new system, the "Dota 2" scene can expect more players join the ranks of stars like Miracle, Sumail and Arteezy, who came out of obscurity to become some of the biggest names in eSports.
The International 2017 Championships will be held from Aug. 7 to 12.
