The first Major of the 2019-20 Dota Pro Circuit has been announced, with tournament organizer Mars Media confirmed to be putting on the $1 million event. The event will take place in Chengdu, China, in mid November. DOTA Summit 11 has also been announced as the DPC’s first Minor, the winner of which will be awarded a spot in MDL Chengdu.
The 2019-20 Dota Pro Circuit schedule was revealed a week ago, outlining all the Major and Minor dates for the next year. Despite some now-resolved scheduling controversy, the upcoming Dota Pro Circuit season will be getting underway in the coming months. The first qualifier will take place in early October, granting some teams a spot in the Circuit’s first events. In accordance with this year’s rule changes, Minor and Major qualifiers have now been combined into one event. This season’s first Minor, DOTA Summit 11, will run from November 7-10th in Los Angeles, California. The winners will earn themselves a spot in the MDL Chengdu Major along with the lion’s share of the $300,000 prize pool, and a cut of 660 DPC points.
Mars Dota 2 League has put on a number of successful Dota events in the past. They organized the MDL Disneyland Paris Major during the previous DPC season, which saw Team Secret triumph over Team Liquid in the grand final. They will now host the first Major of the upcoming Dota Pro Circuit season in Chengdu, China. This 16-team event will offer the standard $1 million prize pool, and award 15,000 DPC points to participating teams. These points will be crucial as teams kick off their road to The International 2020.
Of the sixteen teams that will compete in Chengdu, three will come from the European, Chinese, and CIS regions. Two teams will qualify from the South East Asian, North American, and South American regions. The remaining spot is reserved for the winner of DOTA Summit 11. These teams will compete in the GSL group stage format outlined in Valve’s Dota Pro Circuit announcement.
The first Major and Minor qualifier is set to begin early next month, awarding teams slots in DOTA Summit 11 and MDL Chengdu. It is not uncommon for prominent teams to skip out on the first Major of the DPC, as PSG.LGD have already announced their plans to do so. The International champions Anathan “ana” Pham and Topias “topson” Taavitsainen are both thought to be taking their own breaks as well, though OG are confirmed to be playing in Midas Mode 2.0 later this month.
We can expect more information on the DPC’s first events to be revealed as we move closer to the start of the season.
