Valve is set to host six Winter Tour Regional Finals to replace the cancelled Winter Major that is supposed to be the conclusion for the first tour of the 2021-22 SEA DPC season.
In an announcement on Saturday, Jan. 22, Valve said that in order to make up for the absence of the prize pool and DPC points following the cancellation of the first Major, it will be hosting a regional online tournament where the top four teams of each region battle in a double-elimination format with a $100,000 USD prize pool.
The top four teams from the regions WEU, SEA and SA will be slugging it out on Feb. 11-13 while CN, EEU and NA regions will be playing on Feb. 18-20.
Valve’s decision to cancel the first major received backlash from fans and teams alike which prompted the game developers to have a discussion with the teams and tournament organizers. Valve also admitted that it made a big mistake and failed to be mindful of players participating in the current DPC.
“We quickly realized through listening to feedback from teams and fans that our priorities were wrong and we were not successful at being mindful of players participating in the DPC. This was a big mistake on our part. We are sorry and we are set on making it right,” Valve said in the statement.
“We held multiple discussions with Teams and Tournament Organizers, to understand what was possible to execute and what made the most sense for everyone. While it became clear to everyone involved that there was no perfect solution that would address every issue, we decided to move forward with running six Regional Finals tournaments,” it added.
The champion team will bag the top prize of $50,000 and 250 DPC points while second placers will get $25,000 and 130 DPC points. Third and fourth placers will also take $15, 000 and $10,000 respectively.
In the SEA DPC League, Boom Esports, T1, Fnatic and Team SMG have all qualified to the regional league while three other spots are up for grabs through a tiebreaker.
Aside from the Regional Finals, Valve revisited the The International 11 qualifiers. Top teams from each region will get direct qualification to TI11, while second and third placers from each region's qualifiers will compete in a LAN event. Out of those 12 teams, first and second place will qualify to the crowning tournament of the Dota pro-scene.
That adjustment expanded the number of participants in the TI11 to 20 teams. The teams will still be divided in to two groups, now consisting of 10 teams each, during the group phase. Bottom two teams will get eliminated while the top eight teams will advance to the playoffs with the same format as the previous iterations of The International.