Unexpected tiebreakers in the Dota Pro Circuit 2021/2022 Tour 2 are causing one of the largest community-run esports sites to respond in a major way—by taking down the relevant pages.
Liquipedia, one of Dota 2 esports’ most-visited and well-known resources, removed the tournament pages for various regions in DPC Tour 2. At the time of writing, the Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, and North America pages are down. Only the Southeast Asia and South America pages are still up.
Why is Liquipedia removing DPC pages?
“Succinctly, the organizers broke Liquipedia’s notability guidelines for the Dota 2 Wiki,” Liquipedia wrote in an article explaining their decision.
“Tournament organizers must not change rules as the event is ongoing… the rules for tiebreakers in DPC were changed without prior notice.”
Previously published rules indicated that tiebreakers were only played for teams competing for relegation, or between Major upper bracket, group stage, or wildcards. In past Majors, placement during the Regional Leagues determined seeding, with champions earning direct seeds to the playoffs.
Thus, extra tiebreakers should not be necessary amongst those who have secured Major slots in this new format, even if they share the same record. These matches, according to the rules, should only be played between teams fighting for Major placements or relegation.
Dota 2 statistician Ben “Noxville” Steenhuisen said that the new tiebreakers represented sudden rule changes from ESL and DreamHack only after all of the matches were played, and that “it’s inconsistent with the prior seasons.”
“Because clear rules are a requirement for listing, Liquipedia admins are nuking the pages.”
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Pros are unhappy with sudden tiebreakers
Pro players have also voiced their displeasure at the sudden rule changes from Dreamleague, the organizers of DPC Europe—and owned by ESL.
“Apparently we are playing tiebreakers for third place tomorrow versus Team Liquid, ” Tundra Esports’ Oliver “skiter” Lepko wrote. “Love the new rules on the last day with no advance notice.
OG’s Tommy “Taiga” Le shared the same sentiment, calling it “depressing”, with head-to-head rules changed only after all the games were played.
OG shares the same 6-1 record as Gaimin Gladiators at the top of the table, but beat Gladiators 2-0 in their matchup on April 6. If the old rules were followed, this should entitle them to first place, with 400 DPC points—a sizeable difference over second place’s 240.
Instead, under the rule change, they will play a tiebreaker, and if Gladiators win, they’ll take first place.
ESL has yet to make a statement clarifying the situation.
READ MORE: The Dota 2 hero tier list (April 2022)
