Valve announces dates for Majors, Minors for 2019-2020 DPC season

Valve can’t wait to start on the next season of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC).

Even as the ongoing DPC Season is still two events away from culminating at the The International 2019 in Shanghai in August, the Dota 2 developer is already looking ahead, with the first Minor and Major after TI to be played in November.

This time around, there will be some slight differences in how the tournaments will be run — Valve will be the ones deciding on the format for both Majors and Minors, as well as their respective qualifiers, instead of having organizers using different formats for their own events.

November, January, March, and June will each have one Major and Minor, while April and May will share one Minor and Major.

Here are the dates for all events of the 2019-2020 DPC:

Nov 5-9 (Minor)
Nov 16-24 (Major)
Jan 7-11 (Minor)
Jan 18-26 (Major)
Mar 3-7 (Minor)
Mar 14-22 (Major)
Apr 22-26 (Minor)
May 2-10 (Major)
June 9-13 (Minor)
June 20-28 (Major)

Since TI8, Majors and Minors have been held in pairs, with the qualifiers for each held in exclusively scheduled windows since there are no direct invites to either Minors or Majors.

Major qualifiers will run first; with the teams not qualifying for a Major becoming eligible to compete in the Minor qualifiers. The winner of a Minor will then qualify for a slot in the Major happening shortly afterwards.

As always, teams will be vying for the coveted DPC points awarded in each Major and Minor, as these will determine who will get a direct invite to the International at the end of the season. A minimum of 15,000 points are awarded at Majors, while at least 500 are given away at Minors.

Aside from announcing the dates for next season’s events, Valve has also opened a window for prospective organizers to submit their proposals for Major and Minors until May 25. The developer added that they will be making their selections for the Majors first, followed by the Minors.

Valve’s decision to announce its plans for the 2019-2020 DPC as early as now seems to signal an effort by the developer to ensure both uniformity and stability in Dota 2’s esports scene.