Typically, Valve recalls the existence of the Dota 2 professional scene just ahead of The International. Then a compendium appears in the client of the game, and Valve itself releases a set of rules for the upcoming season. Now IceFrog and Gabe Newell arranged a meeting with the leadership of clubs in Seattle right in the course of the season to discuss the prospects of the game in advance. If the rumors are true, then Dota may soon become similar to League of Legends, which means we need to discuss a lot.
What is the essence of the changes?
Officially, Valve did not announce anything, and therefore it is important to keep in mind that changes in the competitive system may not happen. However, plums have already been published by several different sources, and the system update itself has long been asked for – Dota Pro Circuit has too many problems. Therefore, let’s say that the developers are really preparing a grand re -amp of the scene, because it looks completely logical.
Photo: ESL / Helena Kristiansson
According to insiders, from the 2023/2023 season, Valve is going to reduce the number of majors – to three instead of five. There will be no minors in this system at all – they will be replaced by regional leagues, as a result of which developers will issue invites to major tournaments.
All the other details, it seems, are still in development: the sources could not tell how many teams will play in the regular leagues, whether the prize pool of the majors will change and what will happen next with the DPC points system. However, now we can state the fact that, after many years, Valve finally noticed the League of Legends and decided to borrow some ideas from a competitor. Is this good – let’s discuss.
Revival of Tier 2 Scene
In the new model, Valve decided to divide the professional scene into regions. Tournament slots today are distributed between the teams of Europe, China, the CIS, America and Asia, but now the clubs will actually be under house arrest. Short-term regional qualifications will be replaced by local leagues in which teams will “cook” for a whole season to guarantee their participation in majors.
Source: Riot Games
If the developers really go along the path of League of Legends and make full splits between the majors, the Dota 2 scene will change dramatically – much stronger than it was at the time of the transition to the DPC model. It seems that the tier-2 teams will benefit from this more than others, since at last they will be able to meet regularly with top clubs, and not sit in the swamp of secondary tournaments.
About the lack of competition for weaker teams have been talking for a very long time. If you do not play for Virtus.pro, Natus vincere, Gambit esports or Team spirit, then participating in major tournaments and gaining the competitive experience necessary for growth will not be easy for you with teammates.
In addition, you must remember that players need to live on something. In qualifiers on MDL Chengdu Major a telling story happened – mix MY MYTANTY refused qualifications and played in the amateur tournament ROG Community CUP. The decision is ambiguous, but at a smaller event the team could win laptops (spoiler: did not win), but in the qualifiers for the major he hardly had any chances. Now, such clubs will have the opportunity to break out of the shadows thanks to the regional leagues: there they can regularly meet with Virtus.pro and NAVI, gain fans and earn something (for sure). It seems to be a clear upgrade!
Another question is that for the best teams the situation is not so clear. Now, instead of playing against other top clubs in unrated tournaments, they will have to fight with opponents who are currently far inferior to them in terms of the game and understanding of Dota. It seems to be premature to judge how this will affect local e-sports – who knows, suddenly, six competitive teams will immediately grow up with us?
However, the opposite option seems more likely. We have an example of a South American scene, the representatives of which – both in Dota 2 and in CS: GO – have long been clear outsiders at all tournaments. That’s because he simply had no one to train with. As soon as xer Gabriel FalleN Toledo managed to take their Brazilians “to the world”, the situation began to improve, but even now the best clubs from South America are trying to spend as much time as possible abroad to make training more effective.
Whether Doters will have such an opportunity after the introduction of DPC 2.0 is a big question. And if not, then even Virtus.pro of the last season’s model could well have lost its shape and degraded, having become locked in the CIS, without international experience.
No more Summits
No less than the teams preparing for innovations were to attend to the tournament operators. If in the first season of Dota Pro Circuit there was enough space even for companies such as GESC and Moonduck, then in 2023/2021, it seems, glory will go to only three large organizers – it is they who will hold the majors of a new format.
So, ESL, DreamHack, Epic Esports Event and MDL look like obvious candidates for organizing one of the events. In the current format, each of these operators has already staked out a comfortable time slot for the season, however, reducing the number of majors will lead them to all having to fight for audience recognition again, which means that fans will definitely get a bright show.
But what do other operators do? Before the introduction of the rating model, the Dota 2 scene was open to beginners: any studio could find a place for its tournament, but with DPC everything changed. In the first season there was no place for third-party events, in the second and third there were gaps in the schedule, which were quickly taken by ESL, DreamHack and other giants of the scene. Now, most of the season will be occupied by regional leagues. If they, like in League of Legends, are held weekly, then it will be difficult to find time for their own, unrated championships.
In this case, operators such as WePlay! Will suffer, who loudly announced themselves with the help of this season WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2023. Fans of Dota 2 from around the world praised the unusual design of the tournament and the general spirit that distinguished the major from other championships of the professional scene. On reddit, viewers even asked Valve to allow WePlay! to the organization The International, but now the studio may remain without a chance even to hold a major.
Source: WePlay!
However, Valve may well arrange the debut season of the new system online. To launch regional leagues in the LAN format, developers need to have time to solve too many infrastructure issues: build studios, prepare teams and casters, deal with ticket sales. If the matches take place online, the teams will be free to travel and play in tournaments, if the organizers can adapt the schedules. In this case, the scene will again receive many small but vibrant tournaments. But will it be interesting for an audience that is used to following a series of rating events?
Celebration for Derby Lovers
The audience issue in this situation is the most important, since it is the audience that allows tournaments and teams to exist. Launching The International with a million dollar prize, Valve gave a good impetus to the entire industry, but then went into the shadows and left the competitive scene on its own. In 2015, the studio remembered Dota 2 and launched majors, in 2017 everything turned into a DPC system, now Valve is preparing to take a new step – and all in order to raise the views of his MOBA, which are not only behind the League of Legends but inferior even to Fortnite – a much younger discipline.
The decision to copy the achievements of a more successful competitor in this context seems absolutely logical. When Epic Games launched its store, she did not invent something new and simply made a second Steam, but she was still able to gather a huge customer base. But will Dota 2 be able to increase performance using a proven scheme? I doubt it.
It seems to me that the problem here is that the tournament system in DotA has historically developed in a completely different way. Valve’s audience has long been accustomed to international events gathering the best clubs from around the world. The transition to the loler system with regional leagues will be a downgrade for the viewer, and therefore only runs the risk of scaring him off, further reducing discipline views.
In addition, the scene of “DotA” is more likely club than national. Everyone is used to rooting for their favorite teams, supporting specific e-sportsmen regardless of their regional affiliation. I know people who sincerely supported Wings gaming on the The international 2016 or for PSG.LGD on the The international 2018- and they are not Chinese at all!
Hence the doubt that the audience will loyally accept the innovations. Dota 2 is very variable over a short distance, and viewers are used to watching how tactical developments of China, Asia, Europe and the CIS clash on majors after each patch. Now the audience risks losing this for most of the season – clubs will cook in their regions, intersecting only on majors and TI.
Source: DreamLeague
And if the European audience does not suffer so much (Team secret, Nigma, Team liquid, Alliance and Og will be able to arrange good matches), then the audience of Southeast Asia or the CIS will be doomed to watch Dota-2 shooting range in most games. The same system exists today in qualifiers, but they last only a week. Valve’s regional leagues will obviously take more time – and I doubt that the clubs will be able to keep the viewer’s attention at a long distance. In the end, even minors sometimes fail to watch, although there are strong teams. It is hardly worth waiting for the best performance from matches of the shooting range of 2 clubs within the same region.
The entire hype around the support of “their own” in “DotA” is also obviously dead – if it does appear, then only after a couple of seasons and hard work from Valve. I can’t hope for this, although I’m trying very hard – the example of Artifact (and any other studio games) has shown that this company does not really like to deal with difficulties and generally act. It remains only to believe that this time Valve will be able to analyze all possible risks.
