Valve announced the time frame in which all the teams can work on their current rosters, and just like the previous Shuffle window, there is a drop period, followed by a pick up one.
With the Kiev Major open qualifiers set to kick off on the first week of March 2017, the Spring Shuffle has been declared open, and will last until the 9th of January. All the teams that want to keep their eligibility for a possible invite at either regional qualifiers or at the main event of the Kiev Major will have a little over three weeks to tinker with their rosters.
The Spring Shuffle format remains the same and will unfold in two steps as follows:
Drop Period
Already opened, the drop period will last until December 27th at 00:00PDT and this is the time when players can leave their current teams or be kicked.
Invite Period
The second step is the invite, or pick up period which will start immediately after the drop window and this is the time when teams will have to issue their invites to the players they want to add to the Spring rosters. The Invite period will end on the 9th of January at 12:00AM PDT. Any team that will fail to lock their final five players before the aforementioned date and time will not be considered locked for the Kiev Major and will lose their eligibility for an invite.
The substitute rule:
Although there’s been a lot of talk around the substitute rule for the Boston Major, which some consider a very opportunistic way of enhancing a roster, some consider it more than a handy option given the visa issues that seem to never end for the Dota 2 players, and Valve decided to keep the rule unchanged. Teams are allowed to add a substitute player only after the Kiev Major qualifiers have ended.
Despite having only two Majors leading up to the International 7, Valve decided that the Spring Shuffle will not count for TI 7 as well. According to Valve’s official announcements, the rosters will be locked “until after the Spring Major”.
Kiev Major general information:
The Kiev Major is the second and last Major prior to the International 7 and will take place at a yet to be revealed location in Kiev, Ukraine. PGL will be for the third time in a row the orchestrating organization for the event, after they’ve been in charge with both Manila and Boston Majors in 2016.
The Kiev Major open qualifiers will take place from 6th to 9th of March with winners of each open qualifiers advancing into the main qualifiers, which are scheduled to run from March 10th to 13th. For the first time in Valve’s events history the American region will be split into two separate competitions, South, and North America respectively and Europe will also feature separate qualifier brackets for the CIS region.
sourse: dota2.com
