Eight teams will be heading to Washington, DC in January to play for $300,000 prize in Captains Draft 4.0, the first and, so far, the only Valve sponsored event played in a different game mode than the traditional Captains Mode.
The regional qualifiers for Captains Draft started on the 1st of November and were held in six regions in a double elimination bracket format, best-of-three games, with best-of-five grand finals. Two teams have been spared from the qualifier madness by receiving direct invites to the main event. Evil Geniuses and Team Secret are the lucky two with the six qualified teams being as follows:
North America qualifiers winners: 
compLexity Gaming
South America qualifiers winners: 
Midas Club Elite
Southeast Asia qualifiers winners: 
Mineski
Europe qualifiers winners: 
OG
CIS qualifiers winners: 
Team Empire
China qualifiers winners: 
Vici Gaming
This is the fourth installment of the Captains Draft tournament, but for the first time, the event will feature LAN playoffs and as a Pro Circuit Minor, boasts a $300,000 prize pool: triple the amount it had to offer last season. Last year Evil Geniuses claimed 1st place, and from that team line-up, only them and Team Empire will make a return. Captains Draft is a less popular game mode, and due to the low interest of Dota 2 casual players, it was removed from the Ranked Matchmaking. Captains Draft has only a 27 randomly selected hero pool (9 Strength, 9 Agility, 9 Intelligence) and it’s the place where we usually get to see in action heroes that are either not in the meta, or not enabled in the traditional Captains Mode.
The Captains Draft 4.0 Playoffs will be held January 4-7 in Washington, DC at a yet to be announced venue. Apart from the $300,000 prize pool, the tournament also has 300 qualifying points counting for The International 8 direct invites.
Captains Draft prize pool and qualifying points distribution:
1st place: $108.000 +150 QP
2nd place $69,000 + 90 Q
3rd/4th place: $37,500 + 30 QP
5th/8th place: $12,000
