Valve have released the much-anticipated details on the majors/system points, the roster lock time frame and a few more exciting news regarding coaches.
One of the biggest and most exciting news is that starting with the new competitive season, coaches will be allowed to stay with their team during the drafting phase to help strategize and develop the draft. Once the draft is finished, coaches will be required to leave the booth or the play area, if the tournament is not using booths.
Initially announced to have 11 minors and 11 Majors, the 2017-2018 competitive season added five more minors on top of that. The road to TI8 will now unfold under the Dota Pro Circuit, where every minor but one, is worth 300 qualifier points in total, with the ESL minor from January 2018 giving 400 points in total and a $400,000 prize pool. The Majors will have 1500 qualifier points up for grabs, except the last Major of the Circuit, which will have 2250 points to offer and a $1,500,000 prize pool.
Same as the prize pool of any event, the qualifier points will be split between the LAN finalists, but only up to the 4th place finishers.
Qualifier points breakdown
For tournaments that don't differentiate between third and fourth place, the points distribution is as follows:
1st: 50%
2nd: 30%
3rd/4th: 10% each
For tournaments that do differentiate between third and fourth place, the point distribution is as follows:
1st: 50%
2nd: 30%
3rd: 15%
4th: 5%
The qualifier points are earned by the players and not by the team/organization. The players with the top three points on a team contribute their points towards the team's total. If a team decides to play in one of the minors or majors with a substitute, they can do so, but that may trigger a penalty on points earned in that event. However, if a team plays with 4 of their registered players in the event qualifiers and with the full roster in the LAN playoffs, no penalty will be applied. If a team uses a substitute at the LAN event, the main players will earn 75% points and the substitute will earn 50% points.
The International 2018 direct invites will go to the top eight teams with the highest points earned at the end of all minors and majors. The rest of the participating teams will be determined via regional qualifiers. When talking about the value of the qualifier points towards TI8 regional qualifiers invites, Valve are a little bit laconic saying that the points will NOT directly determine the invites to regional qualifiers, but they MAY be considered as a factor in their decision.
Roster lock
The first roster lock of the season is still split into two phases, but there is no longer a drop/invite separation. Phase one, in which players can remove themselves from their previous team, will end on the 22nd of September. Phase two, in which managers have to register the full roster, will end on the 3rd of October. The full shuffle process goes like this:
Phase One
- Managers can re-register teams from the previous registration period
- Managers can re-invite those players to their team, or remove them from their team
- Players can see and accept invites to their previous team
- Players can remove themselves from their previous team
- At the end of Phase One, any players not re-invited to their previous team are removed
Phase Two
- Players can no longer be dropped
- Managers can register new teams
- Managers can invite any available players to their registered teams
- Players can see their invites and accept them
- And the end of Phase Two, all unaccepted invites are canceled and rosters are locked
Valve’s full announcement can be found here.The minor/majors calendar and the points value of each event can be found at dota2.com/procircuit. Once players will start earning qualifier points, the standings will be also displayed on the Dota Pro Circuit official page.
