Valve has quietly released a new rule set for the upcoming Dota Pro Circuit, which will be split into three “Tours”, each consisting of a Regional League and a Major, and will award more points towards the end of the circuit.
Most of the information about the 2021 -2022 DPC comes through the frequently asked questions page and it reveals that while the format for Regional Leagues and the Majors remains the same, the new point distribution puts more emphasis on the later stage of the circuit. The league play and the majors will award points increasingly with each Tour.
DPC point distribution
Tour 1
Regional Leagues total DPC points: 690
Major total DPC points: 1,900
Tour 2
Regional Leagues total DPC points: 920
Major total DPC points: 2,700
Tour 3
Regional Leagues total DPC points: 1,150
Major total DPC points: 3,500
Roster lock
No specific dates were released for any of the Tours, but the first roster lock deadline, which will end the post TI10 shuffle is at 11:59am PT on November 21.
For subsequent Tours, player removals will lock at 1:59pm CT on the Tuesday following a Major’s conclusion, while players can still be added to open roster spots until 1:59pm CT on that following Sunday.
Substitutes and point penalty
As in the previous competitive year, a team is allowed to play 4 of the 7 Regional League matches with a substitute. Using a substitute for more than 4 matches will automatically lead to being disqualified from the league and all the remaining matches will be forfeited.
For the Major themselves, the teams can use a substitute, but they will receive a 40% penalty on DPC points earned from that Major. Players can also be removed from a team after qualifying to a Major, but that will trigger a 20% penalty on DPC points earned during that event in addition to the normal player-removal penalty, which is 15% penalty to all DPC points earned at the time of removal.
At the end of the three Tours, a total of 12 teams will have earned their tickets to The International 11. Six more will join them via closed regional qualifiers. Similar to the previous DPC, TI11 will have no open qualifiers, the last lower division open qualifier for each region, at the beginning of Tour 3 will essentially act as TI11 open qualifiers.
