Following the community backlash over the sudden announcement of the Winter Tour Major cancellation along with the lack of communication from Valve, the game developer gave a more detailed update to the teams.
Valve’s message was sent to the teams on Wednesday evening, on the same day they announced their decision of cancelling the Winter Tour Major, and was shared publicly by Team Secret manager, Matthew "Cyborgmatt" Bailey.
While they apologize for the lack of communication with the teams and for not being “more willing to take a different approach earlier to find a way to conclude the first season,” Valve gave a few details on the reasoning for cancelling the Major and somewhat confirmed the rumors a tournament organizer pulled out and refused to go on with planning the Major.
Given the recent development on a global level of the strains of coronavirus, Valve states that they will be looking into finding a solution for the cancelled Major and organizing a highly restrictive LAN tournament.
We are working on a plan to see if we can get everyone together in one location and play out the tournament on a LAN – Valve
No details are given about the prize pool or about the DPC points, which in the Wednesday blog post, Valve said they will redistribute them through the second and third Major of the Dota Pro Circuit, but presumably, if the LAN will be held, the prize pool will be the same with the cancelled Winter Tour Major, $500,000.
Winter Tour regional leagues will wrap up by the end of next week, January 23. The cancelled Major was never officially announced nor did it have an official date set. The Spring Tour is scheduled to start mid-March 2022.
