February will be stacked with regional finals which will replace the canceled Winter Major and will bring the long-awaited 7.31 Dota 2 patch.
Winter Tour regional finals
Valve has officially announced six regional finals tournaments to be held online over the course of two weekends in February with the top four teams from each region competing for Dota Pro Circuit points and a $100,000 prize pool for each region.
According to the announcement, the decision was taken after Valve had “multiple discussions with Teams and Tournament Organizers.”
“We quickly realized through listening to feedback from teams and fans that our priorities were wrong and we were not successful at being mindful of players participating in the DPC,” said Valve. “This was a big mistake on our part. We are sorry and we are set on making it right.”
Winter Tour regional finals will be held in collaboration with the tournament organizers who hosted the Dota Pro Circuit leagues for each region as follows:
February 11 -14
- Western Europe
- Southeast Asia
- South America
February 18-20
- China
- Eastern Europe
- North America
Prize pool and DPC points distribution:
1st place: $50,000 and 250 DPC points
2nd place $25,000 and 130 DPC points
3rd place: $15,000
4th place: $10,000
TI11 to feature 20 teams
Additionally, Valve is committed to expanding The International 11 lineup to 20 teams and hosting an additional qualifier event prior to The International 11
While calling these changes “unique to the 2021-2022 season", the game developer announced that after the TI qualifiers, where only the top team from each region will earn a ticket to the biggest tournament of the year, the second and third placed teams from each region will be given another shot.
Second and third placed teams in the TI11 qualifiers from each of the six regions will be brought together in a LAN set-up to duke it out for extra two tickets to The International 11.
With TI11 now welcoming a total of 20 teams, the group stage will boast two groups of 10 teams each. Four will be eliminated now at the end of the group play and the Main Event “will carry on as it has in past Internationals,” Valve explained.
Patch 7.31
While the 7.30 patch implemented last year in August has reached the “e” update, the 7.31 patch, which the community expects to be a big one, will be released shortly after the regional finals conclude, Valve announced. That should be sometime after February 20, when China, EEU and NA finish their regional finals.
Additionally, in the next few weeks, Valve is also planning to release information on the second and third Majors of the 2021-22 Dota Pro Circuit.
