Valve is making massive changes to its competitive circuit for Dota 2, according to reports from professional esports teams. Rather than a schedule of "Major" and "Minor" tournaments throughout the year, Valve is shrinking the schedule significantly and will fill the space with regional leagues. It's not entirely clear why Valve made the decision, but some speculate it could either be due to the shrinking Dota 2 player base or in an effort to imitate the League of Legends competitive format.

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According to reports from LiquidDota, the tournaments will be replaced with assorted "two-tier regional leagues." The lack of major tournaments will allow the leagues to run for longer periods of time, providing them a more valuable role in the greater competitive season. Leagues will serve as qualifiers for the Major tournaments, with both leagues and Majors awarding qualifying points for The International. Regional leagues are said to include North America, South America, Europe, CIES, Southeast Asia, and China.

The various Dota 2 leagues won't be closed leagues like in Overwatch or League of Legends, however. Each league will have relegation systems allowing for a season-to-season churn of teams. The bottom two Tier 1 teams each season will drop to Tier 2 while the top two Tier 2 teams will climb to Tier 1. The bottom Tier 2 teams will drop out and have to go through open qualifiers to get back in. Valve won't be running thee leagues itself, but rather bidding them out. It's possible that these leagues will be all online, with no LAN component.

the international 2020 stockholm

The worry is that Valve is scaling back the competitive scene due to Dota 2's shrinking player base. In 2020, Dota 2 is averaging less than 400,000 players on Steam, a number that hasn't been seen consistently since 2013. Valve may not be doing this out of worry, however, but rather to better balance the schedule and provide it a better foundation. Leagues will ensure that Dota 2 remains played throughout the competitive season while also driving more attention to the less frequent tournaments. It's a style that works very well for League of Legends. It'll be interesting to see whether it benefits Dota 2, as well.

Dota 2 is available now on PC.

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Source: LiquidDota