In the tier-1 scenario, Dota 2 competitions were split into "minors" and "majors," events with distinct prize pools and significance. Once a year, Valve (the Dota 2 publisher) hosts Dota 2 The International, the largest event in the discipline and one of the most significant events in the broader esports industry, bringing together all of the top teams from around the globe. Valve established the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) to assist teams in qualifying for this prestigious tournament with millions of dollars on the line. The DPC awards teams with both money and points. To qualify for The International, you must perform well throughout the DPC: in 2021, the top 12 teams from the DPC will get direct invitations to The International, just as they did in 2020!
In 2019, OG Gaming was the most recent team to win The International.
Jump to:
- Regional Leagues: The DPC has a new format...
- The following structure will be followed throughout the matches:
- DPC points and prize pool
- Here is the Twitch feeds you'll want to follow, divided by language, to catch the official broadcast of WePlay AniMajor:
- WePlay: Kyiv hosts the Dota 2 Major
- According to Esports Earnings, Dota 2 has the largest prize pool of any esports tournament
Regional Leagues: The DPC has a new format...
2021 created a new structure for the DPC for a variety of reasons, including pandemics. Regional Leagues have taken the role of minor tournaments, determining which teams will compete in each Major. This year, the professional Dota 2 scene will be split into two seasons, each culminating in a Major; unlike prior years, there will only be two major events in 2021.
The single major of Season 1 of the DPC in 2021 is ONE Esports Singapore Major (Mar 27–Apr 4), while the only major of Season 2 of the DPC in 2021 is WePlay AniMajor (Jun 02–13).
A team must be among the top seeds in their respective regional competitions to qualify for a major – a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself!
In the Dota 2 Majors in 2021, a total of 18 teams will compete, with top seeding from the following regions:
- Four European teams are competing.
- China is represented by four teams.
- Three Southeast Asian teams competed.
- Three Eastern European teams are competing.
- Two North American teams are competing.
- Two South American teams are competing.
Depending on how well each club fared in their own regional leagues, each team will begin in a separate round:
- Each of the six regional leagues' best clubs goes straight to the playoff round (six teams)
- Each of the six regional leagues' second-team qualifies for the group stage with a chance to advance to the playoffs (six teams)
- The remaining qualifying teams (China's third and fourth teams, as well as Southeast Asia's and Eastern Europe's third and fourth teams) will compete in the Major's Wild Card stage.
The following structure will be followed throughout the matches:
Wild Card (beginning June 2): Round-robin series with a best-of-two format. The following two teams will be eligible for the group stage (which begins on June 4): Round-robin series using a best-of-two format. The top two teams from each bracket will go on to the Upper Bracket Playoffs. The two teams with the fewest points will be eliminated from the competition. The following four clubs will compete in the Lower Bracket Playoffs (beginning June 9): Matches are best-of-three until the Grand Final. Best-of-five
DPC points and prize pool
Winning a Dota 2 Major is no easy task, and the $500,000 prize pool reflects that. In addition, the teams will compete for a share of 2,700 crucial DPC points – teams finishing in the top 12 of the Dota Pro Circuit will be invited to compete in The International 10, the largest esports tournament in terms of prize money to date!
The first Major of the year 2021 has already taken place. Invictus Gaming won first place in the ONE Esports Singapore Major 2021, which took place from March 27 to April 4. The team was awarded $200,000 in addition to 500 DPC points!
From June 2 to 13, the second Dota 2 Major of the year took place. The prize pool format for WePlay AniMajor, the sole major in Season 2 of the DPC in 2021, specifies that only the top eight teams will get DPC points and a portion of the prize fund. It's worth noting that The International was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19 pandemics; similarly, WePlay AniMajor took place in the WePlay Esports Arena Kyiv without the participation of the crowd or the press. The matches, however, will be conducted in a LAN style, which implies that we will see participants on stage at the forthcoming event!
The WePlay Esports Arena Kyiv from the inside. The matches at WePlay AniMajor are still LAN, however public and press attendance is not currently permitted for safety concerns. Photo courtesy of WePlay.
A Dota 2 Major typically draws a large crowd. The first Major of the year (ONE Esports Singapore Major) attracted 605,000 views, according to Esports Charts.
Here is the Twitch feeds you'll want to follow, divided by language, to catch the official broadcast of WePlay AniMajor:
- Twitch, YouTube, and a Smart TV App in English
- Houyu (Chinese)
- Twitch main channel, Twitch second channel, Twitch third channel, Twitch fourth channel, Twitch fifth channel, Twitch sixth channel YouTube
- Twitch Main Channel, Twitch Second Channel, Twitch Third Channel, Twitch Fourth Channel, Twitch Fifth Channel, Twitch
- Facebook community in Spanish
- Twitch main channel, Twitch second channel in Portuguese
Analysts and commentators, as well as the cast of characters
The casters for the following languages have been revealed by WePlay Esports:
- Broadcasters that are fluent in English
- Broadcasters who speak Ukrainian
- Broadcasters that are fluent in Russian
In 2020, WePlay Esports hosted the WePlay! Bukovel Minor, which raised the standard for Dota 2 tournaments.
WePlay: Kyiv hosts the Dota 2 Major
Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, isn't hosting a Dota 2 Major for the first time. The National Palace of Arts hosted the Kyiv Major in 2017. In a different structure and under different tournament regulations, European team OG defeated CIS organization Virtus. pro in the finals of the event, which included 16 teams. The Kyiv Major 2017 retains the record for being the most viewed Major in Dota 2 history.
WePlay Esports is also renowned for organizing many Dota 2 tournaments. According to Esports Charts, WePlay! Tug of War: Mad Moon had a peak viewership of 295,000. The tournament featured a cyberpunk theme, a prize fund of $300,000, and a comprehensive production that kept the crowd engaged not just during the matches but also during the performance, which lasted the whole event.
With 2,700 DPC points on the line and as the sole major of the 2021 DPC Season 2, the stakes for WePlay AniMajor will be greater than ever.
In 2020, WePlay Esports hosted the WePlay! Bukovel Minor, which raised the standard for Dota 2 tournaments.
Dota 2 is the second most downloaded game on Steam in 2021, according to Valve. The game is a sequel to one of the earliest MOBA games ever made, and it comes in a variety of forms and plays styles. Even with all of the changes that occurred this season, the esports situation for the discipline isn't too different, with a high of more than 590,000 daily participants in 2021.
According to Esports Earnings, Dota 2 has the largest prize pool of any esports tournament
The International is the esports tournament with the most money on the line. That alone adds to the competition's intrigue, and the prize pool in 2021 will be the largest in esports history. To add to the excitement, The International will not take place in 2020; this means that not only the audience but also the teams themselves, will be looking forward to this year's event, which will take place in Bucharest on October 7, 2021. As a consequence, following the battle to determine which team will qualify for such a fantastic tournament may assist the audience in predicting the outcomes, selecting their choices, and keeping a close eye on the hero meta.
A Major, after all, is a magnificent performance in and of itself. With the present structure, the season of 2021 will include just two Majors – the most significant tournaments apart from The International. It's a big loss if you miss one of them. Each event is a show in and of itself because of the prize pool, production concepts, and amount of work put into it.
If you've attended previous WePlay Esports events, you'll know that each one has a theme and is unique in every way. That's how we know the anime-themed WePlay AniMajor competition will be a really special and one-of-a-kind event that will bring together pop culture and esports enthusiasts and raise the stakes to new heights.
When we look back at previous Dota 2 tournaments, we see a lot of effort put into the production and interesting effects; for example, the WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020 set a new standard for Minors in the DPC; transferring and increasing that production value for a Major — especially one as important as this — will be the goal for WePlay Esports, which means their tournaments will only get better with time.
History will be created in June 2021. Another major event will be placed in Ukraine, this time in the gaming industry. Watch to see how the $500,000 is distributed among the teams – will your area or favorite team be the first?