A little over a week ago, we announced the cancellation of the first Major of the DPC 2021-2022 Season. When we did so, we didn't present an alternative solution that would address the absence of prize pool and DPC points.
When it became clear that scheduling a LAN with the proper requirements wouldn't be possible within schedule, we didn't feel confident that any alternative would have a positive outcome: Delaying the major to a much later date would make it unfair for players from teams who change rosters between now and then. Running a global online tournament would result in matches where the high latency among far-away regions would have a substantial impact on the quality of the matches, affecting the competitive integrity of those games. Replacing it with Regional or Bi-regional Tournaments would eliminate the cross-regional play that lets teams from deeper regions earn more points towards International qualification. In particular, Bi-regional tournaments can result in situations where an above average region is punished because they were paired with another strong region, and a weak region is benefited by being paired with another weak region.
We quickly realized though 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. This was a big mistake on our part. We are sorry and we are set on making it right.
We held multiple discussions with Teams and Tournament Organizers, to understand what was possible to execute and what made the most sense for everyone. While it became clear to everyone involved that there was no perfect solution that would address every issue, we decided to move forward with running six Regional Finals tournaments.
The DPC 2021-2022 Regional Finals will take place over two weekends, with three regions playing on February 11-13, and the other three playing on February 18-20. The top 4 from each region will compete in a double elimination tournament with a $100,000 USD prize pool.
The regional schedule is as follows:
- Feb 11-13, 2022: WEU, SEA, SA
- Feb 18-20, 2022: CN, EEU, NA
Each Regional Finals placement will be awarded the following:
- 1st place: $50,000 USD + 250 DPC points
- 2nd place $25,000 USD + 130 DPC points
- 3rd place: $15,000 USD
- 4th place: $10,000 USD
More details will be made available through each Region's tournament organizer.
Since this would still create a situation where each region earned the same number of points towards TI qualification, we're revisiting The International 11 Qualifiers format to offset that bias as follows:
- The TI Qualifiers will be played as originally planned, with the top team from each region qualifying to TI
- Second and third place from each region's qualifiers will then compete in a LAN event shortly afterward, prior to The International
- Out of those 12 teams, first and second place will qualify to The International 11.
As there are more teams qualifying for The International this season, The International 11 will feature 20 teams (two groups of 10) during group stage. Four teams will be eliminated, and Main event will carry on as it has in past Internationals.
These changes, which will be unique to the 2021-2022 season, will help to balance out the qualification in light of the potential DPC point discrepancy created by the absence of the first Major.
We expect the rest of the year to go as planned, and will be announcing information on the second and third Major in a few weeks. Additionally, Patch 7.31 will be released soon after the Regional Finals end.
