After working with Valve to ban Newbee and a group of players earlier today for previous match-fixing issues, Perfect World released details for the upcoming 2021 Dota Pro Circuit regional league for China.
Starting with direct invites, PSG.LGD, EHOME, Vici Gaming, and Elephant all made the cut for the upper division while Royal Never Give Up and Invictus Gaming headline the closed qualifiers.
Just like with the other regional leagues, there will be a total of 16 teams competing, eight in the upper division and eight in the lower division. To decide those other teams, there will be two closed qualifiers that will be split into two different stages.
Eight teams, including RNG and iG have been invited to the closed qualifiers, with the top four finishers moving on to the upper division. The bottom four teams will be joined by an additional eight teams that will qualify through a separate open qualifier, with the top eight teams out of that second stage making up the lower bracket.
The bottom two teams from the upper division will be relegated to the lower division at the end of the season, with the top lower division teams replacing them. Likewise, the two bottom finishers in the lower division will be eliminated from the DPC and an open qualifier will decide the two new teams joining the lineup.
There is one significant difference for the Chinese regional league compared to all of the others. Instead of running consistently from Jan. 18 to Feb. 28, there will be a short break in the middle of the season, which will push the end date to March 14.
This won’t impact the matches at all, but it will delay the finalization of the first Major lineups. And just like with the Europe invites, the top team from the region will be given a spot in the Major playoffs, while the second-seeded team will be added to the group stage, and the final two teams will be slotted into a Wild Card series.
