For arguably the biggest and most competitive region in all of Dota 2, the 2021 Dota Pro Circuit will have a lot riding on just how well the regional league for Europe handled by DreamHack plays out.
For what DreamHack is calling the DreamLeague Season 14 EU DPC, Team Liquid, OG, Team Secret, and Nigma have received direct invites to the upper division of the league. This leaves others like Alliance and Vikin.gg, who likely would have received invites in most other regions, to fight for a spot in the upper division.
While the other teams haven’t been confirmed yet, DreamHack is hosting closed qualifiers that will be split into two stages, just like with the other regional leagues hosted by ESL, PGL, and Dota Pit. These qualifiers will start with a best-of-three bracket between eight teams, which will end with the top four finishers moving on to the upper division.
The bottom four teams from that first stage of qualifiers 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. These qualifiers will run from Jan. 7 to 10 ahead of the regional leagues beginning in full on Jan. 18.
More details about which teams will receive direct invites to the closed qualifiers for the upper division will be revealed in the coming days, but you can likely expect to see Alliance, Vikin.gg, mudgolems, and some other familiar faces in the mix.
The top three teams from the EU Upper Division will be invited to the first DPC Major of the season, which will begin on Jan. 18.
