Valve puts more emphasis on upcoming Minor with EPICENTER Major changes

Valve has finally revealed how the EPICENTER Major will be deciding its participants.

Before the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, Valve and EPICENTER announced that they’d be changing how teams for the final Major of the 2018-19 Dota Pro Circuit season would be decided.

Now that MDL Disneyland is over and a total of eight teams have claimed their spots in The International 2019, there will be a heavier focus on the StarLadder Ukraine Minor. Instead of the typical single spot available in the Major for the winner of the Minor, now the top two teams will qualify.

This decision likely comes as a direct result of the top teams already having a spot at TI9 locked up and the high placements for Minor winners in the last handful of Majors. Specifically, with Vici Gaming winning the DreamLeague Season 11 Major, it shows that there are multiple teams who can compete at the top level if they get a second shot at the big stage.

With one extra spot being used to allow a second Minor team entry into the Major, the last two qualifier spots have been given to Europe and China. This will give three teams a chance to compete from each of these regions if they place well in the EU and China closed qualifiers.

That leaves the CIS region, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia with two qualifying spots each. This isn’t that surprising considering Europe and China have the deepest pool of teams of any region, and this could give one of the non-qualified squads a chance to sneak in along with favorites like Team Liquid and Team Secret.

Closed qualifiers for the final DPC Major of the season will take place from May 15 to 19. They’ll determine 14 of the 16 teams competing in the event.

The StarLadder Ukraine Minor will begin on June 10 and run until June 16. The winner and runner-up of that event will then go on to play in the Major.