Who leads the Dota Pro Circuit heading into The Chongqing Major?

As The Chongqing Major gets underway, the Dota Pro Circuit rankings could be shaken up pretty soon.

The way in which the rankings work is pretty simple. Every event that’s a part of the DPC gives out a dual prize pool, meaning that teams receive a portion of the monetary pool along with some DPC points.

Each Major has a prize pool of $1 million and 15,000 Pro Circuit Points, while Minors give out $300,000 and 500 points. First place earn about a third of the total in both money and points, so the incentive for winning is extremely substantial.

In the 2018-19 DPC season, we’ve been through two Minors and a Major. The Chongqing Major is the second Major of the season and could be the catalyst for a new leader to rise in the rankings.

Since the season is still so early, whoever wins The Chongqing Major will automatically be bumped into the top two. This is due to the lion’s share of the prize pool and DPC points that the first-place team will receive in Major payout.

The current rankings start off with Virtus Pro sitting atop the competition at 5,025 points. The Russian powerhouse won the first Major event, The Kuala Lumpur Major, of the season and jumped out to a very early lead.

They, along with every other team at Chongqing, also received an additional 75 points for competing. That’s the lowest payout a team competing in the Major can receive, so it was just given from the start.

Second place goes to Team Secret with 3,075 points. Secret placed second behind Virtus at the first Major, but if they were to win or even place in a similar position to last time, their spot in The International 2019 would be relatively safe.

Rounding out the top three is the third-place finisher from The Kuala Lumpur Major, Evil Geniuses. They’re in a very comparable spot because all they need to do is continue placing highly to secure their spot at the big show.

From there, the numbers drop pretty heavily, with fourth-place Ninjas in Pyjamas being the only other team above 1,000 points at 1,420. NiP failed to qualify for Chongqing, so they’ll have to sit back and watch the rankings shift around them.

Teams five through 13 on the ranking scale are all competing in this event, with No. 15 EHOME and No. 20 Thunder Predator being the lowest point totals in attendance. Depending on where VP and the other teams standing on the podium place, any squad can claim the top spot.

The first match of the event starts on Jan. 18 at 8pm CT and will pit top-ranked VP against the red-hot EHOME. Matches will run from Jan. 18 to 29 when we find out who will lead the pack heading into the third Major.