In a recent blog post, Valve has announced the cancellation of the 2022 Dota Pro Circuit Winter Tour Major due to the health concerns and travel restrictions involving COVID-19. Needless to say, the decision was met with an overwhelmingly negative response from the community and professional Dota 2 players alike.
“As the Winter Tour of the Dota Pro Circuit 2021-2022 season draws to a close, we’ve made the difficult decision to cancel the first Major,” Valve said in the post. “While hopes were high that we could host an international LAN event, the discovery and spread of new strains of COVID-19 and the resulting increase of travel restrictions has made it unfeasible for all qualified teams to gather for a LAN tournament.”
The primary reason behind the community outburst is the lack of communication from Valve’s side regarding the issue. There was no official announcement on the social media handles of Dota 2, and little communication to the participating teams and pros in the ongoing regional qualifiers.
A number of Dota 2 pros voiced their complaints against Valve over Twitter, with Sumail going as far as to ask teams to not compete in Season 2 of the DPC overall.
“If all the teams decide to just not compete in season 2 at least we will have some sort of stable system, either better communication or maybe dota just dies completely,” the 22-year-old said. “Either way better than the current state of things.”
Teams participating in the DPC earn points by playing in their respective Regional Leagues and international Majors. With the first Major no longer happening, Valve has decided to redistribute its points to the second and third Major.
Here’s the distribution of the points as stated by Valve:
Major 2:
1st Place – 680 Points
2nd Place – 610 Points
3rd Place – 530 Points
4th Place – 460 Points
5th/6th Place – 385 Points
7th/8th Place – 240 Points
Major 3:
1st Place – 820 Points
2nd Place – 740 Points
3rd Place – 670 Points
4th Place – 590 Points
5th/6th Place – 515 Points
7th/8th Place – 360 Points
Following the community outburst, Valve has updated fans on the Winter Major cancellation while apologizing for their lack of communication.
“We should have done a better job of keeping you all in the loop about the risks of the event, and we also should have been more willing to take a different approach earlier to find a way to conclude the first season,” Valve said. “We apologize for this.”
Valve also confirmed that they’re planning to organize a secondary LAN event to replace the Major, but pointed out the event may have a number of constraints due to the current health restrictions.
