This year, professional Dota 2 will work a little differently. Rather than one big tournament, there are going to be four, with the final one being next year’s The International. Collectively, these four tournaments are known as The Majors, and the first one is happening in Europe in November.
Tickets aren’t on sale yet and there’s still plenty to be revealed, but a new blog post has stated that Open Qualifers will be held between 6 October and 9 October, and Regional Qualifiers will take place between 10 October and 13 October. Any Dota 2 team can participate in the Open Qualifiers, while two teams from each region will be invited to the Regional Qualifiers. The Regional Qualifiers will determine which teams will make it through to the Majors.
Direct invitations to both the Majors and to the Regional Qualifiers will be sent out on 5 October.
If you want to sign up your own Dota 2 team, you can do so over on the registration site. Do note that teams can’t really make changes to their roster after 12am PDT on 5 September; any team that does so isn’t eligible for a direct invitation, and will have to battle their way through the Open Qualifiers to secure themselves a place.
