The Chongqing Major qualifiers are currently underway in different regions of the World. Over the past few days, we have seen the culmination of South America, the CIS as well as the South East Asia Qualifiers. Each of these regions will have a total of two teams qualifying to the Chongqing Major in China.
The South American qualifiers saw Test123 and Pain Gaming emerge as the victors of the qualifiers. Test123 managed to defeat Pain Gaming in the Upper Bracket finals and secure the top seed. However, the former Pain X players are not from South America. They do not reside in the region and contribute nothing to the development of South American Dota 2.
Regional Qualifiers https://t.co/RrcXvvLn1F
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It was with this issue in mind that Test123 had approached Valve around three months ago. They asked Valve if travelling back and forth between South America would suffice to ensure their eligibility for the qualifiers. Valve explained their stance on this issue. They want local teams to participate in the qualifiers. This will ensure the development and the progress of the South American Dota 2 scene. Being a local team ensures that there are adequate scrims, new strategies as well as an interest in Dota 2 from the region. Over the past few years, we have seen multiple South American teams make it to the Dota 2 Majors as well as the International.
Test123 defy Valve’s instructions and play in the SA Qualifiers
Despite receiving a clear understanding of Valve’s position on the matter, Test123 decided to go ahead with their qualification process. Thtraditionallyey decided to compete in the South American qualifiers despite having no presence in the region. In fact, they specifically flew down to South America in order to participate in the qualifiers there.
Since the South American region traditionally sees much less competition than other regions, it becomes easier for teams to qualify from the region. A spot at a Dota 2 Major allows teams to win substantially more amount in prize money. It also grants them a chance to win significantly more Dota Pro Circuit points. These points are crucial when it comes for the teams to qualify to The International 2019 in Shanghai.
Valve wants to develop the local scene
In a carefully worded statement, Valve mentioned their reasons to disqualify Test123 from the South American Qualifiers. They want to have an increased focus on the development of the local scene. Their decision to have a qualifier for each region is focussed on the local growth of the game.
The reasons for guaranteed spots for each region is because we want to help nurture competitive growth in different regions, as well as have regional representation for fans around the world. We think it’s important for fans to be able to see their regions grow, and their teams compete in global events. A team temporarily travelling to and from a region just to compete in the qualifiers clearly does not provide any meaningful benefit to the region, and harms growth overall. When you are an actual team that lives in a region, you end up practising with other teams, nurturing the region and growing local fans there. We explained this to Pain X three months ago, and as such, after investigating, we are removing them from the South American qualifiers.
At the same time, Valve reserves their discretion on each individual case. There will be occasions when teams will want to shift to South America for longer durations. Valve encourages them to have an active discussion with them regarding the same.
For teams that try to bend the rules on this to gain a competitive advantage over other teams, you run the risk of being disqualified outright. We will always reserve discretion to decide what is in the spirit of the regional goals and what is not. If a team wants to move to a new region completely, they are free to contact us. They can make their case on why they think they will be an actual team in that region going forward.
For now, Test123’s spot at the Chongqing Major goes to Thunder Predator the runner-up at the event. The Chongqing Major starts in January 2019 and will feature the best Dota 2 teams competing for the top spot.