DreamLeague Season 8 updated format; Aligns with Valve Major rules

DreamLeague Season 8 has updated their format for the qualifiers, bringing them into alignment with Valve's rules for the new Major/Minor system. All six regions will have open qualifiers leading into five separate closed events. 

After some confusion and receiving backlash from the community on the original released qualifier format, DreamLeague Season 8 has issued an apology, updated the details and answered questions posed by the fans. 

With the information released yesterday we announced the biggest change to DreamLeague yet – being the expansion to a Dota 2 Major competition including a new format. The introduction of the new Major and Minor system means a lot for the Dota 2 ecosystem, which DreamHack is excited for, but it does present challenges. There was a misinterpretation of the regional requirements set out by the Majors circuit.

We’d like to thank the community for their enthusiasm and commitment, and to emphasize that our primary goal is to host the best possible Dota 2 tournaments for both the audience and players.”

The new format will see 6 open qualifiers, one for each of the designated regions lead into 5 closed qualifiers - with CIS/EU being combined. According to the organizers, although the closed phase for the region is combined - in order to uphold the integrity of being a League based event still - at least one team from each region will still advance to the main event. 

In order to accomplish this DreamLeague explained how it would work:

The round robin league structure will work by awarding 4 slots to the LAN, in which 1 slot must go to both regions, so it’s impossible for all 4 slots to go one region. For a few quick examples, if the round robin ends with the top 4 teams all being from EU, the 4th place EU team would not earn a LAN slot, and it would go to the top placing CIS team. The same case would apply in vice versa, and in any other situation the top 4 teams will advance to the LAN.”

With the new structure, teams and fans across the globe can relax knowing their region will be properly represented at the Major. Dates, teams and registration information still has not been revealed. 

DreamLeague Season 8 Format:
 

FINALS FORMAT

• The Top 8 teams from online play will advance to the live finals at DreamHack Winter 2017.
• The final format is TBD, we are currently looking at double elimination BO3 – we are open to feedback from the community on the format they would like to see.

 

NA, SA, CN, SEA FORMAT

These regions will all have the same format, which will be repeated 4 times:

• 3 invited teams
• 1 team from open qualifier
• 4 teams compete in double elimination BO3, winner advance to DreamHack Winter
• The open qualifier will be single elimination BO3, until the RO16 in which its best of 3

 

EU AND CIS FORMAT

These regions will compete together.

• 3 invited teams from EU
• 3 invited teams from CIS
• 1 team from CIS open qualifier
• 1 team from EU open qualifier
• 8 teams compete in round robin BO2, the top 4 teams will advance to DreamHack Winter, however they cannot all be from the same region – if all 4 is from the same region, then the 4th ranking team from that region will not earn a finals slot and it will be awarded to the top team from the other region.
• The open qualifier will be single elimination BO3, until the RO16 in which its best of 3.