As an esports punter, it’s a good idea to know exactly how the competitive system of the game you’re betting on works. Doing this will help you see the whole picture because the system in place tells you exactly where each team is located in the food chain, automatically separating the wheat from the chaff. Having a better understanding of how the pro scene works will, in turn, sharpen your decision-making and potentially increase your betting win rate. Who wouldn’t like that, right?
In this article, we’ll be looking at the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC), Dota 2’s year-round competition that, in a nutshell, rewards teams with points, or DPC points, and allow only the best teams in the world to compete for The International (TI), the most lucrative esports tournament of all. This topic is a little complicated, but if you want to know how to bet on Dota 2 the right way, read on!
Dota 2 DPC League Season
One competitive Dota 2 DPC league season typically spans about a full year, starting around autumn and ending the next summer. The 2021/2022 DPC season, for example, started on the 29th of November last year and will end on the 13th of July. Then The International will commence not long after the Regional Qualifiers. Although the 2021-2022 DPC league is still fairly similar to the previous season in terms of rules, it now has 3 tours instead of 2. We highly recommend that you sign up with the best esports bookmakers that cover all of these tournaments.
Every tour includes a Regional League and one Major event (the Major of the first tour early this year was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic). Teams have the most chance to collect DPC points in their respective region at the tours, while the Major allows the best of the best in all regions to land the best slot in The International and get into an advantageous position right off the bat. Let’s break these 2 components down.
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The Regional League
There are 6 regional leagues in total: North America, South America, Western Europe, CIS (Eastern Europe), China, and Southeast Asia. In each region, there are 2 Divisions: the Upper Division and the Lower Division, both have 8 teams in them. This means that 96 teams make up the Dota 2 competitive scene, not counting those climbing up the ranks in the Qualifiers.
The Regional League is a round-robin tournament with a best-of-three format. This tournament functions as a filter, where the strongest teams in the Upper Division either get a seed to that tour’s Major or get sent directly to the Upper Division of the next tour. In the leading bookmakers, like Unibet esports, you can even bet on the matches happening in the Qualifiers.
The System and the Bettor
In every Dota 2 DPC league tour, the 2 bottom finishers of the Upper Division are replaced by the 2 top finishers from the Lower Division, allowing fresh talents to rise. To get to the Lower Division, a team has to be listed at the Open Qualifiers and successfully proceed to the top spots of the Closed Qualifiers.
As a committed bettor, the Regional League is where you’ll probably be betting most of the time. If you love betting on underdogs, keeping tabs on what’s happening in each region’s Lower Division should help you determine which teams are constantly knocking on the doors asking for a new order. If you like to bet on the safer side, on the other hand, you should keep track of those with the most DPC points. Also, keep in mind that rosters are locked during the tours until the end of the Major. This is important as roster shuffles often affect the odds.
As a pro tip, putting your money on the most consistent teams is a great way to claim the best betting offers without losing.
The Major
The Majors are Dota 2’s biggest events before The International kicks in. As mentioned, there is one every tour, which makes 3 Majors per competitive DPC league season (or per year) at the time of writing. Eighteen teams are participating from all regions: 4 from Western Europe and China, 3 from Southeast Asia and CIS, and 2 from North America and South America. Only the top teams from the Upper Division get rewarded a seed to the Major on top of DPC points.
Conclusion
If there’s one thing you should take away from this article, it’s that paying attention to the DPC league, its regions and divisions, is a vital step in learning how to bet on Dota 2. After all, you wouldn’t want to bet big on the underwhelming teams and bet small on those skyrocketing to the top like a hot stock. Understanding the terrain gives you all the necessary information you need to know.
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