The International has taken center stage, as far as professional Dota 2 is concerned, for the last five years. Now Valve are launching a season of Majors, which will be a new tradition for pro Dota, with the first kicking off in Frankfurt this autumn.
“The first Dota Major will take place over six days at Festhalle Messe in Frankfurt, Germany from November 16 through the 21st,” says the announcement. “It will feature 16 teams all competing at the main event for a total prize pool of $3,000,000, and will be produced by ESL.”
If you want to go watch it live, the Frankfurt Majors will be open to the public and will be absolutely free, apart from the finalswhich will take place on Saturday, November 21. Tickets to the finals will be sold in two separate waves this Sunday, September 27 – the first at 11:00am CEST and the last at 7:00pm CEST. Each ticket will cost €50, and will be available here.
The teams that will be directly invited to the Frankfurt Major and its Regional Qualifiers will be revealed on October 5. For the rest, the Open Qualifiers, hosted by FaceIt and Perfect World, will take place October 6 – 9, with the Regional Qualifiers occurring October 10 – 13.
Open Qualifier registration will open to any Dota players who wish to compete on October 1.