Valve announced the cancellation of the Dota Pro Circuit 2022 Winter Major in a blog post on Wednesday. The announcement cites the growing threat of COVID-19’s Omicron variant as the reason for the cancellation. With this change, there will not be an official Dota event until the next season begins.
Valve cancels 2022 Winter Major
The points that were meant to be given out after the first major will now be redistributed into the second and third majors of the year. The first leg of the Dota Pro Circuit will now end after the first season is over. It will resume around March, when the second season is to start. Unfortunately, with how the points from Season 1 are being distributed into the second and third seasons, the effort that teams have put into the first seasons appears all for naught.
The decision has caused several analysts, managers and players in the Dota community to speak out against the situation. Evil Geniuses manager Peter “Panders” Anders wrote a Twitlonger regarding the lack of communication from Valve’s side during the cancellation. According to Panders, the problem is not that the major is canceled, but that an event that many depended on for their livelihood has been canceled without communication.
Professional players are openly sharing their displeasure with the situation. For example, Team Secret’s Syed Sumail “SumaiL” Hassan expressed his displeasure in a Twitter post.
“If all the teams decide to just not compete in Season 2, at least we will have some sort of stable system, either better communication or maybe dota just dies completely,” SumaiL said. “Either way better than the current state of things.”
https://twitter.com/SumaaaaiL/status/1481227341594509315?s=20
The cancellation of the 2022 Winter Major will mean another significant period of down time for teams. The next season of the DPC will begin in March, and teams will now have to maintain the costs of running a team without any revenue.
