PGL Open announced as Valve Minor with Bucharest LAN finals

PGL has announced the PGL Open, a Valve Minor tournament, with open qualifiers in September and a LAN final October 19-22. The event company behind Valve’s three most recent Dota 2 Majors has received sponsorship status for this event, meaning open qualifiers in and representation by all six of Valve’s qualifying regions, plus a $300,000 prize pool.

Eight teams will be present for the live finals in Europe. Already, Evil Geniuses and LGD-Gaming, respectively from North America and China, are listed as the event’s direct invite. The rest of the six slots for the event will be filled through qualifiers, beginning with an open qualifier round that feeds into a closed qualifier. Invites and dates for the latter have not been announced as of writing.

Registration for each open qualifier has already opened through Faceit, with one for each Valve qualifying region. Those for South America, Southeast Asia and CIS start on September 9th, while Europe starts on the 13th, and North America’s starts on the 15th.

In addition to the prize pool contribution, Valve sponsorship and qualifier region requirements, the tournament’s Minor status also means that players present will earn Qualifying Points for The International 8 invites. For a full run-down of the implications of a Major/Minor status, check out our quick primer.