What you need to know about Dota 2’s new “Pro Circuit”

Valve has released full details of its 2017-2018 "Pro Circuit," including partial dates, all prize pools and all Qualifying Points, of its 11 Majors and 16 minors. A month after the conclusion of The International and well into roster shuffle season, the details of the most recent roster lock have been announced as well.

Also announced was a new coaching rule, allowing coaches to be present during the game's drafting phase.

With this announcement comes a slew of essential knowledge for the coming year, so we're here to break down the important details for you:

Qualifying Points

Teams’ scores will be determined by the total score of the top three point-earning players only. “Teams” will not earn points, and points carry over when players transfer. It’s unknown what penalty occurs if shuffles occur outside of roster lock dates.

Dota 2 Official Flickr/Valve

Each Valve-sanctioned Major and Minor will give a portion of its points to the top four finishing teams. The full schedule is available on their site.

Most Majors will give 1500 points, and most Minors have 300 at stake. The exceptions are an ESL Minor in late January, giving 400 points, and the final Major of the year with 2100.

All tournaments give 50% of the points to first place and 30% to second; this is, respectively, 750 and 450 for most Majors, and 150 and 90 for most Minors.

Third and fourth places will depend on tournament format. If the tournament chooses to distinguish between the places (i.e. "third place match"), third will receive 15% and fourth receives 5% (respectively 225/75 in Majors, 15/5 in Minors). If not, the teams will take home 10% each (150 Majors, 30 Minors).

Qualifying points will only be used as a factor for Direct Invites to The International 8. According to the Q&A, they “may be considered as a factor when deciding invites to Regional Qualifiers.”

Coaching Permissions

Dota 2 Official Flickr/Valve

Coaches are now allowed to be present and communicate with their teams in the drafting phase of the game. Once the lineups are completed, though, the coach must leave immediately.

Registration for the Majors/Minors is open now on their site.

Valve has maintained a “drop/add” deadline system that applies to rosters for all Majors and Minors.

For this season, the Drop Date, or the date by which a team can drop players is September 22 at 5PM PT (8PM ET).

The Add Date is October 3rd at 5PM PT (8PM ET).

The next will occur in “Early 2018.”

Substitute players may be utilized at LAN events, but individuals from the original registered core team playing will only earn 75% of the winning points. The sub will earn 50% of those points.

In any other cases with substitute players, all players earn only 25% of the points.

While it hasn’t been clarified, it appears that the 25% rule applies to roster swaps that occur between roster locks as well.