2021 DOTA PRO CIRCUIT SOUTH AMERICA UNDER FIRE FOR “UNEVEN” CONDITIONS

Funny. When Valve first said that they’d be hand-picking the teams for the 2021 DPC’s two-season upper league qualifiers from “stable rosters and results,” my spidey senses went haywire with the many ways in which the whole process could go wrong. Seems my instincts were kinda right! 

Criticism has begun to rise in South America and beyond about the very arbitrary way in which Valve decided to sort out the spots for the upper-division, and the very unkind way that some teams end up being treated due to their geographical circumstances. To be more precise, Brazilian Dota 2 star Tavo took to social media recently to rain punches on what he called a “senseless & frustrating move” by the game developers. 

Before we continue with the news, check out some of the hottest new betting odds for the Dota Pro Circuit, South America qualifiers (S1), courtesy of esports betting hub LevelUp.bet:

Dota Pro Circuit, SA Qualifiers, Season One

January 6th, 2021

*Odds are subject to change. 

Controversy in the DPC

Valve’s recent announcement of the two-season qualifiers for the T110 (starting on Jan 18) was met with some opposition by popular Dota-2 personalities in recent days. 

Brazilian Dota 2 star Otavio “Tavo” Gabriel expressed his displeasure with Valve’s arbitrary invitation policies for the upper division. His opinion was that the process didn’t “make sense” and that the lack of a real qualifiers stage for teams aspiring to become part of the upper division in South America -in particular- was plain unfair. On top of that, it seems local teams are going to have to fight it off in another qualifier round in order to be able to claim a ticket to the 2nd division. Talk about making it difficult!

Blame it On COVID

Take it from us; eFCKNsports’ headquarters are in Costa Rica; we know from personal experience how abandoned the esports local community has been since… basically FOREVER, but the arrival of the COVID-19 Pandemic complicated things even further. 

As pointed out by Dota 2 commentator Moxxi in a recent Twitter post: “SA got hit very hard by COVID. They lacked the infrastructure for many of the players to successfully participate in the online tournaments, especially Brazilians who cannot play USEast. Many players could not relocate to their teamhouses. Wish there was a path for upper division from Opens.” 

Moxxi is 100% right, and some more. Plus, she’s noticing something that has been a forgotten constant in South American realities: South American players enjoy nearly ZERO esports  mobility. Often stemming from impoverished backgrounds, latin american players -in their majority- find it very difficult to be able to attend to international esports events, or ever even hope to be relocated to the United States or Europe, due to the very harsh restrictions placed upon countries like Colombia, Mexico and Brazil that make it virtually impossible for local esporters to aspire to a tourist visa, much less a work visa.  

The realities for South American players are VERY tough indeed, and perhaps it is DARN time the international esports community does something to alleviate the hardships of the broad SA region…. Just sayin’ 

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