Cover-Credits:
When the details of the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2021-22 were first revealed, it became clear that it remained largely the same as the previous season except for a few changes. Several pros have voiced their concerns about this format in the past, and the most recent of these is Team Spirit's The International 10 (TI10) champion, Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk. Yatoro told in RuHub Media's year-end show that the low amount of games they have to play in the leagues in a week is exhausting. He went on to say that it feels like the format is intentionally stretched, forcing players to stay in bootcamp for a long time.
Yatoro and Team Spirit’s manager share their thoughts on the DPC 2021-22 format
Yatoro, like many other Dota 2 pros in the past, expressed that it was difficult for him to play one game in a 10 day period. This meant they had to bootcamp for two months for a low amount of games making the overall experience very tiring.
"I'll speak for myself - it's unbearably painful when you play one game in ten days. And you have to sit through two months of bootcamp the whole time. And you sit there, you play one game, you win - hooray, the next one is in 11 days. It's exhausting, you could say so. As if deliberately stretched, to flood over us.” noted Yatoro.
Team Spirit's manager, Dmitry "Korb3n" Belov, also complained about the length of the DPC. Outlining how the year is spent, he said it restricts the personal lives of the teams.
"With a schedule like that, you just don't have a life. You come here, you live here for a month and a half, then you leave for ten days. Then you came to a bootcamp before the major, and then you came to the major. Then you went away again for ten days and came [back to bootcamp] again. In a year, you'll live for a month or a month and a half at most.”
Among the Dota 2 personalities concerned about the DPC last season, particularly the length, were Damien "kpii" Chok, Kuro "KuroKy" Takhasomi, Lee "Heen" Seung Gon, Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, and more. In their opinion, the timing and schedule of the DPC had to be altered, and that it was far from ideal for the players. Puppey had also pointed out that since the DPC leagues span across six weeks, there is the possibility that teams may have to play on two different patches which can be problematic.
However, as is now known, the length of the regional leagues has not been altered in the DPC 2021-22. The ongoing holiday break has also extended the duration of the first league. Having played its last series in the DPC Eastern Europe 2021-22 Tour 1: Division 1 on 17th Dec 2021, Team Spirit will play its next one on 6th Jan 2022 against AS Monaco Gambit.
[Transcriptions via cybersport.ru, Translations via DeepL Translate]
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