Qualifying Points are points awarded to individual players by Valve due to their performances in Majors and Minors. Those Qualifying Points will determine which teams get invited to The International 2018. Majors grant more points whereas Minors less. Tournaments grant more points as The International approaches. Only the top 3 point earners on a team will contribute towards a team’s effective total Qualifying Points.
Qualifying Points are awarded for performances in Majors and Minors (Valve sponsored tournaments). The amount of points awarded for a tournament depend on three factors:
A teams placing in the tournament
The tournaments prize-pool
The time of the year (more points get awarded the closer the tournament is to The International)
The points are awarded per player instead of per team, allowing players switching teams during the Roster lock seasons to keep their points. To determine a teams total points, the individual points of the 3 players with the most points on the team get added together. The teams with the most points get to go to The International.
Point distribution[]
Majors and Minors award 1,500 and 300 Qualifying Points respectively. These points are awarded to the players directly instead of the teams.
The points awarded to a team are reduced if the team does not play a tournament with its official roster. If a team plays with four official players and one substitute player, the official players gain 75% of the normal points and the substitute player 50%. If more than one player is replaced, all players playing for the team in the tournament gain 25% of the normal points.
Tournaments with joint third and fourth place[]
Place
Percent
Points Major
Points Minor
A11st
50%
750
150
A22nd
30%
450
90
A33rd - 4th
10%
150
30
Tournaments that differentiate third and fourth place[]