The tournament has 5 stages. The first four stages are played as mini-league round-robin tournaments, except for third stage in region IV, which is played as a knockout stage. The final stage features two knockout rounds and a final four-team group stage to determine the two promoted teams.
This year 27 teams qualified for the Etapa Regional (Regional Stage): 1 team relegated last year from First Division and 26 champions from each department (including 2 from Lima (the capital) - Peru is politically divided in 24 Departments and 1 Constitutional Province).
All these teams are divided into 8 groups by geographical proximity; then each winner qualifies for the Etapa Nacional (National Stage).
Those 8 teams will play, again by geographical proximity, home and away matches, in a knock-out tournament. The winner of the final will be promoted to the First Division.
Departmental Stage
The following list shows the teams that qualified for the Regional Stage.
The National Stage started on November. The winner of the National Stage will be promoted to the 2001 Torneo Descentralizado. On every stage qualification is decided by points, no matter the goal difference. Third match played in neutral ground.