Dota 2 International Delayed | Game Rant
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation or delay of many major events for the video game industry, and beyond, as bans of large gatherings and social distancing guidelines aim to slow the spread of disease. For example just yesterday Game Developers Conference staff announced the Summer GDC event will be entirely digital after already getting pushed to August from its original time slot in March. Now Valve has announced its championship event for DOTA 2, The International, has been indefinitely delayed.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of The International, which was set to take place in Stockholm, Sweden this August after Valve took bids from cities that wanted to host the tournament. The esports event focused on the free-to-play Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) title has been a huge draw for cities in the past, with team OG taking a $15 million payout from a $34 million prize pool as part of their victory in The International 2019.
The DOTA 2 team doesn't expect to "have enough confidence to communicate firm dates in the near future" for when The International 10 will be held, as they are continuing to explore dates in a "highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies" according to the delay statement put out Thursday. However, they say fans should expect that it is "likely" the event will not happen until 2021.
Though The International has been delayed, developers will continue to collect money for its prize pool. According to the delay statement, 25 percent of the next Battle Pass will be used to fund The International 10's prize pool, and that pass is planned to release "soon" rather than closer to the event. That said no firm dates are listed because Valve alongside companies like PlayStation has its staff working from home, so things are "taking longer to complete."
DOTA 2 has had a bizarre competitive season leading up to this announcement. The delay of The International comes after Valve cut over half its tournaments for the 2020/2021 season in February, though at the time it was not entirely clear why this decision was made as this was before shutdowns for coronavirus had begun en-masse.
Valve's MOBA-centric tournament is also not the only event which has recently been affected by the ongoing pandemic. This morning the team behind EVO announced that the 2020 EVO Championship Series event is cancelled and all purchased tickets are being refunded.
DOTA 2 is available on Mac and PC.
Source: DOTA 2 Blog
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