12 May Valve announces August return for Dota 2’s The International
Games publisher Valve has announced that Dota 2 tournament The International will return in August 2021 following its hiatus last year due to the pandemic.
The International 10 is set to take place offline in Stockholm, Sweden. It has yet to be confirmed whether the tournament will be played in front of a live audience, with Valve highlighting that it is ‘yet to release additional details on attendance options’.
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Similarly to The International 9, Valve has once again announced that this year’s competition will feature the largest prize pool in esports history. The International 10 will see teams battle it out for part of the event’s $40,018,195 (~£28,317,875) prize pool, which is around $6m (~£4.25m) more than its 2019 edition.
The tournament will kick-off on August 5th with the group stage. The main event is scheduled to start on August 10th, with the grand final set for August 15th.
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The publisher noted in its announcement that it will share more information regarding whether the tournament will be played in front of an audience in June.
As well as announcing The International’s return, Valve also revealed ‘Supporters Clubs’, a feature that will allow fans to directly support select Dota2 teams by purchasing in-game items. The new feature is expected to provide a more direct way to contribute to teams, according to the publisher.
Valve also noted that two new in-game events will be organised this summer, however, the competitions will not contribute to The International’s prize pool.
Esports Insider says: The International will once again have the largest prize pool in all of esports and given the event’s hiatus., you’d expect interest in the competition to have grown significantly. The question regarding fan attendance is still in the air, however, it’s great to see more offline event be made possible.
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