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Dimapur, May 12 (EMN): Dota 2 fans around the world must be excited as Valve has finally confirmed the official dates for The International 10 championship via a blog post on the Dota 2 website and Steam pages.
For the uninitiated, The International is an annual world championship for the game Dota 2, hosted and produced by Valve. It is considered to be the biggest esports event in the world and this year's tournament will have a prize pool of $40 million.
Twelve teams with the most points at the end of the Pro Dota Circuit season are automatically selected for the event. A further six teams from North America, South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, China, and CIS are selected through regional qualifier tournaments.
The International 10 is back on the menu. Mark your calendars. #TI10 #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/2i1S0KIYQS
— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) May 12, 2021
2020's The International was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the return of the highly anticipated event will please esports enthusiasts and Dota 2 fans alike. This year's The International is taking place in Stockholm, with the group stage starting on August 5. The main event will start on August 10 culminating in a grand final on August 15.
Even though we now know that the event will happen, Valve has still not clarified anything on the possibility of fan attendance at The International 10 venue. Here is what wrote in its blog post, "As we continue to plan the event around the shifting landscape presented by the ongoing global pandemic, our focus remains on finding ways to hold a high-quality tournament in the safest way possible. This means we're waiting to release additional details on attendance options as we gather more information on developments heading into summer. We expect to be able to share more with the community during the month of June."
As part of the announcement, Valve has also introduced a new feature for Dota 2 players called 'Supporters Clubs.' Through this feature, players can buy in-game items like team badges, loading screens, emoticons, sprays and voice lines to help support their favourite Dota 2 teams since 50 per cent of the sales goes to the teams they choose.
Introducing Supporters Clubs, a new way to support pro teams. The International returns this August. https://t.co/rfetcx1AGm pic.twitter.com/EZ8mSeIZP9
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) May 11, 2021
As of today, Valve has introduced 17 Dota 2 teams in its 'Supporters Clubs' feature with the promise to add more as time goes by. "Today we are adding content from 17 teams. As more content from other teams is submitted and approved, they will be added to this list regularly. Teams that aren't able to submit high tier content might be added as well without Silver Club and/or Gold Club enabled," wrote Valve in its blog post.