All about The International Dota 2 Championship
The International is among the top-rated esports tournaments in the world. Here is everything you need to know about it.
All about The International Dota 2 Championship
The International (TI) is the most prestigious professional league for Dota 2. The only way up the leaderboard in hopes of getting a spot in the grand event is through the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC). It is organised by Valve in partnership with various organizers around the world to see which team is the best.
Valve typically holds The International as an annual event in the second or last week of August. The only exception was TI10 which was delayed from 2020 to 2021 and scheduled for October. It will resume its annual schedule for TI11 starting on 14 October 2022.
There is no usual venue for The International. Just like the Olympics, the grand event is often decided right at the beginning of the new season and announced together with the schedule. TI was held in Seattle, in the United States, on multiple occasions but has since moved to Canada, Sweden, and China for the other tournaments.
The full scale of The International in esports
What is The International in esports? It still competes with other grand events in terms of popularity in the main media landscape. The Worlds Championship in League of Legends is among their top rivals in both business and esports presence. Valve’s other title, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) also has the ESL Pro Tour which also competes with DPC in media coverage.
The International has the largest prize pool out of all esports major events. It can easily reach more than €15 million annually thanks to the game’s popularity and Compendium. Valve gets most of the prize pool directly from the Dota 2 Compendium such as battle pass sales and betting.
Dota 2 Compendium
The Compendium is a platform found within the Dota 2 client. It allows players to interact directly with the esports scene and create discussions among fans. The most notable feature is purchasing a seasonal Battle Pass which unlocks a series of milestones players can reach by performance.
The Battle Pass contains multiple rewards from additional in-game resources for unlocking content but mostly high-quality cosmetic items. At the end of this chain of rewards is a full set of the best arcana of the year which Valve created in collaboration with a talented concept artist.
Dota 2 The International history
An esports scene often takes so much time and effort among the community to form. It is only after a few successful city-wide events that game publishers notice the trend and decide to support it. Such development is especially long for Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a custom map made for Blizzard’s Warcraft III.
Icefrog, the third developer of the highly acclaimed custom map, approached Blizzard to help make an official video game but he was rejected. Valve later caught wind of this attempt and offered to publish a direct successor as a separate game using a new engine.
This partnership bore fruit for Dota 2, which no longer stands for ‘Defense of the Ancients’ but simply ‘Dota’ as it is a universally understood name. However, they had to compete with a similar game that already had a headstart in development, League of Legends, released in 2009. The latter is co-developed by Steve ‘Guinsoo’ Feak, one of DotA’s first developers hired by Riot Games.
Dota 2 Beta
With the metaphorical race in place, Valve had to match Riot Games’ esports growth. League of Legends first had its World Championship in June 2011 with invited teams from different regions coming from the original DotA community. Valve also invited famous teams from the community to inaugurate the first TI in August 2011 but the game was still incomplete.
While Riot Games’ World Championship serves as a way to test the waters on esports, Valve’s The International was only meant to serve as a launch for Dota 2 Beta. The game wouldn’t be released until 2 years later, so the 2012 TI also still had the game in a Beta state. As with the first TI, all 16 participants are invited from around the world.
Dota 2 full release
Valve introduced the Compendium in May 2013 as the centre of Dota 2’s esports activities. As mentioned, sales are used to fund the TI prize pool. Fans’ financial support for the game is actually directly supporting the pro players of their beloved esport.
Dota 2 was fully released a few months later on July 9. There are still a few heroes missing from DotA but the game’s client is already operational for competitive gaming. The third TI was held later that August with a regional structure unlike the invitational events in the previous two runs. Its structure was a lot closer to what fans know today.
Valve is still not yet done polishing the rules for the esports scene. In 2017, they introduced the Dota Pro Circuit which makes the grand event more inclusive to non-sponsored teams. Thus, it is possible to have an entirely independent team to win the international esports tournament.
Dota Pro Circuit
The DPC is a form of competitive structure that runs on a point system and leaderboard for all teams around the world. How do you qualify for International Dota 2 events? You need to earn enough points to be within the cut off. It’s simple on paper but the road to get there is steep as you have to compete in major league tournaments.
How to join the Pro Circuit
Joining the Pro Circuit is free and easy. You just need to form a team of players with an existing Dota 2 account that is eligible to participate in ranked games. Every player needs to register their position in the team for proper documentation. People can be labelled as ‘any position’ or ‘fill’ they prefer to frequently change per match.
Registration also needs to include a coach and team manager to see who is in charge of the team’s decisions and training. These individuals can also be players as there are playing coaches. However, it’s more common to have a team manager be a separate individual as this is the person who funds the team’s expenses. It includes travelling between tournament venues, training, and accommodation if they are participating in a week-long tournament.
Players registered in a team need to use an account set in the server where they wish to participate. It is still allowed but they cannot be made the majority of the team. Two or less talents from outside of the region are allowed per team to uphold the concept of a regional competition.
Changing roster or dropping out in DPC
It is common for a team to only have five to seven members, including the manager and coach. However, you have to also register reserves just in case a substitution is necessary. Replacing players per team is fine between tournaments even with non-registered players. However, it can be challenging to both the players and the organisers if it’s done on a short notice before a match.
Dropping out of the Pro Circuit means losing all of your team’s progress thus far and forfeiting it for the rest of the season. This is a common decision among groups whose members moved onto different teams. Likewise, it is also possible for individual players to be suspended from tournaments or be dropped out in the season because of violations. Punishments only apply to that season unless otherwise stated by organisers, including Valve.
Pro Circuit point system and leaderboard
Teams earn points only by participating in tournaments. Valve gives every organiser limited points and collaborates on how it should be distributed across all payers. Some events only reward teams who reach a cutoff while others can give consolation points until the bottom of the rankings. The latter is only possible for major and cross country competitions.
Teams’ progress is updated on the International standing displayed on the official Dota 2 website. Many regional major events take place right before the main event to make the top-scoring local teams fight for a spot in The International.
This is done to properly choose which team is best suited to represent their region as the point system only measures participation, not necessarily skills. Thus, the seed winners are chosen through elimination brackets.
The International is among the biggest esports events in the world
There are thousands of popular video game titles in the world and hundreds of them have well-established major events. However, only a few have the international biggest esports event like Dota 2’s The International. This tournament has paved the way to make Dota 2 a household title that most, if not all, gamers know and love.
The Dota 2 esports scene continues to grow as its casual scene also keeps growing over time. Valve will continue to support and improve this game so look forward to more changes in the future.
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Words: Clarence Clarke
