Finally, we have some information about arguably the biggest event of the eSports year, The International aka TI10 aka Valve’s flagship tournament that has skipped a year due to Covid.

The fact that TI wasn’t held in 2020 had a ripple effect many knew was coming, but much of it has yet to be felt in the community. Some basic establishment standards were shuttered though: for instance, there were no Dota 2 players on the top paid list for the last year, all due to TI10 missing from the schedule. That fact alone should be enough for those disputing the TI status: numbers speak for themselves.

TI10 is the Most Expected Event of the Year

For years now, TI has been the ultimate money maker for the world class rosters and players, with pool prizes other tournaments can only dream of, in and outside of Dota 2. With its prize pool growing since 2019, TI10 is going to be another record-breaking event: currently (and it is mid-May at the time of writing this article) it has surpassed 40 million dollars. The last TI, The International 2019, had a prize pool of 34 million 330 thousand dollars.

Of course, we can be in awe of all that money all we want, but there’s a dark side to that expensive medal, so let’s not forget that. Valve is often criticized for centralizing money in Tier 1 tournaments (also not just when it comes to Dota 2), and especially in TI, directing even more attention to its already famous rosters and orgs, while at the same time not giving many opportunities (aka money) to lesser teams or leagues.

Will There Be Any Audience?

But, this is where we currently stand, and after a year without TI, where many teams reorganized their ways of playing and choosing tournaments, we finally have an official date for TI10. As rumored, it’s going to be held in Stockholm over the summer. Group stages start August 5^th and end August 8^th, while the Main Event is scheduled from August 10^th to August 15^th.

We still don’t know much of the organizational details, for example if there will be any live audience, but that is probably due to the uncertainty of the pandemic conditions. We should know more as we approach August, but as things are now, everything is possible.

“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”, Valve said.

Format Stays the Same?

As yet, the format is still not officially confirmed, but most news outlets speculate it won’t be much different than it was in the past. That would mean we would watch 18 teams compete for the final prize. They begin the group stage divided in two groups where they play in a Round Robin format. The top four teams from each group advance to Upper Bracket, the worst teams from each group are eliminated and the rest of the teams (also four from each group) go to the Lower Bracket of the Main Event. But let’s not dwell on it until we get an official confirmation.

Are you excited about TI10 already? It’s going to be crazy with all of that pent-up energy. While we wait, don’t forget to play our free to play Pick 6, do it today!