Dota 2 Tournament The International Delays 2020 Event

The International, which is one of the largest professional video game tournaments in existence, has been delayed. In a statement, Valve said it won't be able to hold the Dota 2 event on schedule to due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Valve said it made its decision after "extensive consideration" of the global pandemic. The company was looking at other, later dates to hold the event, but it now believes The International may not return until 2021.

"Given the highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies, we don't expect to have enough confidence to communicate firm dates in the near future," Valve said.

The next International event will be the tournament's 10th edition. As usual, the prize money will funded in part by sales of the next Dota 2 battle pass. Valve said it plans to launch this battle pass soon instead of delaying it until closer to the event. In theory, this should help the prize pool grow even larger.

The International is normally held in August each year. The event is known for its massive prize money, with last year's event running up a $34.3 million prize pool. A whopping $15.6 million went to the winning team, OG, which also won the 2018 event.

The International joins a growing list of gaming and entertainments events that have been canceled or postponed due to the virus, including E3 2020 and San Diego Comic-Con.

Valve Statement On The International

"After extensive consideration of the global health emergency stemming from COVID-19, we have made the difficult choice to delay The International. We have been exploring various date possibilities, but it is likely that the event will need to happen in 2021. Given the highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies, we don’t expect to have enough confidence to communicate firm dates in the near future. In the meantime, we are working on restructuring the DPC season for the fall, and will be providing more information as soon as we have it.

The 10th International prize pool will be funded by 25% of sales of the next Battle Pass, which we are planning to release soon instead of closer to the event itself. However, with our team working from home and things taking longer to complete, the release date of the Battle Pass will be at least a couple of weeks later than usual.

We hope everyone in the Dota community is staying as safe as possible, and look forward to a time when we can once again."