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Dota 2 The International 10 Will Be Held in Romania

Dota 2 The International 10 Will Be Held in Romania

Dota 2’s season-culminating esports tournament, The International 10, is heading to Romania in October, Valve announced on Wednesday, July 7.

Dota 2’s season-culminating esports tournament, The International 10, is heading to Romania in October, Valve announced on Wednesday, July 7.

The news follows the Swedish government’s refusal to host the tournament in the country after failing to classify esports as a sport.

The International 10 Changes Venues

In 2019 Valve started to work with Sweden to host TI10 in 2020, but the event got delayed and pushed back for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After being unable to host the event in 2020, the Swedish government and Valve came to an agreement to hold the event in August 2021.

As the date got closer, Valve got informed by the Swedish government that their initial plans fell into the water. The news came as a shock, considering Valve received several assurances that Sweden will be able to host the event.

As revealed by Valve in June, the Swedish Sports Federation voted against accepting esports into its federation. As a result, TI10 was denied classification as an elite sporting event.

Without receiving the classifications, all Dota 2 players who reside outside of the European Union would be denied their visas. Instead, the player’s entry into the country would be subject to the approval of individual border agents.

This put teams’ ability to field their full rosters in question and made it impossible to guarantee the tournament’s integrity. Due to the obvious concerns, Valve chose to delay TI10 further and instead look for a new host nation.

Valve needed just under three weeks to find a new host nation in Romania, who accepted to host TI10 in Bucharest. As announced by Valve, the $40-million esports tournament will take place at Arena Națională in October 2021.

The International 10 Scheduled for October

The Romanian football stadium, Arena Națională will host TI10 on October 7-17. The tournament will begin with the group stage and culminate with the main event.

The TI10 group stage will take place on October 7-10, where 18 teams will compete for a spot in the final stage. The TI10 main event will kick off on October 12 and conclude on Sunday, October 17, with the grand finals.

Top 18 Dota 2 teams from all corners of the world will travel to Arena Națională, a stadium mostly known for hosting big football matches. Most recently, it has hosted EURO 2020 games, having previously also held the UEFA Europa League finals in 2012.

The venue features over 55,000 seats; however, it’s unclear how many will be available at the time of TI10. With the event still three months away and the global health situation under question, it likely won’t be known whether the Romanian stadium will accept spectators for one of the biggest esports tournaments until late September.

Over $40 Million On The Line

The International 10 will feature a mouth-watering $40,018,195 prize pool. It will mark the richest Dota 2 The International to date and the largest prize pool in esports history.

Last year’s TI featured $34,330,068 in the prize pool, which was already a massive jump from 2018 when the teams competed for the lion’s share of $25,532,177. Seeing The International’s prize pool rise by millions each year, however, is nothing new.

Dota 2 The International Prize Pool Over The Years

  • The International 2011 – $1,600,000
  • The International 2012 – $1,600,000
  • The International 2013 – $2,874,380 (+79.6%)
  • The International 2014 – $10,923,977 (+280.4%)
  • The International 2015 – $18,429,613 (+68.7%)
  • The International 2016 – $20,770,460 (+12.7%)
  • The International 2017 – $24,787,916 (+19.3%)
  • The International 2018 – $25,532,177 (+3%)
  • The International 2019 – $34,330,068 (+34.4%)
  • The International 10 (2021) – $40,018,195 (+16.5%)

As it stands now, there are only 17 teams (out of 18) confirmed to attend TI10. The final spot will be filled in by the winners of the Western European Qualifiers, which will conclude on Saturday, July 10.

The qualifiers are currently ongoing, with several big names still in the race. Out of the eight remaining teams, four stand out as serious candidates.

Those include Team Liquid, Tundra Esports, Team Nigma, and the two-time TI champions OG.
Since the TI10 field has yet to be finalized, the esports bookmakers have refrained from starting offering betting odds on the tournament. The earlier we can expect the betting market to open is next week.