The COVID-19 pandemonium occurring throughout the world have a climactic impact on esports tournaments nowadays. While an excessive amount of esports can be played online, many major tournaments prefer to have LAN matchups in the presence of a large mob of people. It emerges as the virtual Gaming industry is also becoming prone to the pandemic's ill-effects.
The annual tournament of Dota 2 'The International' has also been affected and delayed due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Dota 2 'The International' Has Been Delayed To 2021
COVID-19 has affected the annual tournament of Dota 2, and 'The International' has been delayed. The competition was supposed to take place in August 2020 at the Ericsson Globe in Stockholm. However, it was postponed to a later date and is expected to be shifted to 2021.
In a blog post to the Dota 2 website, Valve officially announced that the tournament had been shifted to 2021 stating:
“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 the event will likely need to happen in 2021."
All of the global travels are suspended and put on hiatus due to lockdown, and preventative measures are taken in extreme caution for minimizing the virus infection. Valve also added:
"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 shortly.”
The International is held annually every year and is one of the large-scale esports competition of the Dota Pro circuit. It's an esports competition known for its extensive prize pool and matches.
Dota 2 The International has been delayed to 2021 (©: dota2.com)
The International 2019 was the concluding competition of the Dota Pro Circuit and the ninth annual edition of The International last year that took place in Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. Twelve teams were chosen for the Data Pro Circuit.
The International's TI9 prize pool surpassed $34 million last year with the top team, OG, taking home a $15,609,384 grand prize after their fabulous victory.
Team Liquid came in second place with a whopping prize of $4,462,908 and PSG.LGD earned third place with $3,089,706.
Will The Delay Affect The Current Competitive Scene?
Due to the delay of Dota 2 International 2020, many fans have been disappointed. And it comes to no surprise that the competitive scene has also been affected by it since most of the competition run in LAN.
The competition accommodates a large no. of people gatherings, which ultimately will become vulnerable due to the Coronavirus spreading like a chain sequence. Many preventative measures will have to undertake even if the event is not delayed, and it will not be 100% guarantee that there will be no effects.
Even if that section is controllable and somewhat manageable, global limitations of traveling come as a culmination of an issue as it makes it almost impossible for the LAN DOTA 2 Competitive scene to take place soon.
When Will Valve Release Dota 2 Battle Pass This Season?
Valve Corporation stated that the next International would be subsidized by 25% of the sales from the upcoming Dota 2 battle pass. Players can acquire the Battle Pass and unfasten bonuses and rewards while doing quests while heading and waiting for the next major event.
(©: dota2.com)
The largest American video game company is also working on restructuring the Dota 2 Pro Circuit season for this fall. However, the release date of the Battle Pass will be at least a couple of weeks later than usual.