Dota 2's annual championship event makes its triumphant return this year with a prize pool of over 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:$40 million--the largest of any esports event, ever. Valve originally planned to hold the in-person tournament finals in Stockholm, Sweden in August, but then the Swedish government declined to accept esports into its sports federa🗹tion, which meant that Dota 2 teams didn't qualify for COVID-9 visa exceptions.
Direct appeals to the Swedish government for an exceꦉption as an "elite sporting event" failed, so Valve began looking for alternatives. And now they appeared to have found a new host f🎀or The International 10.
"We are thrilled to announce The International 10 - Dota 2 Championships will be held this October in Bucharest, Romania, and the epic battle for the Aegis of Champions will fittingly unfold inside the country's largest stadium — Arena Nationala," announced Valve on the today. The group stage will run from October 7 to October 10, with the main stage finals running from October 12 to October 17.
Dota 2 teams will be competing for a combined priz🎶e pool of $4𝕴0,018,195, which is probably enough to convince people to travel for the first time in over a year.
Valve didn't make any mention of any COVID-related restrictions to the in-person event, but there are bound to be at least a few. Currently, Romania only allows gatherings of 50 people indoors and 70 people outdoors, unless they're all vaccinated, then it's gatherings up to 1,000 people either way. , so they might expand by the time the tournament rolls into town in October.
The Arena Nationala can seat up to 55,000 people, although it seems unlikely that the stadium will be stacked to🍸 ca♉pacity. Then again, the England vs Denmark Euro Cup game had , so who knows?