The International Dota 2 tournament

The International – the biggest eSports tournament

More than 10 years ago, Dota 2 was born. The simple modification of World of Warcraft 3 was a real breakthrough in the world of eSports. Immediately a tournament was announced. It was called The International and the prize fund was 1.6 million dollars. This was a serious amount at the time, and only those who received an invitation from the developers could participate. Thanks to this, the game itself quickly gained popularity, and many players wanted to take part in the tournament.

Tournament format

Initially, teams have to go through a qualification tournament. All teams are divided into six regions. In each of them, the teams must play two seasons and get the maximum number of points for victories.

The best teams are invited to the Major tournament. In this competition, the participants can earn extra points and cash prizes. As a result the top 12 teams qualify for The International 10. Apart from that, six more qualifiers were played in closed qualifying matches. As a result 18 teams from all over the world got involved in The International 10.

Prize fund

The system of prize fund formation should also be mentioned separately. Initially Valve allocated $1.6 million, but in 2013 there was a unique system Compendium. This is a special combat pass that gives players access to various unique items. Anyone can purchase the Compendium and a portion of the cost of the pass goes into the overall prize pool.

Thanks to this, the prize pool has increased every year and reached $40 million for The International 10. No other eSports tournament can boast of such a size of prize pool.

The International Dota 2 is the biggest eSports tournament

The International 10 winners

Traditionally, Dota 2 tournaments are held in two stages. First there is the group stage and then the playoffs. In the first stage, all teams are divided into two groups. In each group, all teams play each other for two matches. The worst team in each group has to drop out of the tournament; the others reach playoffs.

The winner of the anniversary tournament was Team Spirit. It was able to earn $18 million for first place. Team Spirit eliminated all main tournament favourites on their way to the finals, including Chinese team PSG.LGD and European team Team Secret.

Highlights of The International 10

The jubilee tournament saw a number of interesting events. Among them are the following:

  1. The tournament was supposed to be held in Stockholm, but due to the coronavirus epidemic, it was first moved to Bucharest and then it was decided to hold it without spectators.
  2. Despite this, the traditional Secret Shop was available for fans of the game. This time, fans were able to buy Dota 2 apparel online. 3.
  3. Despite the lack of a live audience, the final of the championship was watched by a record number of spectators. Not counting the Chinese fans of the game, the main match attracted 2.3 million people.
  4. Clement Ivanov, the irreplaceable captain of Team Secret has set a unique record that hardly can be broken in the near future. The thing is that Clement took part in the very first tournament and hasn’t missed any of them since.
  5. Team Spirit player became the champion of the tournament. Ilya Mularchuk became the winner at the age of 18.
  6. In addition, Team Spirit set several records. Especially noteworthy is the fact that the team has played the most games in the playoffs.
  7. Team Spirit is the first Russian-Ukrainian team to win this popular tournament. Previously only one team from the post-Soviet space could achieve this success – in 2011 the Ukrainian Natus Vincery won the first tournament.
  8. The victory of the Russian team contributed to the popularity of cybersports.