Valve release teaser for The International 10
We are still over six months away from the 10th edition of The International, however, Valve already released a teaser for its prized Dota 2 tournament, which will serve as the culminating event of 2019/20 Dota Pro Circuit season.
The short trailer video for The International was released earlier this Wednesday, February 18, on Dota2's official YouTube channel. Although the trailer caught the attention of all esports fans from all over the world, it surfaced without any context and no announcement, which sparked a debate about what Valve wanted to unveil with the video.
The short 52-second video is a montage with highlights from previous International events, featuring memorable moments, cheering crowds, previous TI venues, musical performances from Deadmau5 and Lindsey Stirling, who performed for Dota 2 fans at TI5 and TI6 respectively, as well as the memorable moments when the winning teams lifted the Aegis of Champions.
The description of the video reads:
"The International, often abbreviated as TI, is an annual tournament organized by Valve. In 2015 Valve increased their number of hosted events, founding the Dota Major Championships which incorporates The International into its structure. The International remains the biggest and most prestigious event on the Major Championship circuit."
Some Dota 2 fans were quick to spot that the description is quite outdated, as it mentions the Major Championship Circuit – a term used for Valve-sponsored Majors in 2015 and 2016. Since then, however, the Dota 2 Major Championship Circuit has been rebranded into DPC.
While a short video with no obvious context, outdated theme and description, it did not fail to inspire excitement among Dota 2 fans, despite the fact no one really knows what this video is for. That said the community started to guess it could be a sign TI10 tickets will go on sale sometime soon.
Hoping to avoid another ticket scalping scandal from last year, which left many Dota 2 fans without a ticket for the event, while others had to buy them at an inflated price, the community will expect Valve to implement some measures to prevent another such incident. Although no official announcement regarding that has been made as of yet.
Whether the speculations are true remains to be seen, as only time will tell what message is Valve trying to send with this video, but it's safe to say it might have something to do with TI10, which is said to be the biggest and most prestigious Dota 2 event to date.
The 10th instalment of The International is slated to take place at Ericsson Globe in Stockholm, Sweden, where we will see 18 Dota 2 teams duke it out for the lion's share of the prize pool and the title of TI champions.
The culminating event of DPC season will start on August 18 and conclude on August 23, with the grand finals. The prize pool is still a mystery and will remain as such until the opening day of the event, considering the majority of the prize pool comes from crowdfunding.
