Today Valve announced that Dota 2 will be for the first time shown in public at Gamescom through a tournament called The International. The tournament will consist of the 16 best Dota teams from around the world who will compete in a double elimination playoff tournament during the five day Gamescom expo.
The tournament will be broadcast in four languages (English, Russian, German and Chinese) free of charge with the winning team receiving $1 million. Holy shit that’s a lot of money. I thought the League of Legends $100k price for its tournament in June was a lot.
“The International is the first public Dota 2 event and will give the tens of millions of gamers playing Dota around the world their first look at the new game,” said Gabe Newell, president and founder of Valve. “I have had the good fortune to watch the competitors as they prepare for the tournament, and the level of play is extraordinary.”
That’s a lot of money to put upfront for a game that no one has played yet. I hope the games is as good as Valve thinks it is, but I guess a million bucks isn’t that much to them anyway and they’re going to get a crap load of media coverage due to the high prize.
For those interested check out the official Dota 2 site for information about where it will be broadcast.