LOS ANGELES, March 18 — This year’s edition of eSports’ biggest annual tournament, The International Dota 2 Championships, will take place in Vancouver, west coast Canada, after six years in Seattle.
With a prize pool regularly floating north of US$20 million, The International is a prestige fixture on the eSports circuit.
It’s the pinnacle event for team game Dota 2, which made a splash at the first ever edition of The International during the Gamescom convention in Cologne, Germany.
Thereafter, the pro-level invitational has been held in Seattle, northwest USA, home of the game’s developer Valve Corp., whose history includes formative franchises Half-Life and Portal as well as another eSports fixture, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and PC gaming’s dominant digital download store, Steam.
But after six years in Washington state, first at the 2,500 capacity Benaroya Hall and then, from 2014, at the 17,000 person KeyArena, The International is moving northward still, across the border and into the 19,000 seater Rogers Arena, downtown Vancouver.
The coastal city is a regular in global quality of life rankings, while the Rogers Arena hosts the Vancouver Canucks ice hockey team.
The week-long International Dota 2 Championships will run from August 20 to 25, 2018, with ticket sales starting on March 23 at 10am and 10 pm PDT; midweek tickets, for Monday to Thursday access, are priced at C$125 (US$95) with finals tickets for Friday and Saturday at C$250 (US$190), Valve explained in an official blog post.
Valve is currently expected to broadcast the event live through the Dota 2 game client and via online video streaming platform Twitch, as it has done in previous years. — AFP Relaxnews
