The International is the biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year, and for years was the biggest esports event with mammoth prize pools, sold out arenas and massive stage shows. But after years of the tournament shrinking it feels like this year will be the smallest yet, which is boosted by the fact that the event begins tomorrow, but the hype levels are almost non-existent.
Since the pandemic delayed the 2020 event and then caused the 2021 tournament to be played behind closed doors, the scale of The International has been toned down every year, with developers Valve reportedly becoming more hands off as each year passes.
The funding model for the event changed from being the one big content drop in Dota 2 each year to being a smaller pro focused cosmetic that contributes to the prize pool. This has seen prize pools reduce significantly and now The International 2024 is likely not going to be the Dota tournament with the most prize money, as the Riyadh Masters will most likely top it. This was also the case last year.
Efforts to make the event profitable have also caused controversy, with lower quality broadcasts, sometimes not even in the same location as the tournament itself and controversial sponsors and ads being tied to recent events.
All of this has contributed to the prestige of The International dropping significantly and as a result it feels like the hype surrounding the event is lower than ever. This hasn’t been helped by the incredibly late announcements of everything from broadcast talent to the prize pool funding items and even the schedule for the event. At the time of writing we still don’t know the schedule for matches in the playoffs, which are only a matter of days away.
Not for the first time TI feels rushed, and while that likely isn’t the case with months of planning going into it, all these last minute announcements, missing information and a general lack of publicity around the event have given us a very muted feeling less than 24 hours from the start of the tournament.
The Dota will no doubt be as fantastic as ever, and with talent already on site the remote broadcasts of last year are hopefully not going to happen again, boosting the quality of the event. But it’s a worrying sign that so few people seem to know the event starts tomorrow, and it could lead to some very low viewer numbers to start the event.
But it’s TI season, and as a Dota fan there really isn’t a better time of year, so while it may not top the most iconic tournaments ever, it’s still going to be a great couple of weeks of Dota.
