Dota 2 will get some extra TV time in the final weeks leading up to The International, TBS and ELeague announced this week, thanks to a four-part docuseries called “ELEAGUE: Road to The International Dota 2 Championship.” And that’s just the start of this week’s TI7 news.
According to TBS, the miniseries will follow unidentified participants from this year’s event during their final weeks of training for the 16-team tournament. We’ll also get to see the “center on the drama and experiences the players have” during TI7. The series will begin airing in early August but won’t conclude until after this year’s Dota 2 world champions are decided. The first hour-long episode of Road to The International Dota 2 Championship will begin at 10 p.m. EST on Friday, Aug. 4, with new episodes set to air at the same time every Friday through Aug. 25.
TBS also plans to broadcast Valve’s Dota 2 documentary, Free To Play, which followed Benedict "hyhy" Lim, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin and Clinton "Fear" Loomis as they prepared for the very first International in 2011. The documentary, which also features commentary from beloved Dota 2 commentator Tobi “TobiWan” Dawson and ELeague host Richard Lewis, will air Friday, July 28.
Valve and WeLoveFine have also launched the annual The Secret Shop, the digital storefront from which the two companies sell a cornucopia of apparel, collectables and other items from this year’s Dota 2 world championship. There’s lots of great stuff this year, like a new Tidehunter mug. But I’m also really curious to see how fans respond to the $45 and $65 mystery boxes. It doesn’t seem like the sort of product that would be widely adopted by the community, since most people already have a favorite character(s), but perhaps there are some out there who enjoy so many heroes they don’t care which ones are represented in their collection.
Dota 2 is available on Windows and OS X. The International, Valve’s annual Dota 2 world championship tournament, begins August 7.
Be sure to check back with Player.One and follow Scott on Twitter for more Dota 2 news in 2017 and however long Valve continues to support Dota 2 in the years ahead.
