Valve has officially confirmed that the main event for The International 2019 is scheduled to begin August 20 and end August 25. This means the Group Stage will be a week earlier. This year, Dota 2’s biggest tournament goes to Shanghai
While TI has been considered one of the biggest tournament in esports with its prize pool, last year’s tournament has a prize pool that was a little above TI7. For this year, no teams will automatically receive direct invites. Instead, invitations to the tournament are based on the current DPC points obtained.
As of this writing, only four teams have been invited to TI9. These are Virtus.pro, Team Secret, Vici Gaming, and Evil Geniuses. VG catapulted itself to the top of the DPC ranking after the team’s extraordinary win during the DreamLeague Season 11. VG won that tournament while going through the StarLadder ImbaTV Minor.
The TI9, however, is off to a rocky starting with the actual announcement of the official dates. According to various reports, the dates for TI9 were initially leaked early this month in a now deleted post by VG on their official Weibo account.
Another concern is that Valve hasn't released the Battle Pass for this year’s TI9. This is important, as part of the prize is taken from earnings of the Battle Pass. In a tweet, Valve said that they are still in the process of finalizing the details and hope to release that within a couple of weeks. The same is true for the tickets.
The International 2019 will be taking place on August 20th through the 25th. We are still finalizing details that are required before tickets can go on sale, but we expect to be able to do that in a couple of weeks.
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) April 25, 2019
Given that this year’s tournament will be in Shanghai, it makes since that Valve would partner with a local platform for its ticket sales. Valve had partnered with Damai, but the latter does not have a good record when it comes to ticket sales.
According to a report by Daily Esports, Damai was the same company that handled the League of Legends World Championship in 2018. There were stories that the tickets were being automatically purchased by bots for the event, and then resold at higher prices.
Then there is also the matter of hosting a tournament in China. During the Shanghai Major in 2016, Valve fired the production company in charge of the Major. There is also the case with TNC, and one of its players is unable to play after being banned from entering the host city.
Fans and players continue to await for any other updates from Valve. Hopefully, the company does so soon in order to ease the tension many are feeling.
