The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an outrageous, unprecedented amount of disruption to the gaming community – as well, of course, as the world at large. In the gaming community, these disruptions have mostly taken the form of an impact to productivity as entire development teams were forced to continue development from a remote set up instead of with their typical resources readily available.
Arguably the most prevalent for most gamers, though, is the near-annihilation that esports have seen, with practically every in-person event being moved online – or canceled outright. Dota 2 is the most recent victim of the pandemic, with their upcoming 10th International esports tournament now having been officially delayed.
An update on The International https://t.co/zVOIy0jWaX
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) April 30, 2020
The organizers behind the event took to their blog to discuss the change that would be coming to the event, as well as to provide an explanation. It seems that the pandemic is directly responsible for the delay:
“After extensive consideration of the global health emergency stemming from COVID-19, we have made the difficult choice to delay The International,” the organizers write in their announcement. “We have been exploring various date possibilities, but it is likely that the event will need to happen in 2021.”
The organizers discuss the highly volatile landscape of gathering restrictions, which can vary wildly from state to state – or even county to county, in some states. It’s incredibly difficult for any organizers to provide a set date or event timeline when there’s no telling how drastically things are going to change week by week. The team also discusses a restructuring of DPC season for the upcoming fall, promising more information as it becomes available.
In their announcement, the organizers also discuss that the 10th International prize pool will be funded by 25% of the sales of the next Battle Pass. The developers intend to release this Battle Pass soon rather than waiting until the release of the event itself. It will, however, be a couple of weeks later than usual due to the COVID-19 complications.
In closing, the development team extends their well-wishes to their player base, urging everyone to “look forward to a time when we can once again welcome everyone to enjoy the spectacle of The International.”
While it’s certainly a shame to see the event postponed, safety ultimately has to come first. Frankly, there’s a good chance that much of this ended up out of the hands of the organizers, with strict restrictions on gathering being heavily in place across much of the United States and various other locations of the world.
