One of the world’s most anticipated esports tournaments is back for 2021 – The International 10 was unfortunately cancelled during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, but we’re excited to see the tournament play out later this year. Here’s everything you need to know about The International 10.

What Is The International?

The International (abbreviated as TI) is a yearly DOTA 2 tournament organized and sponsored by Valve. It was originally held during Gamescom in August 2011 as the worldwide launch event for DOTA 2. The tournament, held in Cologne, Germany, made waves with its massive $1.6 million prize pool and $1 million grand prize. At the time, 16 teams were invited to compete.

In 2012, the tournament was moved to Seattle, Washington, where it was held every year until 2017. At the time, the prize pool was the same $1.6 million, but only 14 teams were invited to play – the two remaining slots were awarded to teams that won regional qualifiers.

In 2018, Valve decided to start moving the location of The International around on a yearly basis, holding their first event outside of Seattle in Vancouver, Canada. In 2019, the tournament was held in Shanghai, China.

Since 2013, the DOTA 2 community has been able to contribute to the prize pool for The International – this phenomenon has given the tournament some of the largest prize pools in esports history. TI 2013’s prize pool was $2.8 million, and it’s just kept on growing. The 2019 tournament’s prize pool was a whopping $34 million, making it the largest prize pool for a single esports tournament in history.

Where and When Is TI10 Being Held?

Originally, the tenth annual TI was set to be played in Stockholm, Sweden from August 18th to 23rd, 2020. However, it was unfortunately cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, Valve has announced that TI10 will be taking place in 2021. It was originally set to run this week (August 5th to 15th, 2021) in Stockholm, but Sweden recently withdrew its national recognition of esports as a sport, forcing Valve to move the tournament elsewhere.

As of now, Valve has announced that they’ve moved both the date and location of the tournament. It’s set to take place in the Arena Națională in Bucharest, Romania from October 7th to 17th. The group stage events run from October 7th to October 10th, and the main event will run from October 12th-October 17th.

What Teams Are Playing In TI10?

At the moment, 18 teams are set to play in this year’s TI. 12 of these have qualified through the DOTA Pro Circuit. The other 6 have qualified via regional qualifiers; one team has been selected from North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, China, and Southeast Asia respectively.

As of this writing, the invited teams for The International 10 are:

Evil Geniuses:

Arteezy (Artour Babaev)
Abed (Abed Azel L. Yusop)
iceiceice (Daryl Koh Pei Xiang)
Cr1t- (Andreas Franck Nielsen)
Fly (Tal Aizik)

PSG.LGD:

Ame (Wang Chunyu)
NothingToSay (Cheng Jin Xiang)
Faith_bian (Zhang Ruida)
XinQ (Zhao Zixing)
y’ (Zhang Yiping)

Virtus.pro:

Nightfall (Egor Grigorenko)
Gpk (Danil Skutin)
DM (Dmitry Dorokhin)
Save- (Vitalie Melnic)
Kingslayer (Illias Ganeev)

Quincy Crew:

YawaR (Yawar Hassan)
Quinn (Quinn Callahan)
Lelis (Rodrigo Lelis Santos)
MSS (Arif Anwar)
SVG (Avery Silverman)

Invictus Gaming:

Flyfly (Jin Zhiyi)
Emo (Zhou Yi)
JT- (Thiay Jun Wen)
Kaka (Hu Liangzhi)
Oli (Chan Chon Kien)

T1:

23savage (Nuengnara Teeramahanon)
Karl (Karl Matthew Baldovino)
Kuku (Carlo Palad)
Xepher (Kenny Deo)
Whitemon (Matthew Filemon)

Vici Gaming:

Poyoyo (Yang Shaohan)
Ori (Zeng Jiaoyang)
old ELeVeN (Ren Yangwei)
Pyw (Xiong Jiahan)
Dy (Ding Cong)

Team Secret:

MATUMBAMAN (Lasse Aukusti Urpalainen)
Nisha (Michal Jankowski)
zai (Ludwig Wåhlberg)
YapzOr (Yazied Jaradat)
Puppey (Clement Ivanov)

Team Aster:

Monet (Du Peng)
White丶Album_白学家 (Liu Yuhao)
Xxs (Lin Jing)
Borax (Ye Zhibiao)
LaNm (Zhang Zhicheng)

Alliance:

Nikobaby (Nikolay Nikolov)
LIMMP (Linus Blomdin)
s4 (Gustav Magnusson)
Handsken (Simon Haag)
Fng (Artsiom Barshak)

beastcoast:

K1 (Héctor Antonio Rodríguez)
Chris Luck (Jean Pierre Gonzales Salazar)
Wisper (Adrián Céspedes Dobles)
Scofield (Elvis De la Cruz Peña)
Stinger (Steven Edwin Vargas Mamani)

Thunder Predator:

Mnz (Alonso León)
Leostyle- (Leonardo Sifuentes)
Frank (Frank Arias Ayala)
MoOz (Joel Mori Ozambela)
Mjz (Romel Quinteros)

The qualified teams for TI10 are as follows:

North America:

Team Undying

Timado (Enzo Gianoli O’Connor)
Bryle (Jonathan Bryle Santos De Guia)
SabeRLight- (Jonáš Volek)
Moonmeander (David Tan Boon Yang)
Dubu (Kim Doo-young)

South America:

SG e-sports

Costabile (Guilherme Silva Costábile)
4dr (Adriano de Paula Machado)
Tavo (Otávio Gabriel Cerqueira Silva)
thiolicor (Thiago de Oliveira Cordeiro)
KJ (Matheus Diniz)

Western Europe:

SumaiL (Syed Sumail Hassan)
Topson (Topias Miikka Taavitsainen)
Ceb (Sébastien Félix Albert Debs)
Saksa (Martin Sazdov)
N0tail (Johan Sundstein)

Eastern Europe:

Team Spirit

Yatoro (Illya Mulyarchuk)
TORONTOTOKYO (Alexander Khertek)
Collapse (Magomed Khalilov)
Miroslaw (Miroslaw Kolpakov)
Miposhka (Yaroslav Naidenov)

China:

Elephant

Eurus (Zhang Chengjun)
Somnus丶M (Lu Yao)
Yang (Zhou Haiyang)
fy (Xu Linsen)
Super (Xie Junhao)

Southeast Asia:

Fnatic

Raven (Marc Polo Luis Fausto)
ChYuan (Ng Kee Chyuan)
Deth (Yang Wu Heng)
Jabz (Anucha Jirawong)
DJ (Djardel Jicko B. Mampusti)

How Does a Team Get Invited To Play In TI?

If a team has been invited to play in The International, it means that they’ve scored in the top 12 of the Dota Pro Circuit. These teams are the best in the business – they’ve fought their way through a huge gauntlet of regional leagues and divisions, earning “DPC Points” as they go. It’s these points that will determine whether a team gets invited or has to fight through the regional qualifiers. To qualify for this year’s tournament, a team had to achieve at least 800 DPC Points.

If they do not make the top 12, all teams that participate in season 2 of their regional league still have a shot at getting into one of the last 6 slots – they are invited to the regional qualifiers provided that they do no replace more than two players from last season’s team. These teams are seeded based on their DPC point total, followed by their standing in the regional league’s final season.

The qualifiers are a double-elimination bracket; all of the matches are best of 3, while the grand final is best of 5. The winner for each region qualifies for TI.

What’s The Prize Pool for TI10?

The prize pool for The International is determined mostly by fan contributions – Valve puts in $1.6 million every year according to tradition, and the rest is crowdfunded via in-game item sales in Dota 2. 25% of the sales of cosmetic items, Battle Pass Levels, and the Battle Pass for The International 10 is contributed to the prize pool, which is why it’s the largest prize pool in esports tournaments ever.

Right now, the prize pool for TI10 is the largest ever raised for a single esports tournament at over $40 million. The grand prize is just over $18 million.

What Can I Do To Support My Favourite Team?

If you’re itching to show your support for a particular team in The International, Valve released a new feature called Supporters Clubs in Dota 2 in May 2021. This feature allows you to purchase badges and equippables that show off your allegiance to a team that will be playing in the tournament. This content has been provided by the teams directly, and 50% of the sales go back to them in support.

Each team has three content bundles to choose from:

Bronze Club: A badge for your favourite team
Silver Club: A badge, sprays, and emoticons
Gold Club: A badge, sprays, emoticons, in-game HP bar badge, loading screens, and voice lines.

Your badges will appear in your friends list, player profile, Versus Screen, and in-game scoreboard. If you want to support your favourite team as they forge their path to The International, check the Team Profiles section of the DPC tab in-game.

How Do I Watch The International 10?

All of the matches of TI10 will be broadcast live in multiple languages; English, Russian, and Chinese. If you’re a newcomer to esports, there are special streams and replays available in English.

All of these broadcasts are available for free and can be accessed in-game from DOTA TV.

It’s uncertain whether fans will be allowed to attend the tournament in person, but Valve appears hopeful that they will be able to host live viewings in some capacity. We recommend keeping an eye on their official blog and Twitter page for more information as it develops.