The International 2020 Is Delayed Indefinitely

Today is the day when The International 2020 should have ended. Historically, the tournament was held between August 15^th – 25^th. But this year it had to be delayed. Almost everyone else delayed their tournaments. In every esport, the ongoing global crisis put an end to LAN events. This draught just makes people more thirsty for professional tournaments held in huge arenas. When that moment comes, no doubt we’ll see a surge of esports like never before. But for now, we’re all doomed to spend a lot of time in isolation.

Valve’s Announcement regarding The International 2020

Initially, The International 2020 had been announced for Spring, 2021. But with no end to the pandemic in sight, Valve was forced to give up any false hopes it may have had and announced its surrender.

“In following how the pandemic has been developing globally, the recent increase in the unpredictability of COVID-19 means we can’t yet commit to new dates for TI10 and the DPC. We share your eagerness in returning to these events, and will announce updates as soon as we can.” – Valve

Meanwhile, the prize pool has equaled the one of The International 2019: $34.3 million. We can only imagine how much bigger this prize pool will get over the next 6-12 months, given that the Battle Pass is available and has been for a few months now.

Implications of The Delay

Valve’s decision to delay TI 10 indefinitely almost guarantees that this year will be entirely lost. My intuition, based on past pandemics and their duration, is that the competition will be held a year from now. Practically, Valve will simply skip a year and pretend it never happened. They simply have no other choice. The Dota Pro Ciruit is in shambles, LAN events are an impossibility for now and the situation is likely to get a lot worse before it gets better.

The only thing we can do is wait and enjoy this time the best way we can. Normally, I would expect Valve and the entire Dota 2 community to adapt to the situation and invest a lot more heavily in online events. There’s no need to wait until the world comes back to normal. Realistically, that won’t happen for at least one more year. But it’s enough for big tournament organizers to run a low-cost online operation and find just enough sponsorship deals to keep the fire burning.

It’s not clear yet how much stress this situation is putting on tournament organizers and other groups of people. Esports should be, in principle, a resilient industry, due to its online nature. Traditional sports depend on selling tickets to live events. Esports still has the online option. But I feel like it’s not making optimal use of it right now. Even if companies don’t make enough money to turn a profit, they should consider the tournaments they organize during these months as an investment. With everyone else taking a break, now is the time to make a name for yourself if you’re a tournament organizer. If you don anything important, all eyes are on you.

 

Photo credit: Valve