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Dota 2: 4th International in July, MLG at risk?

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I thoroughly enjoyed The International 3 last year. The compendium was really cool, offering spectators all kinds of interesting benefits and boosting the prize pool at the same time. All the top teams went head to head, making for some excellent Dota to watch. Valve has yet to announce the date for this year’s tournament, but it may be sooner than you think.

Officials from top teams and leagues told onGamers that the tournament will be moved to mid-July instead of August this year. They say that while exact dates haven’t been finalized, it will not be taking place at Benaroya Hall this year as Valve is seeking a larger venue. Among those being considered is Seattle’s Key Arena which has a capacity of 17k for basketball games and 15k for high-end concerts. Amazing to think that so many thousands of people may get tickets to watch the tournament live.

Those same sources said that Valve changed the date because they couldn’t secure an event location in August. Of course, this will have a knock-on effect on other major competitions. The Electronic Sports League went with 28-29 June for their event in Frankfurt in order to not collide with TI4. However, MLG officials have confirmed to onGamers that they aren’t sure how they will hold their Anaheim Dota event considering DreamHack’s Summer finals of Dream League also need to happen during that time frame:

The growth and excitement around both eSports and Dota 2 activity over the last year has been exponential. While we are happy to see the continued popularity and support, we are concerned that the sheer number and proximity of events can have a negative impact on the players and make travel difficult for teams to afford and manage. We always strive to provide our competitors with the greatest conditions and experience possible to ensure they can compete at their best.

However, holding tournaments so close together puts tremendous stress on players and affects their overall performance. Although we announced our plans months ago, we are currently discussing the schedule with teams and reassessing our plans to determine what will be the least stressful and most beneficial for all involved.

You know what this means? The International could be as little as four months away. Time to start drafting my dream team!

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Last Updated: March 4, 2014

6 Comments

  1. Gerhard Davids

    March 4, 2014 at 14:48

    I dunno if I’m amped or anxious because of the clash. I wouldn’t like to see the top players worn out torn because of time schedules.

    Reply

  2. SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

    March 4, 2014 at 15:10

    Anyone who plays enough DotA will tell you that the game can be super stressful and more often than not feel much like hard work. At the least, I have little doubt these players could suffer serious mental (and possibly emotional) exhaustion if major competitions are just too closely packed together. This doesn’t even account for the stress of flying long distance for major offline gigs. On the other hand, if you’re a professional athlete you need to find ways to deal with fatigue.

    Anyway. I didn’t watch TI3. Interested to get on board the TI4 hype train.

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      March 4, 2014 at 15:49

      less worried about the players, more worried about teams holding back strats for finals of the closer events.

      The international caters for the best in the world, they should be able to handle the pressure, its the peak of the dota season.

      its only the newly formed teams that will struggle with the pressure, Cloud9 and DK are the only teams im worried about.
      DK have all the pressure, the best players in the world, but not much to show for it.
      cloud9 shouldnt do too badly though, i think theyl be stoked with whatever the result is.

      and navi. it will be another international that they are favoured to win, if they dont perform, they might explode.

      Reply

  3. CrasH

    March 4, 2014 at 15:35

    NTH (Alliance) FTW!!! called it last year but have not followed teams really this year…

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      March 4, 2014 at 15:43

      this year navi are pretty much untouchable, as usual.
      alliance will perform ok, but havent featured much this year.
      Cloud 9/Speed gaming will be the dark horse team.
      DK will crush if they work the kinks out.
      Might see some funny Korean teams (zephyr, eot & mvp) depending on how they handle the regions this year, but dont expect anything amazing from them.

      Reply

  4. Matthew Holliday

    March 4, 2014 at 15:38

    It was the same last year, the tournaments all scramble for a rush finish befor TI4.
    by the time it gets to the finals, its only 2 teams and a 3rd place play off.
    Last year, Alliance pretty much went straight from china G-leage and
    dreamhack =, to boot camp and straight to TI3, and still went on to win
    it.

    the constant traveling does burn teams out though, Alliance didnt feature in anything for about 6 months after TI3, but the payoff was that, after spending so much time together, Alliances teamwork was untouchable for that active time period.

    MLG will doubtless move their schedule up, scaling down the final stages from weekly games to a more frequent setup.

    With both MLG and TI3 being in the USA, it could actually prove more cost effective, turning the US trip into a month long thing, with the MLG finals being a decent pre show to whats in store for TI4.

    Reply

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