Since the outbreak began in January, the pandemic that everyone knows about has impacted every aspect of life, and Esports is no exception. The League of Legends tournament system was the first to be affected, as most tournaments faced restrictions ranging from no audience to postponement. Recently, Riot found a solution to play online for the LPL to maintain the schedule, while the LCK, LCS, and LEC were not as fortunate.
That’s the case for League of Legends, where domestic leagues are organized in a “League” format, meaning continuous play over a long period. However, for DOTA2, the situation is entirely different. Valve’s Major and Minor tournaments operate in a “Tournament” format, featuring short-term competitions with many teams and players from different regions, making online play impossible.
Therefore, when the pandemic broke out in Europe, which is considered the strongest region for DOTA2, Valve’s unfortunate but unavoidable decision was to cancel or postpone tournaments. Recently, the ESL One Los Angeles Major in the U.S. has officially been postponed, and just a few hours ago, Valve announced that the fourth Major (expected to be the Epicenter Major, a highly prestigious tournament) and the fourth Minor (OGA DOTA Pit) will be canceled.
DOTA2’s official Twitter: “After careful consideration of the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the associated health risks for players, staff, and fans, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the fourth Major and Minor of this year’s DPC season.
Given the unpredictability of both the pandemic and the decisions made by individual countries and regions, we will closely monitor the situation and determine our approach to the final Major and Minor of the season next week.”
Immediately after this announcement, the DOTA2 fan community was understandably very worried about the remaining tournaments of the season, especially the prestigious The International tournament in August. With the likelihood of the remaining two Major tournaments being canceled, the third tournament is even facing postponement, the future of TI 10 is extremely concerning. It is quite possible that TI 10 will become the first International to be played online; just imagine having to play TI with a 200 ping.
This is extremely bad news… for PSG.LGD
And for Nigma too
It’s very likely they will adjust the invitation and TI qualifiers because of this. It was designed for 5 Majors, and now there may only be 3. With so few tournaments taking place, it would be unreasonable to take 12 teams based on DPC points; the number may drop to 8 teams advancing directly to TI based on DPC points.
This makes the points from the first two Major/Minor tournaments incredibly valuable.
TI 10? Oh dear, this is not good at all.
TI 10, the biggest Esports event of all time with a $40 million prize pool, will be played online.
This also means that ESL Riot, Major CS:GO will be 100% canceled.
Rio de Janeiro has the second-highest number of infections in Brazil after São Paulo.
What will happen to TI?
Honestly, it’s very likely it will be postponed.
No football and no Major DOTA2, it’s really bad.
Say goodbye to TI and this year’s Battle Pass, everyone.
The first TI played online?
I bet my two accounts that TI 10 will either be completely canceled or held without an audience.
Even if the pandemic ends in June or July, I still don’t think TI 10 will happen in August. It will take some time for the government to stabilize the situation.
There is a truth we must acknowledge: DOTA2 exists today thanks to high-quality Esports tournaments that are organized spectacularly with huge prize pools. Therefore, when the fourth Major is canceled and the third and fifth Majors are postponed, it’s understandable that players are worried about the future of The International, the pride of this game.
It remains to be seen how Valve will handle the current tense pandemic situation. They may not cancel TI 10, but just deciding the criteria for team participation in this tournament is already a huge headache.