Valve’s The International annual DotA 2 tournament has been held in Seattle for the past 6 years, but this year they shook things up by having the event held in Vancouver, Canada. However it seems that its stop in Canada might be rather brief because come 2019, Valve will be taking the event to Shanghai, China.
This was confirmed at the end of The International 2018 where the vice mayor of Shanghai, Weng Tiehui, made the announcement and confirmation where he said, “The city of Shanghai will provide its full support for the event.” This will be the first time that the tournament will be held in Asia, where previously the games were held at Cologne, Germany for its inaugural launch, followed by the US, and then Canada.
As Games Industry points out, the decision to bring it to China is no doubt a reflection of how popular the game is in the country, not to mention how many professional Chinese teams there are out there. For gamers who are looking to attend the event, presumably the main stage will be conducted in Chinese, so maybe it might be a good idea to brush up on your Mandarin if you are thinking about making the trip.
This year’s The International also saw the prize pool hit $24.8 million which is the most the competition has ever raised, while at the same time making it one of the largest in eSports history.