The 11 “automatic bids’ and 40 teams looking to qualify for this year’s Dota 2 International Championships have been revealed.
The 40-team qualifying rounds begin May 12th, and are divided into four regional divisions. The winner of each division will earn an automatic bid to The International, and the four runners up will compete in an onsite qualifier for the final spot.
To be held July 18th – 21st at theKeyArena in Seattle, WA, tickets to the event were made available late last month and sold out in less than one hour.
The International was first held three years ago in Cologne, Germany during Gamescom with 16 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world competing for a grand prize of $1 million.
In 2013 the prize pool was bolstered beyond Valve’s contribution by Dota 2 player participation in the Interactive Compendium, driving the total prize pool to over $2.8 million, up from $1.6 million. This year’s Compendium will be unveiled soon.
For the past two years, the event was held at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall and achieved peak simultaneous online viewership of over 1 million, plus international television broadcasts and Pubstomp viewing events held in over 40 countries worldwide.
Dota 2 is a free-to-play, online action strategy game created by Valve (Bellevue, WA based makers of multiple game franchises and the leading online distribution platform, Steam).
This year’s tournament will again be broadcast worldwide, free of charge, with play-by-play commentary in multiple languages.
Official Website: http://www.dota2.com
