The International delayed, most likely to 2021

Although the situation with the global outbreak seems to start to recover slowly, things will definitely not come back to regular for some time.  Many planned esports and gaming events have been officially cancelled, even the ones planned in late August, like QuakeCon 2020, and the biggest European gaming festival, Gamescom 2020.

Now, we have the newest victim - Dota 2 The International.

• Read more: Fortnite World Cup 2020 is cancelled, broadcasts to return for FNCS

This annual Dota 2 world championship is traditionally held mid-August, and this year should have returned to Europe after nine years and the very first The International held in Cologne, back in 2011.

Unfortunately for the fans around the world who planned to enjoy the best Dota 2 this summer, The International 2020 is officially delayed, and most likely won't happen this year at all, but will be postponed to 2021 instead.

This was confirmed by Valve this evening in a short blog post that addressed the issue.

"After extensive consideration of the global health emergency stemming from COVID-19, we have made the difficult choice to delay The International," Valve says in a statement. "We have been exploring various date possibilities, but it is likely that the event will need to happen in 2021. Given the highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies, we don’t expect to have enough confidence to communicate firm dates in the near future."

Read more: Riot officially cancels MSI 2020 - expands team pool for Worlds

Valve further confirms they are working on restructuring the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season for the fall, without current info or details how will that look.

Finally, the thing that makes Dota 2 players excited the most: Battle Pass. Good news is that the Battle Pass is coming, Valve has confirmed this, and they say that they are planning on releasing it soon instead of closer to postponed The International, but things are going a bit slower then they would like due to work from home. With that in mind, the Battle Past will come a few weeks later than its usual release time in previous years.

When it comes to The International prize pool funding, it's business as usual, 25% of sales of the next Battle Pass will still go to The 10th International, whenever it took place.

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