On June 22, it became known that The International 10 helding in Sweden is in question. Valve began cooperating with Sweden back in 2019. The main goal of the cooperation was to host the main Dota 2 tournament in Stockholm, Sweden. But as we know, due to the Covid-19 pandemic last year, the tournament had to be postponed. In 2021, the pandemic situation did not improve and Swedish officials questioned the safety of the situation at the tournament.
As it became known, Sweden has extended travel bans for all countries that are not part of the European Union without good reason until August 31, 2021. Despite this, Sweden has named a small number of countries that will not be affected. But, it did not include the CIS countries and China, the USA, and other countries that will take part in the tournament.
This statement was submitted a couple of weeks ago, and of course, Valve was aware of this, but very much hoped for the Swedish authorities.
Back in 2020, Stockholm Live and Visit Stockholm took on responsibilities and asserted that all teams and players who would need to participate in the tournament would receive «privileges». By privileges, we mean that The International will receive quarantine exemptions, as other sports tournaments and events in Sweden receive.
But, unfortunately, against the background of the fact that Sweden is now in a not very favorable political situation, where the government will have to resign, despite all the assurances from Swedish politicians, Valve announced that the Swedish sports federation voted against the adoption of esports in as a sport. Thus, all esports events do not fall under the «privileges».
Valve responded immediately and asked the Swedish Esports Federation (SESF) and Visit Stockholm to give The International professional sports status. But SESF has rejected the request.
Because of this, no one (except for people who are not subject to restrictions on entry into the country) will be able to obtain a Swedish visa despite the restrictions, even if the stated goal is to participate in The International 10.
Since Valve is firmly committed to hosting The International this year, many good things have been done. According to the company itself, an appeal was filed directly with the Swedish government twice, but unfortunately, this did not solve the problem. Due to the current situation, Valve began to actively seek a solution that would help host the tournament in Europe.
A couple of days later, the German Esports Federation (ESBD – eSport-Bund Deutschland) announced that the country was ready to host the tournament. This became known from Twitter, where ESBD responded to Valve’s statement that it would not be possible to host The International 10 in Sweden.
If initially, Valve hoped that there is still a small chance of hosting The International in Sweden, it doesn’t matter now. Since the ESBD made it clear that the country will easily help with visa registration for all event participants, it has everything you need to hold such a big tournament. Of course, the German esports community will only be glad to accept The International.
After Germany, the CIS region also expressed its desires to host The International 10. Almost simultaneously, as soon as it became clear that Valve was looking for a venue and Germany did not hesitate to offer help, WePlay (Kiev) and Epic Esports Events (Moscow) also decided to lend a hand. WePlay Esports General Producer Maxim Belonogov and EEE Product Director Mark March3llo Averbukh expressed great interest in partial or full tournament hosting. But it’s one thing when ESBD turns to Valve and says that everything is ready. Another thing is when the organizers with UA and RU do not even know whether they can arrange everything at the level of Eastern Europe in the person of Germany. Still, the enthusiasm is worth noting.
Moving away from the problem of the location of The International, it is necessary to consider the tournament itself. All teams that have received a direct invitation to the DPC tournament have become known.
Another 6 teams will compete for a trip to the tournament through qualifications. One more team from each region will join the tournament. Qualifications will take place on different dates. For example, the CIS qualifications will begin on June 23rd, and the European ones will begin only on July 7th. Tournament grids of all regions are already available for review.
It is also worth mentioning that four teams at once that received a direct invitation to The International had problems. All teams participating in the tournament from China cannot leave Kyiv, in which they previously took part in Animajor. All this happened because an expensive charter flight, which WePlay had promised, was canceled. The problems were aggravated because the Chinese government has tightened the rules for entering the country, not only that charters do not fly there, and this will last right up to June 30.
Therefore, all Chinese teams had no choice but to apply for visas to Sweden from Kyiv and fly there from Boryspil. But now both visas and the trip itself are under a huge question. And returning home to China is also not an option since the teams will have to go through three weeks of isolation upon arrival, greatly complicate the tournament’s preparation.
This is a big problem for the teams. Even though WePlay tries to provide all the conditions, the teams fail to prepare well for The International and eat properly due to the differences in the traditions of the cuisine. In addition to all this, the players do not want to leave the rooms to not expose themselves to the danger of contracting Covid-19. All these factors make the Chinese Dota 2 grandees outsiders of The International 10.
But everything can change dramatically if Valve looks towards WePlay and lets the company hold a tournament. After Animajor, everyone has visas. Some teams are still in Ukraine. An easy way for Valve, but not all that rosy. Valve has no room for error after already one year of postponing the tournament, and the company will take this issue very seriously.
The whole situation around The International 10 looks horrible. But Valve cannot afford to postpone such a significant tournament for another year. And here it is not only that the fans and teams are not happy, but Valve themselves will suffer greatly from this.
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