Valve Announces Where 2023’s The International Will Take Place

Valve has announced that The International (TI), the world’s largest Dota 2 tournament, will be held in Seattle, United States, this year. This is the 12th edition of the event, and it’s going down at the Climate Pledge Arena, which can hold up to 18,000 people.

The tournament will run from 27–29 October 2023, with the group stage and playoffs combined under the title, The Road to the International. The group stage starts on 14 October, and Valve promises to share more details about The Road to the International soon.

If you’re a Dota 2 fan in the Americas, you’ll be pumped to hear that this is the first time in six years that the tournament will be held in Seattle. The last time was in 2017 when Team Liquid won the grand championship by defeating Newbee.

So far, only Team Liquid has been confirmed to compete at TI12, and other teams will be selected gradually as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2023 progresses. Unfortunately, there probably won’t be a last-chance qualifier this year, like there was in 2022, due to pandemic-related travel concerns.

Last year, the pandemic caused trouble for many teams participating in DPC events, but Valve hosted a last-chance qualifier to help them out. At the last TI in Singapore in 2022, Tundra Esports dominated and defeated Team Secret 3-0 in the grand final to claim the championship title and the biggest slice of the US$18,930,775 USD prize money.