TI10 will no longer take place in Sweden as per a post by Valve released today.
Disaster in the world of Dota 2 Esports as Valve announces that TI10 will once against be postponed. In an announcement released this evening (June 21st), Valve revealed that the event will be delayed for a second time.
In the announcement post on the Dota 2 website, the company outlined the reasons for the delay: “Over the course of the past year, Stockholm Live and Visit Stockholm continued to reassure us in our regular and constant communications with them that The International - Dota 2 Championships qualified for the same exemptions other elite sporting events there received.”
“However, despite previous reassurances, we were informed two weeks ago that the Swedish Sports Federation had just voted not to accept esports into the sports federation.”
This ruling means that TI would not receive any visa exemptions for talent to travel to Sweden for the event. Sweden currently has one of the more strict entry protocols in Europe due to covid restrictions. It is very difficult for those outside the Schengen are to travel to the country.
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Another delay for The International
Stockholm, Sweden was the original location venue for The International in 2019. Valve had indefinitely postponed TI10 in 2020 due to the global pandemic. A year later and the Dota 2 world finds itself in a similar situation.
For now Valve has committed to find possible alternatives to host the event this year. They added that “We feel confident that in either instance we will have a solution that allows us to hold TI10 in Europe this year, and that we will be able to announce an updated plan in the very near future.”
The announcement will not change anything for the teams looking to qualify for TI, apart from the location they will have to travel to. Qualifiers will still begin on June 23rd. Still, its a huge blow to Dota 2 fans and pro players after the recent high quality of the AniMajor and ESL One Summer 2021.
Almost as a consolation to the TI10 news, Valve revealed that the promised June event, Nemestice, will arrive later this week. The full announcement is available here.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.