'The International' DOTA 2 tiff kicks off in October with new host

MANILA, Philippines — Good news for DOTA 2 fans as game developer Valve has announced that The International (TI10), their annual esports world championship DOTA tournament, is pushing through this October with a new location: Bucharest, Romania.

The 10th edition of DOTA2's biggest tournament, with a prize pool of $40,018,195, was postponed back in 2020 due to the COVID19 pandemic.

It was slated to begin early this August in its initial location Sweden.

However, after months of constant communication from all parties, the Swedish Sports Federation voted not to accept esports into the sports federation — making it difficult for players to secure a visa to participate in the tournament. This prompted Valve to look for a new host in late June.

"We are thrilled to announce The International 10-Dota 2 Championships will be held this October in Bucharest, Romania, and the epic battle for the Aegis of Champions will fittingly unfold inside the country's largest stadium — Arena Nationala." announced Valve via the DOTA2 website.

"We are grateful for the partnership we have formed with Romania and the city of Bucharest, and very much look forward to gathering with the global Dota 2 community, both in-person and virtually, to celebrate the elite players and amazing fandom at The International." they added. "Prepare yourselves. At long last, the battle begins."

Filipino squad TNC Predator will unfortunately miss out on the tiff as they suffered a defeat at the SEA Qualifiers against Fnatic.

But five Filipinos from three different teams are heading to Romania with their respective squads: Marc Polo “Raven” Fausto and Djardel “DJ” Mampusti from Fnatic, Carlo “Kuku” Palad and Karl “Karl” Baldovino from T1 and Abed “Abed” Yusop of Evil Geniuses.