You read that correctly. Valve is putting on a tournament for Dota 2, dubbed The International, at Germany’s gamescom from August 17th to the 21st. Broadcast live for free, the 16 best Dota teams in the world will play in a “group stage, double elimination playoff format.” This will be our first time seeing the game in action.
The winning team will take home an absurd $1 million, which would sound like a joke if it weren’t Valve we were talking about here. The link above lists all of the teams involved, if you actually follow this scene closely enough to know these players by name.
When I originally saw the press release for this, I was all “Hey, that’s cool. We finally get to see what Dota 2 is all about after months of silence.” Then I saw what the prize was. This is going to be incredible to watch.
