The International Moves to Vancouver, Canada

Valve announced the dates and venue of The International 2018. This year the main event of the Dota 2 professional scene will take place at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, Canada from August 20th to August 25th.

The first ever The International event was held during GamesCom in Cologne, Germany in 2011, while all the following six tournaments took place in Seattle, United States. There are two possible reasons behind the change of location. First, it was reported that Key Arena, the venue which hosted the previous four events, will be closed for renovation. Second, in the last few years it has become much harder to get visas to the United States, and some of the teams had to play with stand-ins at the previous tournaments. Meantime it should be much easier to travel to Canada, which should increase the level of competition. This year the playoffs will be held at Rogers Arena, an indoor sports arena built in 1995, which capacity is up to 19,700. There will be two types of tickets – The Midweek ticket, which grants access to the first four days of the event and costs $125 CAD, and The Finals ticket, which grant attendance to the last few days and costs $250 CAD. The sales of the tickets will begin on March 23. You can get more information on the tickets from the official FAQ.

At the moment the only team that secured their spot at The International 2018 is Virtus.pro, who managed to win three majors this season and are sitting at the first place of the Dota Pro Circuit rankings with 7197 points. They are followed by Team Liquid with 4635, Team Secret with 4260, Newbee with 2175, Vici Gaming with 2160, VGJ.Thunder with 1485, Nats Vincere with 1109 and Evil Geniuses with 975 points. It should be noted that at the moment only 47% of the points have been allotted, which means that the situation can change drastically, but Virtus.pro will still have their spot.