The International (TI) is an annual esports world championship for the five-on-five video game Dota 2. It is organized by Valve, the game's developer, and serves as the final event of the professional Dota 2 season. The tournament currently includes 16 teams. The International was first held in Germany at the 2011 Gamescom event to promote the game's release. It was later held in Seattle, where Valve is based, until it began being hosted in different countries again starting with The International 2018 in Vancouver.
The tournament's prize pool has been funded through in-game purchases since 2013. A quarter of all revenue from these purchases goes directly to the prize pool. The International has the largest single-tournament prize pool of any esports event. Its largest prize pool reached $40 million in 2021. The most recent champion is Team Falcons, who won The International 2025. OG, Team Spirit, and Team Liquid each have won two Internationals since the event began.
History
Valve held the first edition of The International on August 1, 2011. Sixteen teams were invited to compete. This event was the first time Dota 2 was shown publicly. Valve funded the tournament, including a $1 million grand prize. Nvidia provided the hardware. The tournament took place at Gamescom in Cologne from August 17–21, 2011. The event began with a group stage. The winners of each of the four groups advanced to a winner’s bracket, while the other teams moved to a loser’s bracket. The rest of the tournament followed a double-elimination format. The final match was between Ukrainian team Natus Vincere and Chinese team EHOME. Natus Vincere won the series 3–1. EHOME received $250,000, and the remaining $350,000 was split among the other 14 teams.
In May 2012, Valve confirmed that The International would be held annually. The International 2012 took place at Benaroya Hall in Seattle from August 31 to September 2, 2012. Teams sat in glass booths on the main stage. The prize pool remained at $1.6 million, with $1 million for the winning team. Chinese team Invictus Gaming defeated Natus Vincere 3–1 in the grand finals. In November 2012, Valve released a free documentary about the event. The film included interviews with teams and coverage from the tournament’s start to the final match.
The International 2013 was held again at Benaroya Hall in Seattle from August 7–11, 2013. Sixteen teams participated. Thirteen teams received direct invitations, and three spots were decided through two qualifying tournaments and a match at the start of the event. In May 2013, Valve introduced a special in-game item called the Compendium. Players could buy the Compendium to help fund the prize pool. A quarter of the Compendium’s revenue was added to the base $1.6 million prize pool. The total prize pool reached over $2.8 million, making it the largest in esports history at the time. Kaci Aitchison, a news anchor, hosted the event and provided commentary and interviews. The tournament was viewed by over a million people at its peak through live streaming platforms like Twitch.
The International 2014 was held at KeyArena in Seattle from July 18–21, 2014. Eleven teams received direct invitations, and four spots were decided through regional qualifiers held between May 12–25. The final spot was determined by a wild card qualifier between runners-up from regional competitions. Tickets sold out within an hour of going on sale. The prize pool reached over $10.9 million, a record for esports. Eight Dota 2 players became the highest-earning players in esports history at the time. The event was also broadcast on ESPN networks for the first time.
In April 2015, Valve introduced the Dota Major Championships, a series of four annual tournaments. Three of these tournaments were sponsored by Valve and hosted by other organizations in different countries, while the fourth was The International. This format began with the 2015–2016 season, featuring the Frankfurt Major, Shanghai Major, and Manila Major, leading up to The International 2016. In the next season, the number of Major tournaments was reduced to three: the Boston Major, Kiev Major, and The International 2017. Starting with The International 2017, the number of participating teams increased from 16 to 18.
For the 2017–2018 season, Valve introduced the Dota Pro Circuit, a series of tournaments that awarded qualifying points. The eight teams with the highest point totals received direct invitations to The International 2018. Ten other teams qualified through regional tournaments. The circuit was created to make the selection process for direct invites clearer and more transparent. During the 2017–2018 season, the Dota Pro Circuit included nine Major tournaments (excluding The International 2018) and 13 Minor tournaments.
The International 2020 was the first to skip a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally planned for Stockholm, Sweden, the Swedish Sports Federation decided not to recognize esports as a sport, making it hard for Valve to help international players get travel visas. Valve later rescheduled the event and renamed it The International 2021. The event took place at Arena Națională in Bucharest, Romania, in October 2021. It set a record for the largest prize pool in esports history at $40 million.
The International 2022 increased to 20 teams and was held in Singapore in October 2022. Tundra Esports won the tournament. It was the first International since 2015 with a prize pool lower than the previous year’s, at $18.9 million. The International 2023 was held at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, which was built on the same site as KeyArena. The event took place from October 27 to 29, 2023. In September 2023, Valve announced that the 2023 season would mark the end of the
Format
Except for the first tournament, in which all teams were invited, later tournaments used a mix of ways to choose teams. Some teams received direct invitations based on their yearly performance, while other spots were filled by teams that won smaller qualifying tournaments. The main tournament usually starts with a group stage where teams play each other in a round-robin format, followed by a main event that uses a double-elimination bracket.
Since The International 2013, the tournament’s prize money has mostly come from players buying a special item called the Compendium. This item gives players in-game rewards and other benefits. Twenty-five percent of the money earned from yearly Compendium sales goes directly to the prize pool. Players’ contributions through the Compendium are the main source of prize money for The International. Until 2022, each year’s tournament had a larger prize pool than the one before it. The International 2021 had the largest prize pool, giving $40 million (£29 million) to teams. Prize pools started to decrease in the mid-2020s; The International 2024 had the smallest prize pool since crowdfunding began, totaling $2,602,164.
The Aegis of Champions is a trophy given to the winning team of The International. The back of the trophy has the names of all players on the winning team permanently engraved. The trophy is shaped like a shield and combines designs from Norse and Chinese cultures. It is made of bronze and silver by the prop studio Weta Workshop. Small copies of the trophy are sometimes given to Compendium owners who reach a high level in the Compendium.
Media coverage
The main way people around the world watch International events is through Twitch, a video game streaming platform. During these events, groups and individuals involved in esports provide live commentary, analysis, match predictions, and player interviews, much like how sports events are covered on television. Many streams are available in different languages, including English, Russian, and Chinese. Sometimes, a special stream called the "newcomer stream" is offered to help viewers who are not familiar with the game understand it better.
In 2014, Valve released a free documentary called Free to Play, which showed the experiences of three players during the first International in 2011. In 2016, Valve started a documentary series called True Sight, which was seen as a follow-up to Free to Play. More episodes were made, covering the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 tournaments. However, True Sight stopped being produced after the 2022 tournament.