The International (TI) is an annual esports tournament for the five-on-five video game Dota 2. It is organized by the game’s developer, Valve, and marks the end of the professional Dota 2 season. The event currently includes 16 teams. The first International took place in Germany at the 2011 Gamescom event to help promote the game’s release. Later, the tournament was held in Seattle, where Valve is based, until it returned to international locations starting with The International 2018 in Vancouver.
The tournament’s prize pool has been funded by players through in-game purchases since 2013. A quarter of the money earned from these transactions goes directly to the prize pool. The International has the largest prize pool of any esports event, reaching up to $40 million in 2021. The most recent champions are Team Falcons, who won The International 2025. Other teams, including OG, Team Spirit, and Team Liquid, have each won the tournament twice since it began.
History
Valve announced the first edition of The International on August 1, 2011. Sixteen teams were invited to compete in the tournament, which also marked the first public viewing of Dota 2. Valve funded the event, including a grand prize of one million US dollars, with Nvidia providing the hardware. The tournament took place at Gamescom in Cologne from August 17 to 21, 2011. The competition began with a group stage, where the winners of each of the four groups advanced to a winner’s bracket, and the other teams moved to a loser’s bracket. The rest of the tournament followed a double-elimination format. The final match featured Ukrainian team Natus Vincere and Chinese team EHOME, with Natus Vincere winning the series 3–1. EHOME received 250,000 US dollars, and the remaining 14 teams split the remaining 350,000 US dollars.
In May 2012, Valve confirmed that The International would become an annual event. The International 2012 was held at the 2,500-seat Benaroya Hall in Seattle from August 31 to September 2. Teams competed in glass booths on the main stage. The total prize pool remained at 1.6 million US dollars, with 1 million US dollars awarded to the winning team. The previous winners, Natus Vincere, lost 3–1 to Chinese team Invictus Gaming in the grand finals. In November 2012, Valve released a free documentary about the event, which included interviews with teams and coverage from the preliminary stages to the finale.
The International 2013 was held again at Benaroya Hall in Seattle from August 7 to 11. Sixteen teams participated, with thirteen receiving direct invitations and the final three determined through two qualifying tournaments and a match at the start of the event. In May 2013, Valve introduced an in-game battle pass called the Compendium, which allowed players to contribute to the prize pool. A quarter of the revenue from the Compendium was added to the base prize pool of 1.6 million US dollars. The prize pool eventually reached over 2.8 million US dollars, the largest in esports history at the time. Kaci Aitchison, a KCPQ news anchor, hosted the event, offering behind-the-scenes commentary and player interviews. The tournament reached over one million concurrent viewers at its peak through live streaming platforms like Twitch.
The International 2014 took place from July 18 to 21 at the KeyArena in Seattle. Eleven teams received direct invites, with four additional spots determined by regional qualifiers held between May 12 and 25. The sixteenth spot was decided in a wild card qualifier involving runners-up from regional competitions. Tickets for the event sold out within an hour of going on sale in April. The crowdfunded prize pool again set a record, reaching over 10.9 million US dollars. This made eight Dota 2 players the highest-earning esports athletes at the time, surpassing the top-earning player, Lee "Jaedong" Jae-dong of StarCraft. 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, one for each season. The Fall, Winter, and Spring Majors were sponsored by Valve but organized by third-party hosts in different international locations, while the Summer Major was The International. This format debuted in the 2015–2016 season, featuring the Frankfurt Major, Shanghai Major, and Manila Major, with The International 2016 as the final event. In the 2016–2017 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, while ten other teams qualified through regional tournaments. The circuit was created to make the selection process for direct invites more clear and transparent. Over the 2017–2018 season, the Dota Pro Circuit included nine Majors (excluding The International 2018) and 13 Minors.
The International 2020 was the first to skip a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled for Stockholm, Sweden, the event was postponed after the Swedish Sports Federation refused to recognize esports as a sport, complicating visa arrangements for international players. Valve rescheduled the event and rebranded it as The International 2021, which was held at the Arena Națională in Bucharest, Romania, in October 2021. It set a record for the largest prize pool of any single esports event at 40 million US dollars.
The International 2022 expanded to 20 teams and was held in Singapore in October 2022, with Tundra Esports winning the tournament. It was the first International to not exceed the previous year’s prize pool, which was 18.9 million US dollars, the lowest since The International 2015. The International 2023 was hosted at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, built on the same site as KeyArena, and ran from October 27 to 29. In September 2023, Valve announced that the 2023 season would mark the end of the Dota Pro Circuit.
Format
Starting with the second tournament, teams are chosen through a mix of methods. Some teams are invited directly based on their yearly performance, while others must compete in qualifying tournaments to earn a spot. The main tournament usually begins with a group stage where teams play each other in a round-robin format, followed by a double-elimination bracket for the final rounds.
Since The International 2013, the prize pool is mainly funded by players buying a special item called the Compendium. This item gives buyers access to exclusive in-game rewards. Twenty-five percent of the money earned from yearly Compendium sales goes directly to the prize pool. Players are the main source of funding for the tournament. From 2013 until 2022, each year’s tournament had a larger prize pool than the one before it. The International 2021 had the largest prize pool, offering $40 million total to teams. However, prize pools began 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 designed with inspiration from Norse and Chinese art and is made of bronze and silver by Weta Workshop, a prop-making company. 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 the video game streaming platform Twitch. Professional esports teams and staff provide live commentary, analysis, predictions, and interviews with players during the events, similar to how sports events are covered on television. Many streams are available in different languages, mostly 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 followed three players during the first International in 2011. In 2016, Valve started a documentary series called True Sight, which was inspired by Free to Play. This series covered the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 tournaments. However, True Sight stopped being made after the 2022 tournament.