IceFrog, one of the developers of the original DotA mod and currently working on Dota 2 posted about The International on Twitter.
If you’ve played DotA (the first one) there’s a high chance you’re familiar with who IceFrog is. The developer has played a crucial role in the original Warcraft III mod that eventually grew into Dota 2. IceFrog is also the only remaining developer from the original team as the rest have either retired or switched to League of Legends. His name isn’t publicly known, and the frog is somewhat of an urban legend within the community. Needless to say, he keeps up with that persona by posting really really often, like once a year. Yesterday/Today (depending on your time zone) was one of those days as IceFrog made a statement about The International and the pandemic.
TI finals is always the best day of the year, sad we don't get to see a new champion today. This has been a really tough year for a lot of people around the world, hope you are all keeping safe.
— IceFrog (@IceFrog) August 24, 2020
The International 10 was originally scheduled to come to an end on August 23 but it never came to be due to the coronavirus pandemic. The annual event in Dota 2 is usually the highlight in the title’s competitive scene and skipping it this year has played a major role for some teams. In fact, the purpose of some organizations is to make a Dota 2 team just for The International. A good example was Cloud9, who attempted to return to the scene, only to fail and leave it once again. Whether they decided to turn their back on Dota 2 due to a lack of results or the fact that there won’t be a TI this year is unknown. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two.
As we’ve already mentioned IceFrog doesn’t post very often and his statement that there aren’t any champions this year can probably be taken even further. Valve have remained silent on a potential date for the big event and we highly doubt it’ll be happening this year. Travel restrictions and quarantines are still active in most countries and the summer is almost over. The last time we heard anything about TI from Valve was regarding The International 11. The latter is planned for 2022 and as we’ve mentioned in a previous article it only makes sense that this year’s edition will be postponed to 2021.
2020 has been a rough year from the start but the majority of the teams and organizers managed to adapt to the newly found online format. This year events are more region-focused than ever with international ones held to a minimum. Valve are planning to bring in regional leagues in the next season, but we already got a good idea thanks to the pandemic. The conclusion? They definitely work but what's clearly missing are the big events where the top teams from each region can clash. Hopefully, 2021 will be a better year for Dota 2 and for everyone.
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