The International is Dota 2’s biggest event. Every year it breaks the previous prize pool record and soon it might be coming to New Zealand. At least according to Gabe Newell.
Gabe Newell was on a holiday with his friends and family when the coronavirus struck. Due to the global pandemic Valve co-founder Gabe Newell was stuck in New Zealand. That wasn’t a bad thing at all for GabeN as he even thanked the community with a free concert.
The International in New Zealand?
In a recent interview with TVNZ, Newell revealed that a lot of Valve employees have expressed interest in relocating to New Zealand as the country did an amazing job with the virus. Life is as normal as it gets and there are little to no restrictions. More importantly, Newell hinted at the possibility of a Dota 2 International in New Zealand.
The International is the esports event with the highest prize pool in all of esports. This year it wasn’t held because of the pandemic but the annual Battle Pass still managed to earn over $40 million in prize money.
It's a realistic possibility and it gets more realistic all the time. I literally could not, if I had to guess when it would be safe to do an in-person tournament anywhere [else] in the world, it would be very hard for me to say that — whereas I think, with a lot of confidence, we'd be able to plan for that in New Zealand. Hopefully the procedures can be put in place so that becomes feasible — like, you know, this is what the quarantine would look like. As long as Covid keeps mutating, it certainly is increasing the likelihood that we'll be having events here.
That’s certainly good news for all Dota 2 fans in New Zealand! Instead of traveling to the other side of the world, the event will come at their doorstep.
Gabe Newell Converting Friends to Dota 2
Gabe Newell is the face of gaming for many of us and he’s not just for show. GabeN still plays games regularly and Dota 2 is among them. In fact, he’s trying to get his friends to play it as well and even gives them lessons.
There are actually 52 of us who came here, so I've been turning a bunch of people into DOTA 2 players. I've been running classes in DOTA. What I really want to do is get a bunch of people to play the way I want them to play
Maybe that’s the way to bring in new players into the game. Have you converted any of your friends to Dota 2? Tell us on our Facebook page or Discord server!
- READ MORE: The Dota 2 Client Gets a Big DPC Update
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