Singapore to host Dota 2 The International 11, a first for Southeast Asia

Valve has announced that Dota 2’s The International 11 (TI11), the game’s annual world championship tournament, will be held in Singapore this October in 2022.

[embed]https://twitter.com/DOTA2/status/1528397637434474497[/embed]

The International 11 will serve as the finale of the 2021-2022 Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) season.

Teams earn their place in The International 11 by winning DPC points at Dota 2’s regional leagues and Majors. The top 12 teams on the leaderboard get automatic acceptance, while the remaining eight slots will be filled through regional qualifiers.

The winner at The International becomes Dota 2 World Champions, which comes with bragging rights, a big cash prize pool, and gets to raise the Aegis of Champions.

Since its inception in 2011, The International has been setting records for the biggest prize pool for esports tournaments. Last year’s TI10 had an eye-watering US$40 million (S$55 million) prize pot.

TI11 will be the first time the grand final will be hosted in Southeast Asia.

Hosting a major esports tournament is not foreign occurrence to Singapore. The country has hosted other massive events in the form of Mobile Legends’ M2 and M3 World Championships.

[[nid:564264]]

Plus, Singapore has also been around for past Dota Majors as well most recently in 2021 with the event held at the Fairmont Hotel.

The venues in Singapore are a split between the Indoor Stadium and Suntec City, both locations have hosted large scale gaming events in the past.

Overall, with the Dota 2 The International being held in Singapore scores a win for the host nation.

But some work lies ahead as everyone will look to Singapore as a test case to showcase the country as a major esports/gaming tourism location post-pandemic with a less restrictive visa and quarantine policy which is an issue that plagues many players in the esports scene.

This article was first published in Geek Culture.