The Dota 2 International is one of the most significant events hosted by Valve, hugely centered around their MOBA crown jewel, DOTA 2. Valve has decided to cancel all their plans for this event which was to be held in front of a live audience in Bucharest, Romania. They will also refund all the tickets sold immediately. This is indeed disappointing, as this is not what fans had been looking forward to for over a year.

The International event for DOTA 2 stands canceled

Just 12 days ago, Valve announced on the DOTA 2 blog site that after careful consideration, they had decided to allow live audiences at the main event for The International 2021 in Bucharest, Romania. The tickets went on sale on September 22, 2021, and fans started buying them in large numbers7.

The International DOTA 2 Championships were expected to go through the Group Stages between October 7 and October 10 which would be followed by the main event at National Arena from October 12 to October 17.

However, Valve had to cancel this event due to an increase in the daily COVID-19 cases in Bucharest. Valve has resorted to offering immediate refunds for the ticket costs as well.

Last year as well, Valve had to postpone this event due to the pandemic and have admitted that they had no idea when they could resume with it once again. By June 2021, when the situation started getting seemingly better, Valve had plans for holding the tournament in Sweden. The Swedish government does not recognize The International as an “elite sports event” hence, the plan seemed to have been thwarted.

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Valve had finally chosen Bucharest as a venue for holding their main MOBA event in July 2021. This, however, has come to a very sad end, as Romania is currently seeing a surge in the number of COVID infections. It has also come to notice that the pro-DOTA 2 club, Team Aster, has several members testing positive for COVID-19, including three players.

Valve has taken the decision to cancel the event citing safety concerns and stated in their blog that the event will be continued online as planned from October 7. COVID-19 might have ruined the plans for the grand event but Valve has still managed to find a way to host the event online for their fans.

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