The Dota World Cup is played without a live audience

Dota publisher Valve announced on October 3, 2011 in a press release that the Dota 2 World Cup, more commonly known as The International, will be played this year without an audience. This is unfortunate news for viewers, as last year’s The International was canceled altogether and this year’s World Cup was postponed precisely because the audience could get to the venue. In addition, public tickets for those competitions were already on sale, from which all those who have already bought a ticket will get their money back.

Nevertheless, The International will be held on time on Thursday, October 7th. Valve commented that it is not possible to take the audience to the event so that the safety and health of both employees, teams and the public can be guaranteed. This is partly due to the deteriorating corona situation in Romania.

The International holds the biggest prize pool in esports racing history this year for winners with more than $ 40 million in cash. Dota 2 and The International have already been known for huge prize money in previous years, but this year the World Cup is breaking history in this part, once again.

Viewers disappointed

While The International can be organized, the lack of a live audience has naturally received a lot of negative commentary. A big reason for this is also that Valve’s bulletin was sent only four days before The International itself began.

For its part, this means that some viewers had already begun to travel to Romania. Some viewers, on the other hand, face financial losses when they have to cancel trips and hotels. Many are demanding that Valve compensate for other monetary losses in addition to the ticket price because the cancellation took place so close to the start of the tournament itself.

- Are you going to replace their plane tickets, too? I feel sorry for the person who was supposed to travel from Peru to pay tribute to his soon-to-be-deceased friend who checked Dota, a Twitter user commented.

- I arrived here just five hours ago… I traveled all the way from Brazil, said another Twitter user.

- Imagine all the people who booked hotels and flights. You could have made the decision earlier, describes a third Twitter user.

There are also thousands of other comments on Twitter related to the situation, both for and against the cancellation of that event. Most of those who made negative comments are amazed at just such a decision at the last minute, which Valve has not yet commented on for his part at the time of writing.

Valve has also been criticized by The International for other security measures, among other things. For the teams, for example, security measures have been considered really inadequate, as even before the start of the tournament, players from the two teams have been diagnosed with corona infections. At the moment, it is not yet certain how these players will be able to participate in the tournament after the start of playing in hotels.

It is possible to follow The International via streams

While The International will not be able to be watched live by the audience from the auditorium, there will be several live streams of the event. This makes it possible to watch the Games directly from the home couch, as most spectators would have done in the first place. However, it is almost certain that when the audience cannot be physically present this year, even exceptionally high-quality broadcasts will certainly be offered through live streams.

Watching live streams also means it’s easier to bet on The International. When you watch the Dota 2 World Championships from one device or tab from home, you can bet on those matches at the same time on another device. For example, various betting bonuses can bring a player more play money, which makes betting from The International even smoother.