Less than a day left before The International 10 - share our thoughts on the tournament in a mini-preview

Tomorrow at 9:00 am the main eSports event for the last 2 years starts. The anniversary The International 10 will start in Bucharest on October 7 and run until the 17th.

In a small preview, we share our expectations and fantasize about The International 10. We hope that the main tournament of the year will be remembered not only by incidents of COVID diseases and obscure practice rooms.

The opening ceremony

The first thing you really expect from the 10th tournament of The International series is the memorable opening ceremony.

This year's Arena Națională will not accept spectators due to quarantine regulations, but this should not mean at all that we will be left without the opening ceremony. Until October 12 (then the playoffs will begin) PGL were required to prepare a show worthy of the 40,000,000 World Championship.

Valve announcements

The International 10 is the series' anniversary tournament. Despite the fact that Valve is involved in its implementation only indirectly, and all the main work fell on PGL, I want to see the involvement of Dota publishers.

Big announcements are an excellent indicator of this engagement. And we're not talking about a couple of new heroes who will be shown with 100% probability.

A new season of Dota anime, a new game in the Battle of the Ancients universe, a new part of the mob? There is where to take a walk.

High quality dota

4 months have passed since the last Major of the season, and qualifications for The International ended in July. The teams had enough time to prepare, and we are sure they did not waste it in vain.

The time to put the trump cards on the table will come tomorrow.

Battles in different regions

Following up on the high quality Dota item. International pillbox is still criminally small.

Two majors in the season have whetted the appetite, and The International 10 has every chance of satisfying it.

Speech by two-time world champions

Over the past 4 years, The International has been associated with the OG team. Their games at TI have become a benchmark "champion performance".

On the example of the Singapore Major, we saw what teams from the regions are habitually “weaker” can do. This time the stakes are only increasing, which means there should be more fiery performances.

The years of the pandemic only more strongly hammered into the head a logical chain, where OG = TI Winner, and therefore you are probably waiting for their games more than others. Moreover, the storyline of the two-time champions is once again eerily cinematic: the departure of two players of the star squad, an indistinct season, overcoming the qualifications, the departure of two players of the star squad, an operation in front of Seb.

This team collects all the hype of the world and therefore it is a pleasure to follow it.

Continuation of the story with COVID-19

Upon arrival in Bucharest, Team Aster fell ill with the coronavirus in full force (which we wrote about in a separate article). In addition, Flyfly passed a positive test, and therefore PGL and Valve decided to allow the sick player to play from numbers. This will apply to other teams as well, if the cases of infections are repeated.

The tournament organizers have chosen the only correct path in order not to endanger other players and other personnel at TI. Entertainment will suffer from this, but this is the reality today.

I wonder how the potential grand final will look like, in which one of the teams plays on an empty stage, and the other from a hotel room.

At a low start

There are only a few hours left before the start of The International 10. All of the above are purely personal wishes and ideas of the author. We will be glad to hear your expectations from the main Dota tournament in the comments.

Welcome to The International, ladies and gentlemen.