Valve Announces $1 Million DOTA 2 Tournament

Posted 08/02/2011 at 6:05am | by Paul Lilly

3

Comments

Print

There are several different ways to increase your net worth by seven figures. You could rob a bank, though that comes with a huge downside. If you have a killer jump shot, the NBA pays obscene amounts of money to its players, only the league is currently in a lockout. You could toil away for the man, only there's not much of a fun factor there. Yet another way is to participate in, and conquer Valve's newly announced "The International" tournament, and that's exactly what 16 teams will do.

Valve's tournament is the first time DOTA 2 will be shown in public. In case you're not familiar, DOTA stands for Defense of the Ancients, which itself began as a mod for Warcraft 3. Valve wrapped its tentacles around the development team and put them to work on DOTA 2, and it appears the followup act is ready.

The International features 16 top class DOTA teams in the world competing in the DOTA 2 championships through a group stage, double elimination playoff format that run's through Cologne's five-day trade show (August 17th to 21st). The winning team will receive $1 million, and you'll be able to watch the tournament being broadcast in one of four languages, including Chinese, German, Russian, and English.

"The International is the first public Dota 2 event and will give the tens of millions of gamers playing Dota around the world their first look at the new game," said Gabe Newell, president and founder of Valve. "I have had the good fortune to watch the competitors as they prepare for the tournament, and the level of play is extraordinary."

As for the game itself, Valve says DOTA 2 will available for the PC and Mac later this year.