The International 2021 is looking for a home – Valve is holding open auditions

The International is probably the biggest tournament within the Dota 2 esports world – it’s a multi-week tournament series that draws huge numbers of players and fans every year. Without fail, the event ends up on the ‘most-watched’ lists for the year as well – and the next one is up for grabs already.

Not for the players mind you, but rather for the potential host cities. Much in the same way that the Olympics host-cities bid in order to be allowed to host the event. Valve is now accepting bids from locations that want to host the 2021 event.

The proposals from new locations are due by March 31^st. To this end, Valve released a detailed document outlining just what they expect – and what they are offering. One of the biggest benefits to the hosting cities there is the huge influx of visitors.

© Dota 2 The International

High requirements for The International 2021 location

That at least is also intended as an incentive to less esports-savvy cities to apply to host the event. There is a fair amount of leeway for cities to tailor their proposal to – Valve’s requirements may include a strong fibre internet connection and room for up to 18k visitors over 10 days, but outside of that, there isn’t an awful lot the publisher required. The hotel space for 30k visitors is also required – but that’s fairly readily available in any location large enough to host the event in the first place.

Valve places high enough priority on safety to mention it as a requirement for their proposals. Valve has already set up to host a Q&A session about the proposal bidding. Questions must be submitted in written form by March 15^th. The session is supposed to help clarify and explain any unclear parts to interested cities.

Of course, all this isn’t for this year’s event but rather for next – this year’s International is going to take place in Stockholm, Sweden in August this year. Stockholm is far from the only big city to have played host to this Dota 2 event though – previous locations include Seattle and Shanghai, for example.

The benefits

For participating cities, the event takes up nearly a month – between prep work, hosting setups, group stages, rehearsals, and the main event as well as taking everything apart afterward, a typical event will take between three and four weeks for the host city – all the while massively driving up visitor numbers.

An example: Tourism Vancouver expected that their hosting of the event injected a good $7.8 million dollars into their local economy – that’s no small amount, even for a city as large as Vancouver is.

The deadlines

As mentioned, the deadline for the actual submissions is the 31^st of March, and the deadline for the questions is the 15^th of March. Valve promises to have the final selection of the host city complete by June 15^th – and in August, at this year’s International, they will be announcing publicly who was selected as the 2021 host city.

That leaves just a little more time for cities to prepare their questions and bids, and soon enough, fans will know where to book their flights to for the 2021 event!

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