On the night of May 1, the expected, but no less a very sorrowful announcement took place – Valve postponed the tenth edition of The International indefinitely. Dota 2 community is also going through hard times, as its player base has dropped to the level of 2014, even CS: GO has already surpassed it in the average number of active players. However, in this article we will have a comprehensive look at why one of the most prestigious titles will not suffer due to the cancellation of the event.
An update on The International https://t.co/zVOIy0jWaX
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) April 30, 2020
The International is not so important
The International usually takes place in August and it is never the most popular month for Dota 2 in terms of player numbers. For example, in 2019, Dota 2 was played most of all in February and March, as well as in May, when the Battle Pass 2019 was released.
Dota 2 only once in the past two years has been able to reach the mark of a million simultaneous users. This happened in March 2019, when Dota Auto Chess was popular. In 2018, the highest average online was recorded in January, and the largest player growth occurred again in May with the release of the Battle Pass. The best peak online performance in Dota 2 is due to the release of major patches and new rating seasons.
The esports scene, of course, is important for Dota 2, but for users, the key factors are the game and the changes that developers introduce. Peak online player base was recorded in February 2015 during the Chinese New Year event, as well as in February and March 2016, when the Winter Pass Pass was released. In each of these months, over 1.2 million people were simultaneously in Dota 2 and August has never been able to reach this mark.
Diretide instead of The International
Since Valve does not need to organize The International, it can redeploy other events. Previously, TI represented a kind of extremely beneficial advertising campaign for developers, providing high profits, media interest, and viewing on Twitch. Now, this gap needs to be filled with other methods – this may force developers to actively act in the game itself.
A summer without TI 😣 pic.twitter.com/hWqcr9SG4t
— Team Secret (@teamsecret) April 30, 2020
Valve is often blamed for the fact that the company practically does not promote Dota 2, unlike Riot, which works hard on the development of League of Legends, releasing cinematics and even creates exclusive music videos. Now Gabe will have time to do this.
Any new content for Dota 2 is of great interest to the community. The success of Dota Auto Chess showed that you can attract players with custom maps. Valve has started releasing regular patches for Dota 2 but has almost forgotten about in-game events. For example, before the winter holiday “Cold Frost” introduced a special mode into the game which was similar to an event in 2018. In December 2019, Valve simply added Arcana to Ogre Magi without any additional events.
The cancellation of The International is a huge loss for the eSports industry and fans, but it is also a chance that Valve will finally take a serious look at Dota 2 issues and deal with them.
