The International

The International is an annual double-elimination LAN tournament hosted by Valve. 16 invited professional DotA teams fight for the title of best Dota 2 team. The event takes place in different parts of the world during the summer.

2011
Valve announced The International in August 2011 as the first view on Dota 2. The tournament was held at Gamescom in Cologne. 16 invited teams were fighting for a total prize pool of $1.6 million. This gave the tournament the highest prize pool ever awarded to date.

2012
Unlike the previous tournament, Valve held The International 2012 by themselves in Benaroya Holl in Seattle with 14 teams invited and 2 chosen with qualifier.