The International 2025 Returns To Germany!
After 15 long years, The International 2025 returns to it's birth site. Germany will host Valve's biggest tournament once again. The venue and city have shifted since last time though. Instead of Koelnmesse in Cologne, Valve will host the event in Barclays Arena, in Hamburg.
Aside from announcing the location of the event, Valve also shared when the The International 2025 will happen and how teams can qualify for the event.
The International 2025 is set for September
Team Liquid - The Winners of The International 2024. (Credit: Vlave)In the past, The International was played in August, serving as the conclusion of the Dota 2 season. This was moved to October during the Covid-19 epidemic. Since then Valve has been moving the date for the tournament earlier and earlier each year.
The International 2025 will conclude on the 14th of September, after four days of playoffs. Valve hasn't announced when the group stage begins but since the tournament typically lasts for two weeks, we expect it to begin on the first of September.
Similar to the last two iterations, The upcoming International will host 16 teams. This is consistent with the last two times the event happened but a lower team count than TI 11 and 12, which featured 20 teams. Personally we prefer having more lineups to root for and more representation of the game from across the world.
The last bit of information from the update was how teams teams can qualify for The International 2025. After abolishing the DPC, Valve has returned to giving teams Direct Invites, while hosting Open and Regional Qualifiers as well. More information on the process will come but it's likely the qualifiers will be host around three months before the main event kicks off.
Unfortunately there was no news about any upcoming patch, but hopefully we can expect some news after BLAST Slam II. There will be a two week break till the next major Dota 2 event, and perhaps IceFrog will bless us in that time.
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Featured Image Source: Valve