The International, a large-scale tournament for Dota 2, has canceled its live audience and is now offering refunds. The multiplayer online battle arena game has recently seen a revival in popularity due to Netflix's DOTA: Dragon's Blood anime adaptation of the video game. Valve Corporation, the maker of the MOBA, even released an update to coincide with the release of the Netflix anime. The update changed the new player experience, making it more beginner-friendly.

Though Valve has found success in Dota 2, the company has arguably achieved more in the realm of digital distribution. Valve's Steam remains the largest video game digital distribution platform for PC gaming, boasting thousands of games and millions of monthly active users. Valve has expanded on its success with Steam and is now in the works of developing the Steam Deck. Ahead of its December release to the public, Valve Corporation sent Steam Deck dev kits to both the press and several game studios for an exclusive first look. With the positive reactions from the press and game developers, it's almost guaranteed that the Steam Deck will be a hit.

As reported by Kotaku, the International will no longer have a live audience and will refund ticket buyers. Valve holds the International annually in a host city. This year's host city was Bucharest. The event was planned for a large live audience, and Valve started selling tickets on September 22nd. Attendees were required to be fully vaccinated and masked, but hopes for the live audience have since been dashed. Due to the rising cases of COVID in Romania, the International will now go on without a live audience. In a statement on their Dota 2's official website, Valve announced, "To ensure the safety of all players, talent, and production staff participating in the event, we have decided to refund all ticket sales for The International 2021."


The ongoing COVID pandemic has proved both good and bad for Valve Corporation. Thanks to the pandemic forcing people to stay home, Steam experienced a boost of concurrent players. In fact, with the release of Cyberpunk 2077, Steam crushed its all-time concurrent player count record. Unfortunately, with the cancellation of the International's live audience, Valve Corporation undoubtedly took a monetary hit. Previously, Valve had indefinitely postponed the International last April because of COVID but mentioned in June that the event would return to the host country Sweden. Those plans were changed when Sweden's COVID restrictions made it difficult for players and staff to travel to the host city. Despite Bucharest volunteering to host the International, there will ultimately be no live fans at the event.

The fanbase of Dota 2 remains strong and is known for coming together, as they did to raise money to fix Dota 2's broken tutorial. Though fans can now only attend the tournament virtually, there will surely be no shortage of love for the game.