Dota 2 developer Valve Software announced Wednesday (Jan. 22) that this year’s version of the game’s annual global championship, The International 2025 (TI 2025), will take place in Hamburg, Germany.
In a post on the official Dota 2 blog, Valve revealed that the Barclays Arena will play host to TI 2025’s Finals Weekend from September 11 to 14. The developer also confirmed that 16 teams will be competing in this year’s Dota 2 world championship tournament, with teams earning their spots in the event through direct invites and a series of regional qualifiers.
TI 2025 will see the return of the Dota 2 World Championship tournament to Germany, 14 years after the country hosted the series’ inaugural event. Back in 2011, the first TI took place at the Koelnmesse in Cologne as part of Gamescom. 2011 and served as the first official Dota 2 reveal, with Natus Vincere becoming the first team to claim the Aegis of Champions.
“The stars have aligned and the stage has once again been set for a cosmic war. And this time, that war returned to where it all began: Germany, the site of The International’s humble beginnings globally, where it was watched by scores of people. Now, fourteen years later, The International returns to Germany, at the Barclays Arena in Hamburg, from September 11 to 14, in front, we expect, this time to a larger crowd,” Valve said on its blog.
Based on Valve’s teaser image and accompanying one, we can also expect TI 2025 to have a theme focused on stars and constellations. And with the way they learned the “circus” and “cathedral” themes for TI 2024 and TI 2023, respectively, we can expect the TI 2025 HQ to also serve as a beautiful backdrop for some other showcase of the best of Dota 2. esports.
Aside from the dates and location of the TI Finals 2025 weekend, Valve hasn’t revealed much else about this year’s Dota 2 World Championship tournament. But if TI 2024, in which Team Liquid was the third team in Dota 2 history to lift the Aegis of Champions for now: we can expect this year’s TI to feature 3 separate stages (the group stage, the decider of qualification and the main event) which will take place over approximately two weeks of competition.
While TI 2025 is still several months away, Dota 2 enthusiasts can continue with the first series of tournaments of the year expected to take place in the coming weeks. The first LAN tournament of the year, FISSURE PLAYGROUND #1 in Belgrade, Serbia begins this Friday, January 24, followed by BLAST Slam II and DreamLeague Season 25 in February.
Aside from being our first glimpse at how the hierarchy in the competitive scene will look like this year, the aforementioned tournaments will also serve as the first big opportunities for teams to put on impressive performances to earn themselves direct invites to TI 2025.
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The data will be updated soon.
The data will be updated soon.
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