The International 2024: Valve has officially announced the Dota 2 world championship

Valve has released initial details about The International 2024 for Dota 2. The tournament is scheduled for September and will take place at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This information was shared on the official game page on Steam.

"Unlike previous events in this series, the number of participating teams will decrease from 20 to 16 in 2024. Valve will independently invite some teams to the tournament, unlike previous seasons when these invitations were distributed within the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) cycle. Developers also explained that more attention will be given to competition results when considering candidates for invitations.

As in the early years of The International, part of the sixteen participating teams will qualify for the tournament through open and regional qualifiers, while others will receive direct invitations (which will be announced later) based on their merits throughout the year.

And what a year it promises to be! The calendar is packed, and the list of major tournaments, already counting half a dozen announced events, will continue to grow. Among other things, competitions in studios and arenas in Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East await us – and there are even rumors of the grand return of Midas Mode! (The more teams can participate in the tournament, the more attention we pay: interregional tournaments provide more useful information than intraregional ones, tournaments with qualifiers – more than invitation-only tournaments, and so on"

According to the announcement, invitations to the world championship will be based on teams' merits throughout the year. The exact criteria for determining the world's top teams are currently unknown, but it is likely that performance in most major tournaments throughout 2024 will be taken into account.