For six years the annual DOTA 2 championship known as The International was held in Seattle, Washington. In 2017, Valve began to move the event to locations around the world, perhaps to make it possible for people in different areas to attend the event. Now, the company has launched an open call for submissions from any city that wishes to host the tournament.
Valve has begun taking bids from cities that might be interested in hosting The International DOTA 2 Championships in 2021, similar to the way cities bid to host the Olympics. To promote the value of hosting The International, Valve released a Request for Proposal (RFP) that not only points out the possible revenue for the host city but also lays out what an acceptable venue must provide for the company.
According to Valve, The International is an annual DOTA 2 tournament that has become one of the world’s largest sporting events and rivals even the NFL Superbowl and the US Open Golf Championship in attendance, global viewership, and international draw. In 2018, Vancouver hosted The International and the city estimated a boost of approximately 7.8 million dollars to its economy as a result. A local pub, The Pint, was booked for the entire week by event organizers and greatly boosted the venue’s sales. The bar’s assistant general manager later said, “I kind of wish they’d do this every year.”
In its RFP, Valve pointed out that there would be an increase in visitors to the host city during the event, who will stay at hotels, eat at restaurants, and likely visit other nearby popular tourist attractions. Valve itself, in preparing for the event, will hire a variety of skilled laborers for catering, construction, printing, security, transportation, marketing, and of course entertainment.
In return for the inevitable increase in revenue for the host city, Valve has specific needs that must be met in order for The International to be successful. The city must have hotel space for 30,000 visitors and the event location must be large enough to host 15,000 to 18,000 people for 10 days, as well as room for extra events like after parties, fan zones, and vendor villages. Additionally, a fiber internet connection has to be available and the city must help with permitting, road closures, and “unfettered movement of trucks on surface roads.”
Some cities might not yet be fully aware of the growing prestige of esports or the potential boost to revenue that hosting a championship might bring. So Valve will be fielding any questions, which must be submitted in writing, through March 15. And proposals from interested host cities are due by March 31, 2020.
The benefits of large gaming conferences and esports championships are well understood by some city leadership. In the wake of Sony canceling plans to attend PAX East due to fears of the coronavirus, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh asked Sony to reconsider. Walsh’s stated reasons were that Sony pulling out of the event sends the wrong message about the possibility of contracting the virus in Massachusetts and reinforces harmful stereotypes that Asians have worked for generations to overcome.
It’s not out of the question, however, that another concern for Mayor Walsh is the negative ripple effect Sony’s decision might have on Boston’s economy. In the past week, after Sony cancelled plans to attend GDC this year due to the coronavirus, Facebook, Kojima Productions, and most recently EA have also dropped out of the conference. Each major player that decides not to attend increases the chances that others will make the same decision, thereby decreasing the appeal for potential attendees.
DOTA 2 is available on Mac and PC.
Source: Polygon