Valve has announced The International 2025, Dota 2’s biggest tournament of the year, will take place in Hamburg, Germany.
Specifically, the event will be hosted at the 16,000-capacity Barclays Arena from September 11th to 14th.
This is the first time The International has taken place in Germany since its inaugural tournament in 2011. The debut tournament took place during Gamescom in Cologne.
In the following years, the tournament has taken place across the globe in locations such as Seattle, Vancouver, Bucharest, Shanghai, Singapore, and most recently, Copenhagen.
Alongside unveiling the location, Valve announced the 16 teams will once again be a mixture of direct invitations, open qualifiers and regional qualifiers. Details on invites and qualifiers have yet to be revealed.
The game’s developer has also told fans to ‘stay tuned’ for ticket and event scheduling information.
Dota 2 is one of the largest esports in the world. The 2024 edition of The International recorded peak viewing figures of 1.43m during the Grand Finals between Team Liquid and Gaimin Gladiators. Last year, Valve also made the decision to show no in-game advertisements and sponsorships during the tournament. This was in an attempt to remove distractions for players and viewers.
Last year’s finalists will compete against each other across several tournaments before The International 2025 takes place. The two teams are among those participating in the BLAST Slam II event taking place from February 3rd to 9th, 2025.
2025 is set to be a year full of Dota 2 events operated by several event organisers, including the likes of ESL FACEIT Group.
Alongside the ESL Pro Tour, Valve’s MOBA title will return to the Esports World Cup while PGL will host three seasons of its Wallachia competition and large-scale LAN competitions.
In the announcement, Valve stated: “The stars have aligned and the stage is once again being set for cosmic battle. And this time, that battle has returned to where it all began: Germany, the site of The International’s humble debut on the world stage, where it was watched in person by many tens of people.
“Now, fourteen years later, The International returns to Germany, to Hamburg’s Barclays Arena September 11th – 14th — in front of, we trust, a slightly bigger crowd this time around.”
