Valve has spent the last two years working on The International 10, ever since The International 9 in 2019 (three guesses as to reasons for the skipped year, and the second two don’t count). But we may have to wait a little longer for the next one. In a statement issued on 22 June, Valve said that it would not be holding The International 10 in Sweden, following a vote by the Swedish government and Swedish Sports Federation to not accept esports into the sports federation.
Valve said that “…despite previous reassurances, we were informed two weeks ago that the Swedish Sports Federation had just voted not to accept esports into the sports federation.” In subsequent meetings with Sweden’s Minister of the Interior, their appeals were immediately denied.
Valve moves The International 10 goal posts
Without that classification, it could mean that players, desk hosts and tournament staff would be denied visas to enter the country due to COVID-19 restrictions. With that, Valve has decided to cut their losses and relocate the event to elsewhere in Europe. This could mean further delays and postponements to the initial 5 — 15 August timeline but we don’t know that for sure just yet.
“I don’t understand it on so many levels,” Alliance CEO and Dota legend Jonathan “Loda” Berg said to Expressen. “TI is the world’s largest esports event. Other countries beg and ask to be the host nation and Sweden says no. We have been fighting for this and seeing it as the light at the end of the tunnel for almost two years.”
In the statement, Valve confirmed that the outstanding regional qualifiers for the last six spots of The International 10 will continue over the next few weeks, as planned. We’ll just need to wait to see where the eighteen teams will be heading to play for their share the more than $40 million prize pool. Let’s hope Sweden gets their act together for the upcoming Counter Strike: Global Offensive major in Stockholm in October this year.
Source: Expressen via Dot Esports