Cover-Credits:
- LGD Gaming's Owner and CEO Ruru states that the Shanghai government offered its full support to host TI10 in 2020. However, Valve declined the offer.
- TI10 is currently scheduled to take place in Stockholm, Sweden in August 2021
Pan "Ruru" Jie has alleged that the Shanghai municipality in China was ready to host TI10 in 2020. However, Valve was not willing to go ahead with the proposal.
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Valve Declines To Host TI10 at Shanghai in 2020
Pan "Ruru" Jie is one of the most well-known personalities in the Chinese Dota 2 scene. She founded and operates a multitude of esports organizations in the Chinese region including LGD Gaming, VPGame, VPEsports, etc. So it is safe to say that she is in the know about what goes on in the Chinese region.
After Kyle’s blog post about TI10 and Valve’s handling of it went viral in the Chinese Dota 2 community, Ruru made a statement claiming that TI10 could have been held in Shanghai this year if Valve didn’t decline the proposal.
“Yes, the Shanghai government is willing to support at the same level as the LOL World Championship Series, but Valve said no to the proposal.
A statement from Haitao(co-founder of IMBATV) was also attached to Ruru's statement, which read:
In fact, in April and May, Dr.Xiao(CEO of PerfectWorld.) applied to Valve to host this year's TI in Shanghai. And the Shanghai government also stated that it would fully support it. But Valve refused.
TI10 was initially scheduled to take place in Stockholm, Sweden in August 2020. Unfortunately, the ongoing pandemic which forced global lockdowns forced Valve to postpone the tournament citing “the highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies”.
Later on, Valve elaborated their reasoning behind this postponement stating that they considered hosting a TI with no fans and just the teams, broadcast talent. But they found it to be not viable. They also added that they did not want to run the DPC without cross-regional play, since it is a very important component of how DPC points are allocated for The International.
RELATED: Valve Posts An Update on The Competitive Scene and DPC
Valve’s blog also mentioned that they had started pre-booking arenas for various alternative dates and countries around the world, in Spring 2020. Perhaps Shanghai was one of the venues that Valve was considering.
At the moment, Valve’s latest statement states that the DPC tournaments will likely resume in January or February of 2021 and that TI10 will happen in August 2021 in Stockholm, Sweden. However, Valve also mentioned that they also have backup countries if the tournament cannot take place in Sweden.
