For the first time in the history of the competition, The International Dota 2 Championships will be held in Southeast Asia this year and the dates for the event have finally been confirmed. The International 2022 (TI11) will be held in three phases starting from October 8th with the Last Chance Qualifier and concluding on October 29th with the Grand Finals.
According to Valve, The International 2022 (TI11) will be the largest Dota 2 event to date. There will be 30 teams competing over four consecutive weekends in October 2022, if we consider The Last Chance Qualifier a part of the event.
Valve expands The International 2022 (TI11) to Multiple Phases
Through a blog post on the official Dota 2 website, Valve announced that TI11 was undergoing a radical transformation. The event which has traditionally only featured 18 teams, will now be expanded to a 20 team event. For the first time, the event will also host a 12 team Last Chance Qualifier LAN, which will take place just before the Group Stage of the tournament kicks off.
So, essentially TI11 will take place in four phases:
Last Chance Qualifiers: This qualifier which was said to feature teams finishing in 2nd and 3rd place from all six TI11 regional qualifiers will run from October 8-12. The top two teams from this tournament will advance to the group stages of TI11.
Group Stage: The group stage will kick off with 20 teams and will take place from October 15-18, with teams battling each other to make it to the playoffs.
Playoffs: The playoffs will be held at SunTec Singapore during October 20-23, “where the field will narrow further”, according to Valve.
The Finals: The Finals will take place at Singapore Indoor Stadium from October 29-30, where one team will be crowned as the champions of TI11 and lift the Aegis of Champions.
Ticketing information for SunTec and Singapore Indoor Stadium will be released at a later date according to Valve.
Along with the information about The International 11, Valve also confirmed that the new 7.31d balance patch and Dota Plus June update, which contains not only the traditional refresh but also a number of new features, will be released on June 8.