Today, Valve officially announced that the DOTA 2 International tournament’s Main Event will be livestreamed from the KeyArena in Seattle, WA. It started at 10AM PT today and can be watched live online, on TV, at local pubs, and once again this year, also in VR. More details on viewing options can be found here.
Almost a full year ago exactly, during last year’s DOTA 2 International, Valve added the VR Spectator Mode to its popular MOBA. The mode is of course still alive and kicking and is now referred to as the DOTA 2 VR Hub.
This year’s International Main Event sees players competing for a record-setting prize pool of over $23 million, which is reportedly the largest purse in all of Esports. Last year’s record was $20.7 million so this year’s is off to a huge start. The International takes place from today, August 7th, through Saturday, August 12th.
Watching in VR while people outside of VR play DOTA 2 isn’t exactly the same as a VR game getting competitive tournament support, but it’s still a good sign that Valve, one of VR’s biggest supporters, is adding features to its most popular games. Intel is sponsoring a Challenger League later this year for both The Unspoken and Echo Arena, which should be a big help towards putting VR on the map as a serious category for Esports competition.
What do you think of DOTA 2’s VR Hub? Let us know down in the comments below!
