Valve suddenly canceled the Dota 2 e-sports tournament because of COVID, eliminating teams

There’s some bad news coming from Dota 2 the eSports scene, as Valve did made the swift decision to cancel the February Winter Professional Tournament. The live LAN event was seen as cornerstone for the circuit, but “the discovery and spread of new strains of COVID-19 and the resulting increase in travel restrictions have resulted in all qualifying teams to gather as impossible”. Instead, the first tour will end after all regional confederation tournaments have ended.

The decision itself certainly makes sense, but the timing of the announcement has left many esports professionals and organizations in financial jeopardy and left them feeling undervalued, leaving many players in the dark. and organizations expressing dissatisfaction online, through mean of transportation belong to memes or completely angry on twitter.

Valve release a statement admitted that the company “should have done a better job of keeping” [competitors] in the loop about the risks to the event” and also acknowledged that “should have been ready to take a different approach sooner in order to find a way to end the first season. Valve is planning to host the tournament over LAN somehow and promises to provide updates when that plan becomes more specific.

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