The 10th International prize pool will be funded by 25% of sales of the next Battle Pass, which we are planning to release soon instead of closer to the event itself. However, with our team working from home and things taking longer to complete, the release date of the Battle Pass will be at least a couple of weeks later than usual.

The International crowns the extensive Dota 2 tournament schedule, controlled by Valve since 2017. Dota 2 recently received a massive update with new characters, upgraded courier abilities, the addition of outposts and more.

Valve will still create the prize pool from Dota 2 seasonal battle pass sales, and will now release the battle pass “soon” instead of just ahead of the now-canceled tournament. “With our team working from home and things taking longer to complete, the release date of the battle pass will be at least a couple of weeks later than usual,” Valve said.

Dota 2 is the latest esport to revamp plans due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Riot Games was forced to cancel its League of Legends mid-season invitational tournament, while the Overwatch League shifted its season to an online-only schedule. Ironically, physical sports like Formula 1 have actually switched to online esports-style formats due to the coronavirus.

Take NASCAR for example. When in-person races were canceled this year, NASCAR and Fox Sports announced the first-ever eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series, a simulation-style competition featuring stars like Dale Earnhardt Jr., Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin racing in digital vehicles. It was the first time many NASCAR fans — and drivers — were exposed to the magic of professional gaming.

The inaugural eNASCAR race aired on March 22nd and it was the highest-rated televised esports program to date, drawing in 903,000 viewers. It was also the most-watched sports broadcast that Sunday, and the most-watched program on its host channel, FS1, since most sports events were canceled on March 12th. The following race on March 30th clocked 1.33 million viewers, breaking the previous Sunday’s record.

Torque Esports is running The Race All-Stars Esports Battle, an online event serving Formula 1, IndyCar, Formula E, NASCAR and other audiences in the wake of mass event cancelations. This event has already attracted new advertising partners including its first corporate sponsor, Jones Soda.

“We’re in discussions with many brands at the moment who are looking at esports for the first time,” Torque Esports CEO Darren Cox said, noting this is Jones Soda’s first foray into the industry. “Our goal, and this goes for streaming numbers and fan interest as well, is that the current situation doesn’t become just a blip on the radar. We want to use this as a foundation to continue to grow the sport. Many brands remain in the discovery and education process at the moment, but they are liking what they see.”

I joined the world of Esports today. Thank you @wearetherace for organising the #LegendsTrophy & giving a bunch of us old guys a chance to hang out & race together again.
I was delighted to get the win, thanks @BaseSimulators ,well done on the 1-2 finish with @DarrenTurner007 pic.twitter.com/ojuads0Xra

— Dario Franchitti (@dariofranchitti) March 28, 2020

This interest isn’t limited to the racing genre. Vice President of Overwatch Esports at Blizzard Entertainment Jon Spector said, “We are seeing an increased interest in gaming, streaming and esports overall,” while LCS head Greeley said, “We’re seeing excitement in partnership discussions.”

Greeley noted that in 2019, Nielsen ranked the LCS as the third-most popular professional sports league in the US among 18- to 34-year-olds. This is a coveted market for advertisers, and a sign that esports were already on the radar of major sponsors. The coronavirus pandemic has only accelerated their involvement.

“We see this activity more as a continuation of sponsorship trends than a big change, since the esports ecosystem and leagues like LCS have been gaining momentum for some time now in global media,” Greeley said. “Sponsors are drawn to the size and passion of the esports community, and we believe that’s only going to continue growing from here.”

Torque Esports’ analytics group, Stream Hatchet, says esports streaming viewership has grown more than 17 percent from January to March this year, with 1.75 billion minutes of content watched around the world in March alone. A 12-hour Stream Aid Charity Marathon on Twitch last Saturday raised $2.8 million for the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

“We’re introducing esports to a much wider audience, particularly in the motorsports genre,” Cox said. “The ‘stay at home economy’ is something that is expanding rapidly and our live-streaming data analytics team at Stream Hatchet is certainly seeing dramatic increases in all platforms at the moment.”

Of course, the global pandemic has disrupted the esports world, too. Established leagues like the LCS and OWL have the resources to quickly pivot and implement online-only tournaments, and sponsors are already knocking. However, newer leagues might find it harder to catch their footing. For instance, the Apex Legends pro scene kicked off this year and was already struggling with server issues, a lack of advertising and poor management structures before the outbreak began. Organizers announced yesterday they would move the remainder of the Apex Legends Global Series online, with the finals airing on Twitch and YouTube on April 6th. It’s a rough first year for any league.

Even established organizations are feeling the pressure: Chaos Esports Club let go its entire Dota 2 squad following the suspension of the Dota Pro Circuit this year.

“This is not a decision we made lightly, but during these uncertain times and with the DPC circuit suspended it is impossible for us to justify the cost of a Dota 2 team at this time,” Chaos Esports Club CEO Greg Laird said at the time. “The world is an unprecedented situation and it is necessary for us to focus our efforts into a few key current and upcoming projects for the long-term success of the organization.”

Today we unfortunately have to announce the release of our Dota 2 Roster.

If you are an organization or sponsor looking to work with the team please contact their manager, @KBBQDotA , directly via reachjackchen@gmail.com

Read More: https://t.co/XEcRsvMP54 pic.twitter.com/mCDADnvAXx

— Chaos EC (@ChaosEC) March 25, 2020

Compared with many other industries, esports have experienced low job loss during the global pandemic, largely because leagues are able to transition online instead of shutting down altogether. Unemployment rates in the US are expected to hit their highest point since World War II, with conservative estimates projecting 20 million Americans will lose their jobs in the next few weeks.

Esports are well-positioned to serve an audience that’s trapped at home, and organizers are doing everything they can to capitalize on this strange new market. The trick, they say, is making all of this progress stick even after the pandemic has ended.

“We’re very interested in using this as the foundation for long-term growth,” Cox said. “Esports as a whole has been growing dramatically in recent years and now we’re in a massive spike. Once traditional sport returns we’re obviously going to see a levelling off. But in five years’ time we want to look back on today as not just ‘the COVID-19 esports thing,’ but as a tipping point for when esports took its first steps into the mainstream and cemented its place alongside other professional sports.”

According to the proposal, “in terms of global viewership, international draw, and attendance, The International is comparable to the NFL Superbowl, U.S. Open Golf Championship, or the Eurovision Song Contest.” Historically, the event has drawn between 50,000 and 60,000 unique visitors, Valve says. Vancouver, Seattle and Shanghai have hosted in the past, and Stockholm will host this year.

While esports have become undeniably popular, this is still a wild way to sell an esports event, so Valve is touting statistics like the claim that The International infused $7.8 million into Vancouver’s local economy in 2018. Valve promises that the event will bring an influx of visitors, create business for local suppliers and add jobs in the host city.

Valve will be answering RFP questions until March 15th, and cities have until March 31st to submit their final proposals.

Couriers have also been changed substantially. Everyone player now gets their own that will level up next to your hero and get upgrades as they do so. Couriers can place wards after hitting a certain level, and by the way, observer wards are now free. All of that will enhance the role of “supports” players and bring better vision of the maps to you and everyone on your team.

The Outlanders have arrived, bringing major updates to @DOTA2 and @DotaUnderlords. New heroes Void Spirit and Snapfire are now playable in both games, as well as significant gameplay updates across both games, and a new play mode for Underlords. pic.twitter.com/JVZhsWnmm6

— Valve (@valvesoftware) November 26, 2019

Outlanders also makes it harder to become nearly invincible as you level up by grabbing monster loot, because it will now be randomly dropped by neutrals. Other changes include outposts instead of side shops, leveling that goes past 25 to 30 for heroes, map changes and the removal of the stout shield. All of this will no doubt shake up Dota 2, which has some of the largest communities and esports tournaments out there.

Remedy Entertainment’s Control wasn’t too far behind with eight. It picked up nominations such as game of the year, game direction, art direction and two performance nods. The Outer Worlds, meanwhile, snagged four nominations, including game of the year and RPG.

Joining that trio in the game of the year category are Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Resident Evil 2 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. SSBU also picked up best family game and fighting game nominations. Resident Evil 2 claimed three other nods for design, acton/adventure and game direction. Sekiro‘s four additional nominations are in the game direction, art direction, audio design and action/adventure categories.

Fortnite snagged three nominations, including for best esports game, ongoing game and community support. Fortnite World Cup winner Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf was nominated for best esports player as was that tournament for esports event. Other popular ongoing and esports games to pick up nominations include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, League of Legends, Apex Legends, Overwatch, Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege.

Several other games have nominations, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (three), Gears 5 (three), Sayonara Wild Hearts (three), Borderlands 3 (two) and the game seemingly everyone was talking about not too long ago, Untitled Goose Game (two).

One particularly notable name misses out on the content creator of the year category: last year’s winner, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. The nominees this time around are Jack “Courage” Dunlop, Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo, Soleil “Ewok” Wheeler, David “Grefg” Martínez and Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek.

You’ll find out which titles and personalities will take home prizes when The Game Awards takes place December 12th. As ever, you can expect plenty of game announcements and world premieres on that night too.

It works on a credit system that provides more Fast Queue games the more you’re willing to play any role. You get four games (on top of the one you’re playing) each time you play solo. Two-player parties earn two games each, while three-player teams earn a game each. Five-player stacks will always enter the Fast Queue, but they won’t earn future credits.

Valve acknowledged that this is addressing a problem it partly created. The recently toughened matchmaking requirements for Ranked Roles might prevent wildly imbalanced teams, but they also leave players waiting longer for that one person who’s willing to play a less exciting role. In theory, this both speeds up play and reduces the chances of your team having a glaring deficiency on the battlefield.

Esports consultant Rod Breslau pointed out that an equal split of the $15.6 million prize would give each OG player about $3.1 million. Tiger Woods, for context, ‘only’ pulled in $2.07 million at the 2019 Masters. Even the Wimbledon singles champs Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep took home $2.9 million each. While golf and tennis frontrunners may be more famous overall, there’s little doubt that it’s very lucrative to be a top-tier esports player.

Even the runners up, Team Liquid, raked in a collective $4,458,038. That’s slightly short of $892,000 per person.

Before you drop your racquet and pick up a keyboard and mouse, it’s important to remember the caveats. The International may be huge, but it’s only one major event — top-level tennis has three other Grand Slams besides Wimbledon. And unlike tennis or golf, even the most successful esports careers tend to be short as the necessary hyper-fast reflexes fade quickly. Nonetheless, it’s hard to look at these figures without at least raising an eyebrow. Competitive gaming now involves massive amounts of money, and that makes it difficult to ignore.

The free-to-play turn-based strategy game is Valve’s version of the mod Dota Auto Chess, and making a game that’s much easier to play without spending money on new pieces is clearly working out. The maker of Dota Auto Chess is working on a standalone game that will be exclusive to Epic’s Game Store on the PC, and Kotaku points out that League of Legends maker Riot has had success with a similar game it released in beta this week called Teamfight Tactics.

That level of growth and competition brings to mind the recent slew of battle royale titles, and the Underlords team is already keeping up the pace with several updates. According to a tweet, it’s working on a number of new features beyond just game balancing, including social features, hero voiceovers, a full scoreboard, and it’s “exploring” the possibility of a Turbo Mode based on player suggestions.

Things we are exploring:

– Turbo Mode: We hear ya, so we’ve started some design experiments. Let us know what you want from game length and any other random ideas. We’re all ears.

— Dota Underlords (@DotaUnderlords) June 21, 2019

Less than a month after it was announced and just a week after being properly revealed, Dota Underlords is available for play. Valve’s take on the popular Dota 2 mod, Dota Auto Chess, is a stategic battle game where players try to dominate the city of White Spire. The last Dota 2 spinoff, Artifact, did not enjoy a gracious reception, but Underlords is already topping that game’s peak number of players, and seemingly with good reason.

It’s been stress testing with Dota 2 Battle Pass owners for the last week and now anyone can try it for free. The plan is for it to remain in early access for “a few months” before it launches fully with more Underlord characters, ranked play and seasonal changes. It’s available now on Steam, Google Play and the iOS App Store, complete with cross-play so you can start a game on one platform and finish it on another.

Now that Dota Auto Chess mod maker Drodo has announced plans to release PC Auto Chess as an Epic Games Store exclusive, Valve is releasing its standalone version, dubbed Dota Underlords. In this game, players join the game with seven others while “building, combining, and leveling-up a crew in a battle of dominance for the city of White Spire.” The point here is supposed to be the use of tactics over quick-twitch reflexes, and players who’ve purchased a $10 Dota 2 Battle Pass can try it out right now.

An open beta is slated to begin after “approximately a week” of stress testing of the preview which includes eight-player multiplayer, play vs. bots, or teams against other players and/or bots. The open beta will be available for Steam on all platforms plus Android and iOS, with cross-play and progression carrying over no matter where you play. It looks like Valve has learned a bit from the launch of its last Dota spinoff, Artifact, and now it will be up to players to decide if it’s more successful.