Early years in 2011.
Valve announced the first edition of The International on August 1, 2011. 16 teams were invited to compete in the tournament, which would also serve as the first public viewing of
Dota 2. The tournament was funded by Valve, including the 1 million grand prize, with
Nvidia supplying the hardware. It took place at
Gamescom in
Cologne from August 17–21 the same year. The tournament started with a
group stage in which the winners of each of the four groups were entered into a winner's bracket, and the other teams entered the loser's bracket. The rest of the tournament was then played as a
double-elimination tournament. The final of this inaugural tournament was between Ukrainian-based
Natus Vincere and Chinese-based
EHOME, with Natus Vincere winning the series 3–1. EHOME won 250,000, with the rest of the 14 teams splitting the remaining $350,000. The International as a recurring annual event was confirmed in May 2012. The International 2012 was held at the 2,500 seat
Benaroya Hall in
Seattle from August 31 to September 2, with teams situated in glass booths on the main stage. The total prize pool remained at $1.6 million, with $1 million for the winning team. The previous winners, Natus Vincere, were beaten 3–1 by Chinese team
Invictus Gaming in the grand finals. In November 2012, Valve released a free documentary on the event that featured interviews with the teams, and following them from the preliminary stages through to the finale.
Introduction of crowdfunding at the
KeyArena in Seattle The International 2013 was hosted again at the Benaroya Hall in Seattle from August 7–11. Sixteen teams participated, thirteen of which received direct invitations, and the final three being decided in two qualifying tournaments and a match at the start of the tournament. In May 2013, it was announced that an in-game
battle pass, known as the Compendium, would be available for purchase that allowed for the tournament's prize pool to be
crowdfunded. A quarter of the total revenue from the Compendium was added to the base $1.6 million prize pool. The prize pool eventually reached over $2.8 million, making it the largest prize pool in esports history at the time.
KCPQ news anchor Kaci Aitchison acted as a host at the event, providing behind-the-scenes commentary and player interviews. The International 2013 was viewed by over a million concurrent viewers at its peak, via live streaming websites such as
Twitch.
The International 2014 took place from July 18–21 at the
KeyArena in Seattle. For the event, eleven teams would receive direct invites, with an additional four spots determined by regional qualifiers taking place between May 12–25. The sixteenth spot would be determined by a wild card qualifier between the runners-up from the regional competitions. The tickets for the event were sold out within an hour of going on sale that April. The tournament's crowdfunded prize pool again broke esport records for being the largest in history, with it totalling over $10.9 million. As a result, eight
Dota 2 players became the highest earning players in esports, surpassing the top earning player at the time,
Lee "Jaedong" Jae-dong of
StarCraft. The event was also broadcast on
ESPN networks for the first time. In April 2015, Valve announced the introduction of the Dota Major Championships, a series of four annual tournaments, one for each season. The Fall, Winter and Spring Majors were sponsored by Valve but organized by third-party hosts at various international locations, while the Summer event was the International. This format was first implemented for the 2015–2016 season, featuring the
Frankfurt Major, the
Shanghai Major and the
Manila Major, culminating in
The International 2016. In the subsequent 2016–2017 season, the number of Major tournaments was reduced to three: the
Boston Major, the
Kiev Major and
The International 2017. Starting with The International 2017, the total number of participating teams was increased from 16 to 18.
Dota Pro Circuit grand final in the
KeyArena in Seattle For the 2017–2018 season, Valve introduced the Dota Pro Circuit, a series of tournaments awarding qualifying points. The eight teams with the highest point totals at the end of the season received direct invitations to
The International 2018, while another ten teams qualified via regional qualifier tournaments. The circuit was implemented to provide more "clarity and transparency" in the selection process for direct invites. Over the course of the 2017–2018 season, the Dota Pro Circuit comprised nine Majors (excluding The International 2018) and 13 Minors. The International 2020 was the first International to skip a year, as it was postponed due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Ahead of the event, originally scheduled to be held in
Stockholm, Sweden, the Swedish Sports Federation voted to deny recognition of esports as a sporting event, making it difficult for Valve to help international players to secure travel visas for participating there. Valve later rescheduled the event and rebranded it as
The International 2021, which was held at the
Arena Națională in
Bucharest, Romania, in October 2021. It set a record for the largest prize pool of any single esports event at $40 million.
The International 2022 increased to 20 teams and was held in
Singapore in October 2022, where it was won by Tundra Esports. It was the first International to not surpass the previous one's prize pool at $18.9 million, the lowest since
The International 2015.
The International 2023 was hosted at
Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, which was built at the same site as KeyArena, and ran from October 27 to 29. In September, Valve had announced that the 2023 season would mark the end of the Dota Pro Circuit.
List of Internationals ==Format==