Representatives Virtus.pro commented on the transference The international 2023 according to Dota 2 and told us what they think about the impact of this situation on Dota. They also explained to Cybersport.ru what has changed in the club’s life as a result of the pandemic.
According to the leadership of VP, the transfer of The International 2023 will not adversely affect the popularity of Dota 2. The organization also noted that the effects of quarantine could have a positive effect on online games from Valve.
“If we measure the popularity of the game by the number of players playing it, we don’t think that moving TI for several months ahead due to a pandemic this year can significantly affect this in a negative way. On the contrary, people began to spend more time at home and play computer games, including Dota 2. This is clearly seen in the increasing dynamics of people playing at the same time on Steam, which should traditionally increase even more after the advent of the Battle Pass. ”
Virtus.pro believes that the September transfer window familiar to Dota, which takes place upon completion of The International, will undergo changes. According to the organization’s leadership, unlike in previous years, in 2023, players will prefer to extend their contracts with clubs before playing at TI.
“Given that all tournaments have gone online indefinitely, the clubs and the players themselves now have no other benchmarks to somehow more objectively evaluate their strength. If we are talking about Dota 2, today Valve announced a great chance of transferring The International to 2023, and also promised in the future to talk about the next stages of the DPC season.
Their statement raises the idea of maintaining or insignificantly increasing by September the volume of transfers that we used to see in the middle of the season, if the main tournament in discipline takes place at the beginning of 2023, and we will see a few more majors by the end of the year. Considering the increased time for preparation for TI by 3-4 months, most players are unlikely to take risks by the end of their contracts and most likely decide to stay in their teams, extending agreements with clubs until the end of the current season. ”
The organization noted that the transfer of TI will not affect the participation of teams in tournaments. Despite the cancellation of other championships, VP said that in a pandemic competition there are pluses.
“We will continue to play in those tournaments where we will be called and where it will be interesting for us to participate. Online or offline – depends on the situation with the virus in the first place and on the tournament operators themselves. Of course, online tournaments have their drawbacks: ping, a smaller prize pool, restrictions within the region, and so on.
But we also find advantages: there is no need for long and exhausting flights, jetlag disappears, and at the bootcamp we can create conditions more comfortable than any major. More than a month and a half after the start of the pandemic, we can confidently say that we have adapted to the situation in all areas of our work. ”
Virtus.pro also talked about how the club’s work with partners has changed as a result of the pandemic. The organization explained that it had adapted to the new conditions of cooperation: some agreements had to be canceled, while others had to be revised by mutual agreement.
“Of course, our relations with partners have also adapted to a certain extent: we exchange a small part of the planned sponsorship options by mutual agreement for activities that are self-isolating. For example, the visibility of Parimatch logos on the form in the current situation is clearly reduced, therefore, by mutual agreement, we added our partner to the team name at all matches of the CS-squad.
It is worth noting that e-sports is quite well protected from such global crises, as evidenced by the huge number of online tournaments in April in many leading disciplines. Over the past month, views of our content on the club’s social networks exceeded the March’s by more than one and a half times, which, of course, only helps to get additional interest from potential partners.
Negotiations are underway right now with several major brands from the FMCG sector, which in the context of the global pandemic are actively interested in e-sports as one of the most stable and perfectly showing industries. ”
Valve Announces Decision to Relocate The international 2023 by Dota 2 due to coronavirus on May 1. Previously, the author of Cybersport.ru, Vyacheslav PilotBaker Ipatov, talked about the situation. Why this factor can help Dota 2, you can find the link.
