TI10 officially out of Stockholm, date and location unknown

The International 2021 will not be taking place in Sweden.

The Swedish Esports Federation has confirmed that Valve is officially nixing plans to host Dota 2’s grandest tournament in Stockholm. No further information was given on when or where it might happen. This follows an announcement earlier this week from Valve that the event's status was in doubt due to potential visa issues that could occur due to local organizers' inability to get the event classified as an "elite sporting event."

“We have now gotten in touch with Valve, which announced that it will not complete the plans to host The International in Stockholm. More information to follow,” the group stated.

SportExpressen then released an interview with the Swedish Esports Federation. Included was an email it received from Valve confirming the news.

“Thank you very much for your attempts to help with this situation. Unfortunately, we at Valve feel the window of opportunity to course-correct and still bring The International to Stockholm this August has closed. We are very sorry it didn’t work out this time and we are looking forward to holding events in Sweden in the future when the timing is better for everyone,” Valve told the Swedish Esports Federation.

This comes after the Swedish Esports Federation told Valve it had figured out a solution to the issues that were keeping Valve from hosting the event in Stockholm. According to the federation, certain sporting bodies in Sweden could have gotten the event sanctioned in an official capacity that would’ve allowed The International 2021 to happen in Stockholm. 

Though TI10 is no longer going to take place in Stockholm, the Swedish Esports Federation is confident it can salvage the situation for the upcoming PGL Stockholm Major. The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event is set to be hosted in Stockholm two months after The International 2021 and has the potential to suffer the same fate as TI10, if things cannot get sorted in time.

Where will TI10 take place?

As of this writing it is unknown where or when The International 2021 will take place, though it is not going to be in Stockholm. Valve indicated that it is hoping to find a solution within Europe.

There’s very little doubt that Valve will be able to find a landing spot somewhere in the world, even on short notice. Last year, individual sports like boxing and MMA had a crush of events that were logistically organized by international governmental bodies. Though there are ethics concerns with this, as most of these events were sought after by countries with questionable human rights records including Saudi Arabia, Belarus, and the United Arab Emirates, things have likely softened in the months since.

The TI10 qualifiers are currently underway and Valve is looking to still hold the event in August. As such, a definite date and location is likely to come in the next few weeks.