The whole tournament can be spectated from inside the DotA 2 game itself, and will be broadcasted live. Another nice feature is that you are able to pick which commentator you want to listen to; there are even 3 groups each for a different language (English, Chinese and Russian). Currently preliminary battles are going on, and the main show with Double Elimination bracket starts on August 31st.  Users that do not have DotA 2 beta can watch streams from special Spectator client available on Steam.

DotA2 is still in beta phase and it will soon be a year since this beta first came out. The teams that participated in the International 2011 were first to play it and it has changed a lot since then. There have been many interface changes and tweeks, not to mention whole bunch of new heroes imported from DotA. All tickets for live events have been sold, so if you didn’t get one your only chance to see this tournament will be through DotA 2, live or as replays. Also everyone who has a ticket for the event will receive one DotA 2 invite so he can invite some of his friends to play together, we must note that selling beta invites is strictly prohibited by Valve, and not to mention that is douchey.     

[Ed – Gabe Newell has talked a lot about DotA 2 and its final release over the past few months. Many have begun to speculate that the references are not about the actual game Defense of the Ancients, but possibly about the release of Half Life 3. There have been numerous rumors about the launch of this long awaited sequel in the HalfLife series. Unfortunately we all are still waiting. Although it will be very cool to watch as these teams fight it out for that prize money we do wish that we would see DotA 2 officially launched or at least hear more about HalfLife 3.]

Discuss this in our Forum