Another high profile event being delayed due to the current climate, but this one was kind of expected. As one of the biggest single esports event of the year, Valve's The International Dota 2 Championships draws massive crowds both in-person and online. According to the statement Valve had been looking at alternative dates but now realises "the event will need to happen in 2021".

Here's the full statement.

After extensive consideration of the global health emergency stemming from COVID-19, we have made the difficult choice to delay The International. We have been exploring various date possibilities, but it is likely that the event will need to happen in 2021. Given the highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies, we don’t expect to have enough confidence to communicate firm dates in the near future. In the meantime, we are working on restructuring the DPC season for the fall, and will be providing more information as soon as we have it.

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.

We hope everyone in the Dota community is staying as safe as possible, and look forward to a time when we can once again welcome everyone to enjoy the spectacle of The International.

Our report from February, outlining how Valve is taking bids from cities relating to the hosting of the 2021 International somehow feels like a lifetime ago. As per above the new work from home reality for the team means that the next Battle Pass for Dota 2 has been delayed - with the upcoming season to also see some changes.

In other bit esports news, the Fortnite World Cup is also taking a break in 2020 after last year's impressive debut that saw drew in over 2 million concurrent viewers.