No in-game advertisements to appear at The International 2024

Valve, the developer of MOBA game Dota 2, has announced details about in-game advertisements at the upcoming 2024 edition of The International, the game’s biggest event.

The developer announced that there will be no in-game advertisements and sponsorships during the tournament to remove distractions for players and viewers.

Taking place at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen, Denmark this September, the International is the largest event in the Dota 2 calendar and one of the most important esports events of the year. The event will feature a total of 16 teams.

Similar to some other games, such as League of Legends, Dota 2 allows for tournament organisers to include in-game banners and other assets on its game map. According to Valve, the in-game banners were originally created to ‘showcase team or player identity’, but were being used to host advertisements in recent years.

The Dota 2 creators have thus decided that this edition of the tournament will no longer allow for advertising through in-game banners, base logos and tags in player names. This will presumably leave room for more team logos, but Valve did not mention whether that will be the case in the end.

Some commenters on social media were quick to point out that this move potentially helps PGL, the event’s producers, due to the fact that in-game ads were a ‘loophole’ that allowed brands to advertise outside of the main game stream or venue.