Dota 2 will support LAN play, next International tournament prize pool to be "at least" $1.6m

Valve's Erik Johnson has told Join Dota that Dota 2 will be getting a LAN mode. "There are some systems that LAN mode requires that we haven't finished yet, mainly because we've been focused on matchmaking. We know how important this feature is for the community," says Johnson.

He also talked a bit about Valve's plans for their next big Dota 2 tournament. The Dota 2 International took place at Gamescom last year, offering Dota pros a shot at a piece of the $1.6 million prize pool. Valve are going to at least match that amount in the next tournament. Johnson said that "if you look at any major sport around the world that has an audience of similar size to Dota's you'll find that those at the very top in terms of skill tend to make a lot of money."

"Frankly, we think the teams represented at The International deserve this kind of money for what they do. We all know how hard it is to master Dota," he added.

Replays of many of the competition matches are still available on the International site if you want to see the pros in action. The next International will take place in Seattle. When asked whether the Penny Arcade Expo would host the tournament, which is scheduled to run from August 31 to September 2, Johnson said "good guess, but nothing is finalized just yet."

"Like last year, we'll be covering all of the costs for the teams and players to make their way to the event" said Johnson. If you want to grab an invite for your team, Johnson recommends that you "play in Dota tournaments and perform well. We've all been watching every tournament that we find internally, looking for what teams we think should be invited."

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Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.