Several sources have confirmed that Dota 2 teams’ friends and family will not receive tickets if they are not playing in the playoff rounds of the main event of The International 11. In addition, teams will not be receiving team-specific box seats for the event and a VIP section will only be separated by a rope.
More issues appear for teams as The International 11 closes
While this may seem like a small problem in the grand scope of things, having friends and family tickets has always been a large part of the International experience.
According to the sources, if a team is eliminated at any time during the playoffs, friends and family will not be able to enter the event. Friends and family will still be able to attend for the final two days of the grand finals, but will not have access to playoffs before that. Each team will be dolled 10 VIP tickets for members of the team, and 10 general admission tickets for the days they are in contention, and none if the team is eliminated.
The ticket issues compound considering many players’ family members were not able to get tickets due to how difficult it was for fans to secure them the day they were released. Timothy “Tims” Randrup, the support player for BOOM Esports, faced this problem the day that tickets got released.
None of my friends and family got TI ticket 🙁
— TIMS (@TimsDOTA) August 13, 2022
In addition to problems getting into the event, teams will not have a private VIP area like previous Internationals. During the previous iteration of the event in Bucharest, Romania, each team was given a VIP box suite for important team members. However, in The International 2022, players will be held in a roped-off VIP space without private areas much like the ones at the PGL Arlington Major. It makes it much less likely that players will be at the location, roaming around the stadium, removing another possible part of the International experience.
A potential reason for the lack of tickets might have to do with the fact that Gamescom Asia is taking place during the same time as The International 11 playoff stage. However, the lack of tickets has been a difficult part of the International experience this year for players.
