Dota 2 teams slam “Hunger Games” room conditions for $40m The International 10

The International is the premier DOTA 2 tournament on the calendar, but some teams with fewer DPC points aren’t happy with their accommodations. 

DOTA 2 fans have been looking forward to The International 10 finally going down after the event was postponed in 2020 due to ongoing global health concerns.

The good news is that the 2021 tournament in Bucharest will be offline, and has one of the biggest prize pools in esports, at just over $40 million.

The bad news, however, is that Valve recently announced fans wouldn’t be able to attend, and now it seems the setup for some squads will have them not only pit them against other teams but the environment itself.

On Twitter, Team Spirit manager Dmitry ‘Korb3n’ Belov took a video tour of the org’s practice room where they will be playing their group stage matches from.

“Team Spirit here with our own Hunger Games,” Belov said before taking viewers into the compact accommodations. “Just see how close the players are sitting. But you can get food anytime. There is a microwave and so on, we are playing at the kitchen.”

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Spirit Support player Miroslaw ‘Miroslaw’ Kolpakov said he felt like he was back playing in his college dorm, rather than a multi-million dollar premier tournament.

“I’m feeling like I’m at home, I’m feeling like I’m in my uni five years ago,” he joked. “There’s no free space, just like in my old dorm. Exactly the same kitchen, but without the microwave. But they care about us, and got us a microwave.”

The Russian esports org qualified for TI 10 through the Eastern Europe Qualifier and claimed, after posting the video, that the quality practice rooms were apparently distributed based on DOTA Pro Circuit points.

Valve has not yet confirmed that’s the case with The International 10. However, if we take a look at a Virtus.Pro, a team that qualified #3 through DPC points, they do seem to have a bit more space.

It’s not a penthouse suite by any means, but the VP players aren’t as crushed together as Team Spirit. Virtus.Pro has not yet publicly complained about their setup, either.

“The most important thing is that some other teams got good practice rooms,” Korb3n explained. “But, the rooms are distributed by DPC points, teams that are at the bottom of the DPC rankings all got rooms like this one.”

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While the room is far from ideal, Team Spirit seems to be willing to give Valve a break considering the setbacks the tournament has seen this year. Belov said he would be “waiting for next year, and hoping it would be better.”

If the rooms were given out based on points, they might not be the only ones either.