Dota 2‘s The International 2023 is coming, and alongside it come some changes to the formula.

The International is Dota 2‘s annual tournament, and has been hosted by Valve since 2011.

Here’s a rundown on the new changes:

The International is fast approaching! After months of competition, twelve teams have secured their invites to TI, with eight more set to join them after the upcoming regional qualifiers.

The International is watched by millions, from casual players to seasoned veterans and retired pros. Every year we look for new opportunities to make The International even more exciting, entertaining and accessible than ever before. This year, we’ve focused on improving the viewing experience for a broader range of fans. While no format can be perfect, we’re always trying to strike a balance between things that have worked in the past and things that could work even better in the future.

So with TI 2023 on the horizon, we wanted to walk you through every detail of the format changes we’re trying out this year, and our thought process behind them.

The full announcement is huge and goes over a lot of details, which you can read here.

To summarize things, the matches will now be hosted live, the event will be split into two phases, and changes to the group stage were made to make matches more meaningful.

Dota 2 is available on Microsoft Windows (through Steam).