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The road to TI 10, the biggest annual Dota 2 event after over a year of absence, was not easy for Valve.
Unable to host the tenth iteration in 2020 due to the pandemic, the event was first deferred to August 2021, held in Stockholm, Sweden. But when the Swedish Sports Federation refused to recognize the prominence of Dota 2 as a global sport two months before the planned event date, it put them in a difficult position.
The possibility of a second wave meant many restrictions in European countries, which made getting a new venue difficult. Valve's last resort was the PGL studio in Bucharest, Romania, a country recovering rapidly back then. Unfortunately for Valve, the Covid cases have surged in Romania of late due to numerous factors, including inadequate vaccination coverage.
Yesterday, the venue of TI itself was found exposed to Covid when Valve's detection protocols identified two active cases in its staff.
No Dota 2 talents are currently known to be covid-positive, neither are the broadcast talents
Valve's alleged lack of management sparked a debacle when Covid breached the ranks of its Dota 2 rosters. The entire squad of Team Aster tested positive with only a week to go till TI. It was a few days of panic in the Chinese Dota 2 community in general, as all five Chinese teams had been camping in the same Bucharest hotel.
Although most other teams made it through unscathed, Thiay 'JT-' Jun Wen and Jin "flyfly" Zhiyi from Invictus Gaming were eventually also infected. After some consideration, the teams were allowed to play the group stage remotely, even if they were Covid-positive. Team Aster ended up playing their opening group stage series with a stand-in for their bed-ridden midlaner.
Thankfully, Valve has imposed strict protocols to stem the threat of covid in the TI venue, Arena Națională. Thanks to these, two cases were detected yesterday before much damage was done. Panelists and players have been wearing filtering respirators and masks ever since.
Some talents with the possibility of exposure had been isolated, including Brian "BSJ" Cannavan, who streamed TI 10 from Twitch yesterday. The Dota 2 community was concerned about the absence of Austin "Cap" Walsh in this context. Cap, however, is confirmed to be Covid-negative.
