Valve just made a statement: No Ads for the In-game content. How will this affect the whole show?
Valve made a bold nighttime announcement, stating that The International 2024 will not feature any in-game advertisements. The blog post claims that they've made this decision to remove "distracting elements", making it a better viewing experience.
Since its first edition, The International has been a sponsor-free tournament. However, this changed recently, when the "Road to TI" was first introduced. During this period, the streaming rights for the regional qualifiers were sold to different studios around the world, allowing them to monetize with sponsors. Still, this didn't involve any in-game content; it was only for the stream.
The recent decision of avoiding any kind of advertisement during The International 2024 aims directly to the players and teams. Valve claims they've built a "number of features into Dota to help celebrate these teams and players." The game developer believes they've misused these opportunities as advertisements instead of showcasing their identities. These include:
- Team banners
- Base logos
- Player tags
- Sprays, emoticons, chat-wheels, etc.
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How will the new "Advertisement ban" will affect players and teams at The International 2024?
"BetBoom Team" and "1win Esports" should immediately face the effects, as their names include betting sponsors and will appear in-game. In the past, they resolved this by renaming themselves as "BB Team" and "1w Esports".
However, the biggest change will be reflected in the in-game spaces. Initially, Valve allowed a "sponsorship" space next to the player's name.
This decision exclusively made for The International should also affect the "sponsorship" space that players used to have for advertisement. Despite being a designated space for this purpose, it is also part of the "in-game" content that Valve flagged as "distracting".
Some players also used this 'sponsor' space as a meme opportunity, since adding a brand name there isn't mandatory.
It's still unclear what was flagged as "distracting" by Valve when it came to sponsorship opportunities, but the community is certainly happy. Some players took to Reddit to show how glad they are that betting sponsors and advertisement will take a blow during The International.
A minority showed their concern on the effect that this decision will have on the economy of teams. However, the overall sentiment has been positive, and teams are still able to monetize with team bundles that are purchasable in-game.
Will this turn into a bigger drama, or will teams quietly comply? Stay tuned to our Dota 2 section for more updates!
