Valve announced the return of The International last month after taking a year-long sabbatical due to the pandemic. Along with raising over $40 million in prize pool cash (the most of any esports tournament, ever), Valve confirmed the location of the event would be Stockholm, Sweden.
Now it's looking like Sweden might not want The International after all. Valve recently posted an update on how the event is shaping up, and it seems that it's hit a bit of a snag with the Swedish government.
"Over the course of the past year, Stockholm Live and Visit Stockholm continued to reassure us in our regular and constant communications with them that The International - Dota 2 Championships qualified for the same exemptions other elite sporting events there received," wrote Valve over on the Dota 2 blog.
"However, despite previous reassurances, we were informed two weeks ago that the Swedish Sports Federation had just voted not to accept esports into the sports federation."
The International organizers asked the Swedish minister of the interior to reclassify the tournament as an "elite sporting event," but was denied that too. This meant that players and staff trying to enter Sweden wouldn't be able to apply for a visa because they didn't qualify for one of the COVID-19 exceptions.
Direct appeals to the Swedish government on June 9 and June 14 have so far met with nothing, so Valve has been forced to come up with a plan B. "As a result, and in light of the current political situation in Sweden, we have started looking for possible alternatives elsewhere in Europe to host the event this year, in case the Swedish government is unable to accommodate The International - Dota 2 Championships as planned."
Valve said it was "confident" that it'd be able to find somewhere in Europe to host The International and will provide an "updated plan in the very near future." In the meantime, The International qualifiers are still set to start on June 23, with The International 10 finals set for August 5.