Esports August Updates: Dota T10 Postponement and More

Many people around the world have been surprised and excited to watch as different esports have come to be major players in the sports world. But just like any other sports, esports were not left untouched by the COVID pandemic. This has caused a lot of delays, cancellations, and adjustments from everyone. But as August 2021 is in full swing, most of these things are no longer a problem, or are they?

COVID-19 has not yet released the grip it has on societies around the world, and as a result, numerous events are still being cancelled and postponed, and this includes several esports, the most notable being the Dota T10 tournament.

So before you rush off to buy your tickets for your favorite esport, keep reading to find out the latest news from the esports world. This way you will know exactly what to expect when you plan to go watch your favorite esport live.

Dota T10 Tournament Postponement

First and foremost, it’s time to address the Dota T10 tournament, because in June it was announced, just two measly months before the competition, that Sweden would not allow esports players to enter on professional sporting visas as they had originally promised. This left the organizers of the tournament, and the players, scrambling to make new arrangements.

Well on July 9th, it was announced that the tournament had been moved to Romania and would still be held for the 2021 year. But with the new location came another surprising piece of news, the dates themselves would change to October 7-17th instead of August as originally planned. Although this may not seem like a big deal, in the esports world this is monumental, because just like in physical sports, a new season cannot begin until the old one ends. And typically there has to be ample time in between to allow teams to switch up their rosters.

This means that the next Dota season will not start until November or December 2021. Which, when you start the season late, this pushes everything back, causing a domino effect that could affect the T10 in 2022. As of now, there have been no announcements dictating how this push back will affect the next season beyond the late start date. There will probably be additional updates soon.

If that weren’t enough, Dota is due for a patch, which means the game will receive a major update, and soon. Originally, this patch was supposed to drop after T10, but with the planned delay, this is no longer the case. Rather the patch released on August 17th, meaning that players now have just over a month to familiarize themselves with the changes to the game. Thus if a professional players that had vacations planned in September, the fun is over and they will likely spend the whole month playing to prepare.

Although this may not matter much to spectators, those who were hoping to place large bets on the game may need to think twice before betting on their favorite team. This is because they will be unable to see their favorite team compete on the new patch until T10, giving this tournament an element of surprise that has most sports bettors shaking in their boots. It will be interesting to see how much the new patch affects the play of the top players. But seeing as they are the best in the industry, you can likely still bet on the team you intended to, as long as you trust their training methods!

Overwatch 2 Suffers Another Delay

Overwatch fans were delighted when, in 2019, a new version of the game was announced. This excitement quickly fell however, when the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic hit and the developers announced it would be delayed. But many still expected the update sometime during the 2021 year.

But on August 10th, it was reported that the developers were having a hard time with the new game. They can’t seem to find the right balance between the heroes in the game to make competition fair. And because of this, they reported that players shouldn’t expect the new game until 2023. And this time it seems like they can’t blame the pandemic.

This is just another disappointment in a long line of announcements that have not gone over well for the company, Blizzard, that owns Overwatch. Their previous most recent announcement, that Overwatch would switch from a 6vs6 to a 5vs5 format saw many of their supporters and fans withdrawing and seeking out other games. It will be interesting to see if the new release renews interest in the game, or if Overwatch 2 is destined to become a bust of an endeavor.

One thing that isn’t presently disappointing about Overwatch, is that it is really climbing to take its place in the esports world. Currently, several sports betting sites will accept bets on Overwatch games, and really, this should come as no surprise when you consider how CS:GO has also claimed its place in the sports betting world.

League Of Legends New Patch Release

Dota isn’t the only esports game to get an update, as League of Legends players received their patch earlier this week. Scheduled to be released on August 11th, 2021, video game development is notoriously behind pandemic or no pandemic, leading one of the developers to tweet that the release would actually come one week later on August 18th, 2021.

This patch is monumental because even though League of Legends releases more frequent patches than similar games like Dota, they’ve had one issue they’ve been struggling to fix, and have not fixed, in the past few patches. This was a patch for the character Sona, and in the next update, you will notice massive changes to her character as well as her abilities to use items that previously didn’t work with her pack out. You will also notice that several other characters, such as Jarvan IV, Shaco, and Nunu are also getting updates. And of course, like all updates, there will be new skins for a handful of heroes so you can update your look before you next battle.

Overall, it’s been a busy month for esports, and whether you are a bettor or a player, good things are in store for all of the above games despite the fears of the COVID-19 Delta variant. So download your updates to your favorite games, order tickets to see them in person, or head over to the sports book to place bets to get in on the action, because there are coming events that you won’t want to miss!

This article was brought to you by the MintDice Bitcoin Plinko game. Originally posted on the MintDice Gaming Blog.