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The saga continues for the major upcoming Dota 2 tournament TI10: The International, with it now switching countries due to Sweden not accepting it.

Delayed a while now thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Valve had been working closely with Stockholm Live and Visit Stockholm who seemed to repeatedly assure Valve it would qualify and get the same exemptions as "other elite sporting events there received". Sadly, that's not been the case.

In a blog post, Valve's Dota 2 team noted that two weeks ago the Swedish Sports Federation voted against allowing e-sports into the sports federation. Valve had meetings, and spoke to the Swedish Minister of the Interior to get it reclassified which was "immediately denied". Valve also appealed directly to the Swedish government who claimed they couldn't help with it.

Valve say they remain committed to hosting the event this year and so they've started looking for alternate locations across Europe to host the event in case Sweden continues to deny them and they will "announce an updated plan in the very near future".

The good news is that qualifiers will still go ahead starting June 23 and the Dota 2 summer event Nemestice will also arrive "later this week".

So it's going to be another while before probably the biggest event in e-sport history actually goes ahead. What makes it the biggest? The insane prize-pool on offer of around $40,018,195 which is the largest for any event in history for e-sports. This just continues the argument of if e-sports are "real sports" which it appears Sweden doesn't think so.

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Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: E-sport, Misc, Steam, Valve
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6 comments

dpanter Jun 22, 2021
Welcome to Sweden! ... asterisk.

We do get tripped up by our complex bureaucracy sometimes, and this topic is rather long in the tooth by now. We need to acknowledge that e-sport athletes are athletes and stop faffing around. I'm quite certain the old people at the top have zero understanding of the incredible effort it takes to compete at this level. Maybe one day.
F.Ultra Jun 22, 2021
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Just to clarify the
QuoteValve had meetings, and spoke to the Swedish Minister of the Interior to get it reclassified which was "immediately denied". Valve also appealed directly to the Swedish government who claimed they couldn't help with it.

So the "Swedish Sports Federation" Riksidrottsförbundet (or RF as they are known in Sweden) have zero to do with the Government so the Government and the Minister of the Interior have zero say in what they do or don't do (unless they break the law of course).

Aka RF is a non political people/social movement and 100% private.

edit: and It's against the corona lockdown rules to gather so many people in a single arena unless it's a "sporting event". Which of course is quite logical if you think about it since the thought behind allowing more people to be at the same place in a outdoors activity such as a sport event does not really match that of a Dota2 tournament.

edit2: Not really sure how Valve intended that classifying it as a sports event would solve anything though. The current restrictions for sports events are: Max 50 people for indoor events with designated seats, max 100 people for outdoor events without designated seats and max 500 for outdoor events with designated seats.


Last edited by F.Ultra on 22 June 2021 at 5:46 pm UTC
Ananace Jun 22, 2021
Quoting: F.UltraJust to clarify the
QuoteValve had meetings, and spoke to the Swedish Minister of the Interior to get it reclassified which was "immediately denied". Valve also appealed directly to the Swedish government who claimed they couldn't help with it.

So the "Swedish Sports Federation" Riksidrottsförbundet (or RF as they are known in Sweden) have zero to do with the Government so the Government and the Minister of the Interior have zero say in what they do or don't do (unless they break the law of course).

Aka RF is a non political people/social movement and 100% private.

edit: and It's against the corona lockdown rules to gather so many people in a single arena unless it's a "sporting event". Which of course is quite logical if you think about it since the thought behind allowing more people to be at the same place in a outdoors activity such as a sport event does not really match that of a Dota2 tournament.

edit2: Not really sure how Valve intended that classifying it as a sports event would solve anything though. The current restrictions for sports events are: Max 50 people for indoor events with designated seats, max 100 people for outdoor events without designated seats and max 500 for outdoor events with designated seats.

And of course, the correct thing to do here is not to try and - as Valve attempted - classify e-sport as an "idrott" - which is what Riksidrottsförbundet have influence over, but rather to get a proper classification for non-physical sports and so prepare rules that allow for such events as well.

It's not just e-sports that have been denied allowances either. Both bridge and chess tournaments have equally had sporting visas denied so far, because of the simple reason that Sweden only has special rules in place for "idrott", not "sport". (The words in Swedish have a slightly different meaning; "idrott" being more a physical activity that could be for training - like football, yoga, swimming, or jogging. And "sport" being more something you could compete in - like chess, hockey, spelling contests, or speed climbing)
F.Ultra Jun 22, 2021
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Quoting: Ananace
Quoting: F.UltraJust to clarify the
QuoteValve had meetings, and spoke to the Swedish Minister of the Interior to get it reclassified which was "immediately denied". Valve also appealed directly to the Swedish government who claimed they couldn't help with it.

So the "Swedish Sports Federation" Riksidrottsförbundet (or RF as they are known in Sweden) have zero to do with the Government so the Government and the Minister of the Interior have zero say in what they do or don't do (unless they break the law of course).

Aka RF is a non political people/social movement and 100% private.

edit: and It's against the corona lockdown rules to gather so many people in a single arena unless it's a "sporting event". Which of course is quite logical if you think about it since the thought behind allowing more people to be at the same place in a outdoors activity such as a sport event does not really match that of a Dota2 tournament.

edit2: Not really sure how Valve intended that classifying it as a sports event would solve anything though. The current restrictions for sports events are: Max 50 people for indoor events with designated seats, max 100 people for outdoor events without designated seats and max 500 for outdoor events with designated seats.

And of course, the correct thing to do here is not to try and - as Valve attempted - classify e-sport as an "idrott" - which is what Riksidrottsförbundet have influence over, but rather to get a proper classification for non-physical sports and so prepare rules that allow for such events as well.

It's not just e-sports that have been denied allowances either. Both bridge and chess tournaments have equally had sporting visas denied so far, because of the simple reason that Sweden only has special rules in place for "idrott", not "sport". (The words in Swedish have a slightly different meaning; "idrott" being more a physical activity that could be for training - like football, yoga, swimming, or jogging. And "sport" being more something you could compete in - like chess, hockey, spelling contests, or speed climbing)

Well to be honest Valve didn't try to get e-sports classified as a sport in Sweden, that have been an ongoing battle by the e-sport federations in Sweden for years to be able to be a member of RF which RF for whatever reason have denied so far.

What Valve tried to do here is to get a Minister to get them special privileges to circumvent the lockdown protocols, perhaps not knowing that in Sweden a Minister is not allowed to influence how an administrative authority decides in a particular case. Perhaps that is allowed in the US where Valve have experience but over here this is outlawed as form to minimize the risk of corruption.

And this is why the Minister of the Interior immediately denied the request.

edit: Looked it up and not only is it allowed in the US it's also apparently seen as the norm. So this is a case where a US company not understanding the rules in a different country.


Last edited by F.Ultra on 22 June 2021 at 11:27 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Jun 23, 2021
Quoting: F.Ultra
Quoting: Ananace
Quoting: F.UltraJust to clarify the
QuoteValve had meetings, and spoke to the Swedish Minister of the Interior to get it reclassified which was "immediately denied". Valve also appealed directly to the Swedish government who claimed they couldn't help with it.

So the "Swedish Sports Federation" Riksidrottsförbundet (or RF as they are known in Sweden) have zero to do with the Government so the Government and the Minister of the Interior have zero say in what they do or don't do (unless they break the law of course).

Aka RF is a non political people/social movement and 100% private.

edit: and It's against the corona lockdown rules to gather so many people in a single arena unless it's a "sporting event". Which of course is quite logical if you think about it since the thought behind allowing more people to be at the same place in a outdoors activity such as a sport event does not really match that of a Dota2 tournament.

edit2: Not really sure how Valve intended that classifying it as a sports event would solve anything though. The current restrictions for sports events are: Max 50 people for indoor events with designated seats, max 100 people for outdoor events without designated seats and max 500 for outdoor events with designated seats.

And of course, the correct thing to do here is not to try and - as Valve attempted - classify e-sport as an "idrott" - which is what Riksidrottsförbundet have influence over, but rather to get a proper classification for non-physical sports and so prepare rules that allow for such events as well.

It's not just e-sports that have been denied allowances either. Both bridge and chess tournaments have equally had sporting visas denied so far, because of the simple reason that Sweden only has special rules in place for "idrott", not "sport". (The words in Swedish have a slightly different meaning; "idrott" being more a physical activity that could be for training - like football, yoga, swimming, or jogging. And "sport" being more something you could compete in - like chess, hockey, spelling contests, or speed climbing)

Well to be honest Valve didn't try to get e-sports classified as a sport in Sweden, that have been an ongoing battle by the e-sport federations in Sweden for years to be able to be a member of RF which RF for whatever reason have denied so far.

What Valve tried to do here is to get a Minister to get them special privileges to circumvent the lockdown protocols, perhaps not knowing that in Sweden a Minister is not allowed to influence how an administrative authority decides in a particular case. Perhaps that is allowed in the US where Valve have experience but over here this is outlawed as form to minimize the risk of corruption.

And this is why the Minister of the Interior immediately denied the request.

edit: Looked it up and not only is it allowed in the US it's also apparently seen as the norm. So this is a case where a US company not understanding the rules in a different country.
There's a lot of stuff seen as the norm in the US which most other places is considered corruption, bribery etc. and against the law. That's how the US can advertise itself as a not-so-corrupt place trying to watchdog other people's corruption . . . they make it all legal and accepted, and presto! Not corruption.
Keyrock Jun 23, 2021
How about Katowice? Poland loves them some eSports.
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