Valve bans ‘distracting’ sponsorships from Dota 2 teams just weeks out from TI

Valve has taken a stand against Dota 2 teams using the game to advertise their sponsors today, outright banning all sponsor logos during a match such as those seen on team banners, base logos, and player tags.

The move comes just a week before The International begins and is a shock to many organizations who had been using Dota 2‘s in-game elements to advertise their sponsors, with Valve stating the decision was to “remove distracting elements and allow full focus on the game and people playing it” in an Aug. 27 blog post. “Over the years, we’ve built a number of features into Dota to help celebrate these teams and players; unfortunately, we’ve seen those features increasingly being used not to showcase team or player identity, but rather to host advertisements,” the company explained.

Dota fans have become accustomed to seeing sponsors appear in player names through suffixes or team banners for years, with team customization expanded in 2016 after the Battle Cup was added to the TI Compendium. Since then, orgs have sold these elements as product placement to sponsors—but Valve is now pulling the plug.

As nice as it is to believe this was done solely to remove these “distracting elements,” some fans believe strict local laws against gambling in Denmark and the EU have forced Valve’s hand. Dota statistician Noxville dove into each TI-qualified team‘s sponsors and while many bookmaking companies appear, there are plenty of other sponsors losing out too.

“Obviously it’d be great if teams didn’t need to advertise like this, but this [is] the reality of the Dota 2 scene: There’s limited income available,” Noxville said on X/Twitter, highlighting that between a record-low prize pool, a lackluster Compendium, and now a sure loss in sponsorship, orgs are struggling to remain afloat in Dota 2.

The restriction is only in place during TI 2024 at this time, but given it’s the pinnacle event on the Dota calendar with the most viewers, losing out on even a tag spot will assuredly leave many sponsors fuming—and looking to leave.