The International 2019
As the main event of The International 2019 is now underway, thousands of fans arrived at Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai ready to watch some top-level Dota.
But during breaks in the action, several camera angles showed large, empty sections of the arena, which viewers at home were quick to attribute to ticket scalpers.
One image, in particular, that is making the rounds on Reddit shows the commentator desk for the North American broadcast. Behind them is a partially empty portion of the stands with several fans holding a banner.
That banner reads “shame on you, damai.cn,” referencing the website Valve partnered with when selling tickets for TI9 in the Chinese market.
The tickets sold through Damai were sold out within a minute of going live, with many fans being left on a loading screen or waiting for a frozen checkout menu to confirm if they were able to secure tickets. That means the tickets never reached the open market because Battle Pass users who got early access to tickets bought them all.
However, within minutes of the tickets being sold out, they were already popping up on resale sights for five to six times the price. The biggest Dota 2 event of the year was hit hard from the start by scalpers, even with the early access.
But according to several reports, scalpers had a free workaround courtesy of Damai.
In a Weibo post that has since been deleted, users claimed that a special URL was provided to known scalpers that allowed them to get around the early access code. Thus allowing them to check out at the same time as Battle Pass users.
This hiked prizes for good seats at TI9 up from $300 to over $1,000 for just the start of the playoffs. Some weekend tickets were allegedly going for significantly more than even that.
Another post that picked up some traction showed an entire section of the stadium left mostly empty, but other users who are actually in attendance quickly debunked that. This led to an argument about if scalping hurt the main event attendance, with most people who aren’t there saying it did.
It took a user present in Shanghai taking a photo of the arena from their seat to finally put some of the doubters to rest. The image shows very few vacant seats at the time of TNC Predator and Vici Gaming playing.
Whether or not the effect of scalpers on The International 2019 is proven or disproven by the time the Aegis of Champions is lifted, that doesn’t change the fact many fans didn’t even get a chance to attend. Valve really needs to work on their methods for selling tickets before next year’s tournament.
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