Valve has announced that the 2015 edition of The International Dota 2 Championships will begin on Monday August 3 and run for six full days, with 16 teams battling for the title. Further details haven't been revealed, but Valve said it wanted to make the dates known so fans would have sufficient time to plan for the event. Invitations to teams will be sent out shortly after May 1.
Last year's International took place in July, attracting more than 20 million unique viewers and well over two million peak concurrent users. It was also broadcast by ESPN for the first time ever; sources said afterward that the network was "delighted" by the success of its coverage and wanted to expand its e-sports programming, but ESPN President John Skipper sounded somewhat less enthusiastic about it a couple months later.