ESPN3 to air The International Dota 2 grand finals

The championship rounds of Dota 2 competition The International will air on ESPN3, Valve has announced.

A post on Steam’s news section reveals the eSports competition will be available to view live on ESPN’s online streaming service with matches, analysis, interviews and all. Watchers can also view the competition on the WatchESPN app via Xbox One, Xbox 360, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast and Roku hardware.

A special preview show featuring Valve founder Gabe Newell, competitor interviews and more will also air on ESPN’s television network ESPN2 on July 20th at 11:30 pm Eastern US.

"From the success of the Compendium to the collaboration with ESPN, this year’s International really demonstrates how much competitive gaming has grown to rival traditional sports," Dota 2 lead Erik Johnson said.

"We believe the teams have also pushed to a new level of play this year and will further demonstrate the incredible advances made across this tournament since it first began three short years ago."

The grand finals of the event take place in Key Arena in Seattle, where teams will determine what amount of the $10m total prize pool they’ll capture.