The International has always been looked at as the most prestigious and rewarding DotA 2 tournament since its first incarnation at Gamescom in 2011. After seeing what happened at TI3, it is now time to pose the question of whether or not Valve should change the way they invite teams to future TIs.
Premature invitations
The first invitation for The International 3 was sent out on the April 23rd and it was none other than iG, champions of TI2, who received it. All the joy and excitement aside, that was also the day Valve placed a deadlock on iG's roster and they were restricted from changing it for up to three and a half months. By the April 30th, 13 teams all around the world fell under Valve's clause for none switching until August 12th. The main reason behind these early invitations was that getting a visa to the United States is a long, drawn out process that needed to be taken care of several months in advance. That is especially true for Chinese and CIS teams who usually need two to three months to apply for and receive their visas and there is also a high possibility that they will get rejected on the first try (Virtus.Pro almost didn't get theirs).
A lot can happen during the three months leading up to The International 3. Many teams have gone through the motions and no other teams is a better example than Invasion-MUFC. MUFC was the last team to be invited to the tournament and make no mistake they were really good all throughout March, taking down several GEST tournaments and were on the verge of being deemed the best in South East Asia. After the Malaysian team received the invitation, the team had no real achievements and often found themselves with awkward finishes in tournaments like Alienware Cup involving huge gaming clubs. The team even went on to lose a GMPGL qualifier to Orange's squad who played with a non-pro stand-in weeks before The International 3. Reports suggested internal problems within the team.
There are also times when the internal problem is so huge that teams such as LGD.cn and Neolution.Int would risk their tournament spot just to change it. The invitations were clearly sent out too early and that deadlock on roster was a real deal-breaker for many teams. For teams that are not guaranteed a direct invite, the shuffle deadline is even sooner because Valve wants to look for stability and consistency. We will go ahead to say that the upcoming shuffle would probably be a whole lot smaller if these 16 teams were not locked for such a long time.
It's the team that matters, not the players
We all know The International 3 is sort of a tribute to all these often underpaid professional players but never in the history of sports were the players and not the teams the recipients of the invitation. For example, if Cristiano Ronaldo jumps ship to another team before or halfway through the season, should Real Madrid be kicked from the UEFA Champions League that they have already earned a spot in? No, because it's the team that matters.
Valve should trust whatever organizations think work for them. The MUFC case is proof that Valve's reason for their invitation policy is flawed. First of all, if the invitation is placed upon the organization, they are bound to put together and motivate a roster that they believe has the ability to bring home the money. With Valve's current policy, they have no choice but to deal with the invited players and if those players cannot cooperate there is nothing the organization could do. If the organization itself is invited, management will be more active in motivating and helping players to bond with each other because they are allowed to have more responsibility. Secondly, with the current policy, the "bonding and improving" Valve thought teams could use, is forced. It doesn't matter if you give a group of five guys who dislike playing with each other a few months or a year. Sure they will stick together but that's because otherwise they risk losing out on a lot of money. When they do have to finally play, they crash and burn because they didn't enjoy practicing with each other.
Had Valve invited MUFC the organization it would probably have given us a better roster because of how much money were on the line. As it was, they were left with the decision of either sticking with their current roster - one with uncertain chances at The International 3 - or riske their entire spot in the tournament for changing to a roster they know would work out well enough. Something similar happened last year when Darer Entertainment got the direct invite to The International 2012 despite their up-and-down performances. Speculations were going around that the only reason for them being directly invited was because of ArtStyle, who at that time was the reigning captain. With Darer, Valve clearly didn't realize that it was not ArtStyle that mattered, but the whole team.
What Valve should do
If Valve insists on keeping their current "no roster change after invitation" policy, they should think of a more adequate deadline than what they previously imposed. The most obvious change would be, as suggested above, to invite the organizations instead of the players. It will hold the the former responsible for assembling the best possible roster to compete at The International and not stick with a group of players who are forced to stay together for half a year or more despite whatever internal problems they might have. When they invite teams, they can learn from the National Basketball Association (NBA) or National Hockey League (NHL) and impose an official trade deadline after which teams are not allowed to change roster anymore, instead of the previous "Hey we won't tell you exactly when we'll send out invitations, so better stay put for half a year."
They could also hold the tournament in another region so teams don't have to rush to the embassy and apply for a visa nearly half a year beforehand. In the past, Valve had started sending out invitations during April which is about three months before the main event. If they host The International in Europe like they did with the first one, then they can postpone the invitation process by about a month. That extra time can be very valuable to teams if they want to have roster changes. Not to mention going to or around Europe would be much cheaper for a lot of DotA 2 fans.
