The International 2019 (TI9) kicked off on Tuesday, marking the first time for the world's largest Dota 2 e-sports tournament to take place in China.

Unveiled by the opening game between home favorite PSG.LGD and Russia's Victus.pro, the six-day tournament will see a total of 16 global teams compete for the prize pool of over 33 million U.S. dollars, of which 45.5% will be taken by the champion team.

Gabe Newell, co-founder of the game's developer Valve Software, expressed his gratefulness to the organizers and host at the opening ceremony.

"We are absolutely delighted to host this year's International here in China. My biggest question is, are we gonna finally have a repeat winner?" Newell asked.

Players shared Newell's enthusiasm.

"We feel that Dota in China and in Shanghai has been developed for a very long time and it has been very impressive. Chinese teams are always hard to play against. So we always have to be prepared to shift our play style depending on which team we play against. They're very tough opponents," Yazied "YapzOr" Jaradat of Team Secret said.

Since 2011, The International Dota 2 Championships have been held for eight consecutive sessions. Except for TI1 which was held in Cologne, Germany, the next seven sessions were all staged in North America. This is the first time for The International to take place in Asia or China.

Host city of TI9 Shanghai has taken a number of measures to boost the e-sports industry. The city announced a set of standards for the construction and operation of e-sports venues in early August, specifying requirements such as stage lighting and telecommunication networks.

Shanghai also took the lead in piloting an e-sports athlete registration system, with the first batch of players registered at the end of July.

"Shanghai's e-sports athlete registration system will bring great convenience for us to attend matches overseas," said Lu "Maybe" Yao of team PSG.LGD. 

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