The International 2023 treated Dota 2 fans around the world to great competition and content, but there was one key piece missing—a True Sight documentary. While Valve still has not released the TI11 entry for the series, a TI12 iteration seems dead in the water.
Since TI7, Valve has filmed a documentary that “takes you behind the scenes of the journeys of professional Dota 2 teams” during that year’s TI finals. True Sight is always a highlight in the Dota community and is celebrated as a top-tier esports content series whenever a new entry drops.
While the schedule for True Sight has never been defined, Valve typically made sure the previous year’s doc dropped ahead of the following TI—until TI12.
While rumors of a potential drop before TI12’s finals weekend on Oct. 27 picked up some steam, the event is over, Team Spirit have lifted their second Aegis, and no TI11 True Sight is in sight. Not only has there been no communication from Valve on last year’s documentary, but it sounds like a TI12 entry is up in the air too.
According to Team Spirit host and former Counter-Strike pro Vyacheslav “Art1st” Lyadnov, “there will be no True Sight this year.” He shared the news on his Telegram on Oct. 31, along with a picture posing with Yatoro after they both shaved their heads at the event, saying the documentary isn’t happening but the team’s vlog “will be out soon.”
One additional source told Dot Esports Valve “didn’t record the teams they’d need for [a True Sight]” at TI12, based on what they had heard from the event.
This doesn’t mean a True Sight can’t happen using the footage Valve has access to without additional filming and the inclusion of post-event interviews. Doing so, however, would lose some of the best parts of what makes the series so great—including the between-match moments and in-booth content.
N0tail summed up a potential move away from True Sight perfectly last October, noting a decreased prize pool and no documentary were concerning for the game, even before TI12’s prizing plummeted to a decade-low for the series.
“With the prize pool decrease and no True Sight, the only way I can read into it is [I’m] confused, and maybe now [Valve] cares less,” n0tail said on OG’s podcast. “I saw the statistics. Every True Sight you have an influx of players, this is as close as they get to an advertisement. Why are you taking this away? Are you replacing it with something? I’m sad.”
Shortly after those n0tail comments and rumors of no True Sight happening for TI11 started circulating, Valve told teams it “is still on” but “will come out closer to TI finals” rather than ahead of the event. That didn’t happen, and now fans are left wondering if we will see Tundra Esports’ run to the Aegis, Spirit’s second title, or future champions immortalized moving forward.
Dot Esports has reached out to Valve for comment on both the TI11 True Sight release date and if future documentaries are planned.
