Valve will allow qualified TI7 teams to take 7 players again

Valve announced that qualified teams for The International 7 will be allowed to bring a seventh “team member.”

A North American player posted a blog on Liquid Dota asking Valve to allow more players to attend. The increased importance of analysts and managers, separately, started the initial calls for the seventh member, especially as team numbers shifted from eight at TI6, to seven in Boston, and eventually six for Kiev.

Upon the blog getting posted to Reddit, a Valve employee commented to let fans and players know that they’d already sent out an email notifying teams that they’d allow a seventh “team member.”

The famously outspoken player was a bit late to speak, though no harm was done, minus lost time working on the post. Even if it’s an odd and slightly-unfortunate way to find out, the news comes as a pleasant surprise for the community. It comes as another spark of good news after the changes to the competitive system; plus, it’s just in time for teams to start planning their trips to Seattle.