The International, the annual tournament for Valve's Dota 2, featuring dozens of players and millions in prize money, was put on hold today when a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack slammed the game's servers. Unlike the games of the past, played over local area networks (LAN), Dota 2 requires a connection to the internet, making it susceptible to these sorts of online attacks.

According to VentureBeat, "Valve's on-stage commentators confirmed to the assembled crowd of thousands that the DDoS was the reason they were pausing the action."

A good day for LAN lovers

The technical difficulty raises a question about how Valve will hold future tournaments, namely why hasn't the publisher created a self-contained version of Dota 2 that doesn't rely on the game's main servers. While the process wouldn't be as easy as the specialty edition cartridges of video games of yore, the option seems like the most direct preventative measure. After all, this isn't some trifling tournament at a school gymnasium. The International has an $18 million prize pool contributed to by Valve along with Dota 2 players.

The tournament went back online at 4:20 PM EST, according to PCWorld, and if you think I cherrypicked that source because of the time they cited, you are astute.