The production value is ridiculous. The stream is amazing, and if you're not satisfied with the free 1080p you can always open the game client yourself and watch it as an in game spectator. The setup is really, really nice. They have four hosts/analysts, two commentators, and two large five-man booths. Everything looks extremely professional, without looking fake (nobody's dressed up looking like they don't belong).
Having the stream on twitchtv & own3d makes everyone happy. They also had three other streams for the other camera views out of game - one for each team's booth and one pointed at the crowd. The crowd is totally fucking into it and there shouldn't be any complaints about crowd noise because everything is clearly mic'd up perfectly. And beyond that... while I don't know much about dota, the matches I managed to watch at work and at home today all seemed somewhat even. It doesn't feel like Starcraft 2 where you almost know who's going to win before, or even if you think you do it still gets tense. Three out of the four winners bracket matches went to a third game. They've followed up the matches with good interviews that actually have to do with the game they're playing and not generic "how do you feel" questions.
I'm just so impressed and it makes me want to try to learn how to play the damn game again. Blizzard should be put on notice for the production we got out of this. Valve may have spent a ton of money on The International, but it's not like Activision-Blizzard is hurting for money.
Even if you aren't interested in Dota2, you should check the stream out just to see what we should be getting for any other tournament.
http://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti main stream
http://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti_pod_1 - team 1 cam
http://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti_pod_2 - team 2 cam
http://www.twitch.tv/dota2ti_hall - audience cam
