Valve’s infamously famous MOBA, Dota 2, has broken the record for gaming’s biggest e-sport prize pool with a staggering end total of over $39.8M.
Today was a remarkable day for e-sports after it was announced that this years (or more likely next years) Dota 2 annual championship known as “TI” will have a prize pool of almost 40 million dollars.
The total given this year surpassed last years total of $34,330,068 by almost 5 million dollars and has become the largest ever amount for a video game tournaments prize pool.
The major success of the pass comes as a shock to little in the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) community, considering the sheer volume of players that still play over 7 years later, reaching a peak of just over a million players in March, a month before the pass released in April.
The money for the tournament was generated when users bought levels for the battle-pass, which in return grants them valuable items in game such as new skins, taunts, announcer packs, a custom seasonal event and of course the fan favorite from last years battle pass, the “Ceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeb!” voice line which increases in length the more you level it up. 25% of all battle-pass purchases go into the prize pool.
The wind-ranger arcana skin was just one of the many fan favorites for this years pass.
The pass was extended this year due to there being no tournament until next year at the earliest, due to the ongoing global pandemic. A Valve spokesperson said “We are monitoring the situation and will share an announcement for new dates when we can.”
The tournament was meant to be held in Stockholm in Sweden between the 18th-23rd of August. Valve says it has been looking at “various date possibilities”, but it is likely that the event will need to happen in 2021.