The International is the biggest esports tournament in the world. Organised by Valve and based around the ever sensational Dota 2, 2020’s. 18 teams participate in the tournament, 12 of which are invited by Valve and the rest have to earn their spot in open qualifiers round. One team of each of the 6 regions, North Americas, South Americas, Europe, China, CIS, and Southeast Asia progress to the main round.
Earlier this year, Valve had made a decision to cancel the event as an arena could not be secured due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people turn up to watch the tournament every year and such a thing was simply not feasible are large gatherings are a threat to public safety. “Given the highly volatile landscape for local gathering restrictions, virus trajectory, and global travel policies, we don’t expect to have enough confidence to communicate firm dates in the near future. In the meantime, we are working on restructuring the DPC season for the fall, and will be providing more information as soon as we have it.” said an official spokesperson via the Dota 2 blog.
The 10th anniversary of the long-running was a special a long-awaited tournament for fans as well the Valve themselves. Unfortunately, unlike other esports tournaments, Valve has showcased no signs of moving to an online platform for The International. The move does make sense from a financial point of view as a lot of profits are garnered from tournament tickets as well as sponsors at the arena. Since there is no arena and the complete prize pool is distributed, the profits for Valve will sink.
The prize pool money is generated by selling Battle Passes. Valve sells annual Battle Passes to Dota 2 players and 25% of the sales are directly contributed to the prize pool. Last year’s prize pool crossed $34mil, with the first prize ranking as much as $15 mil and even the 18th prize, that is the last prize for a qualifying team, was worth over $85,000. That alone is beyond the complete prize pool of mid-tier esports tournament.
This year, despite the lack of the tournament, a Battle Pass was available. Once again, 25% of the earnings went directly to the prize pool. The total prize pool crossed the last years $34 mil mark, with still a month to go, once again breaking a number of records. It’s still unclear if this year’s prize pool will be merged with 2021’s prize pool, creating the ultimate Dota 2 championship that shall be marked in history,