Dota 2 is faced with a wave of disbands

Exactly as was predicted weeks ago, the wave of Dota 2 disbands has begun. And it’s not that difficult to understand its causes. Usually, we see only a few disbands after the end of The International each year, and it involves the teams that performed poorly or didn’t participate at all, not the ones that competed and finished in the top eight.

But this time it’s a bit different. Valve’s decision to kill the Dota Pro Circuit after six years means that the game’s esports scene is in ruins and will need to be rebuilt. However, because the announcement came so late and was coupled with TI’s unexpectedly low prize pool, a lot of orgs lost a lot of money, and the tournament organizers did not have time to plan ahead.

The planning probably started only after the end of TI12, which means that it will take months for big announcements to be made. Meanwhile, orgs are paying their players and are wondering if the whole business is sustainable anymore. Truth be told, it mostly wasn’t even before the bad news. But now it’s serious. Because, what do you tell investors and sponsors?

You essentially need to tell them that in the next 4-6 months, there will be very little Dota 2 action. And that may actually last for a whole year or more. Hopefully, someone will come to the rescue and fill the void left by Valve. But what if no one does?

The first disbands

We’ve reached the end of the road at #TI12. Thank you to everyone who supported us in our journey to get here 💙#VamosEG | @Vkgameone pic.twitter.com/bhWXybVrYa

— Evil Geniuses (@EvilGeniuses) October 21, 2023

Nouns announced a few days ago that the entire roster is released. And keep in mind that nouns finished The International 12 in the top eight, way ahead of Shopify Rebellion and other teams in the region.

If a team that finished in the top eight at TI needs to disband after performing much better than expected, the implication is that Dota 2’s professional scene offers very low financial rewards to those who participate in it.

If we look at TI12’s prize pools, we can see that the 7^th – 8^th place teams received just $80.000. After taxes, org fees, and so on, each player is probably left with less than $10.000. And apart from this money, there’s very little money that can be made unless you’re part of other big events and finish near the top, which is hard.

Apart from nouns, we’ve also seen Evil Geniuses disbanding its Dota 2 team, Nemiga Gaming, Team SMG to some extent, and BOOM Esports. Others are likely to do the same.

Header: Valve