RAMZES attacks The International 2023

Throughout the history of the Dota 2 competitive scene, The International was always the tournament that generated a lot of expectations in the community, players, and teams. However, that trend began to diminish in 2022, when Valve decided to eliminate the Battle Pass, so many things began to change, including the tournament’s prize pool.

This, and many other things, have made the tournament not as spectacular as expected. As a result, one of the most controversial players in the Dota 2 competitive scene, Roman “RAMZES666” Kushnarev, said that The International 2023 is the “worst tournament” of the season.

RAMZES says that The International is the worst tournament of the season

After the first phases of The International 2023 were played, we observed how 9Pandas, the team where RAMZES plays, finished in third place in Group A and beat BetBoom Team to secure their place in the next phase. Moreover, thanks to this, 9Pandas begins its journey from the Quarterfinals of the Upper Bracket.

However, not everything is happiness for the 9Pandas boys because, in a vlog on the official 9Pandas YouTube channel, RAMZES said some things that, without a doubt, maybe really true. And that is that, according to the Russian translation, RAMZES stated that he is not entirely happy with what it means to play IT. Furthermore, he forcefully pointed out that The International 2023 does not live up to what this tournament means to the Dota 2 community.

In the video, RAMZES says that he feels everything is “off” and emphasizes that they played much more intense, exciting, and overall better tournaments in every way throughout the 2023 season.

Moreover, if anyone can say this, it is RAMZES. Remember that this is the fourth time the Russian has participated in The International, his previous participations being in three consecutive years from 2017 to 2019. During those years, the TI prize pool was breaking records, generating much more intensity to the tournament.

Dota Christmas slowly dies down

While it is true that the prize pool of The International 2023 is really low, that’s not the only negative thing we have in this edition. And the so-called “Dota Christmas” is slowly fading without the battle pass, skins, and game modes determined.

Right now, the tournament does not generate the same expectations as previous years; there is no doubt about that. The audience level is decreasing, and the intensity of the matches is not the same. In addition, the “best paying” esports event has completely lost its essence, as the Riyadh Master handed out a much larger sum of money.

The Dota 2 prize pool continues to increase gradually as the tournament progresses. However, it recently surpassed $3M and is unlikely to reach $5M.

Finally, while RAMZES and other players feel that TI 2023 has lost its essence, this does not mean they will give up – quite the contrary. 9Pandas is on a mission to win the championship trophy, become the best team in the world, and take the biggest share of the prize pool.

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