The Dota 2 Battle Pass for TI11 has failed

Dota 2 is famous for several things. One of them is its complexity and the strategic depth it offers. And the other is its world championship, called The International.

The first edition of The International took place in 2011 and had a prize pool of $1.6 million. At that time, this broke all records and was completely off the charts. In the next year, another edition of The International was held by Valve and its prize pool was identical: $1.6 million.

The evolution of TI’s prize pool

Starting with the third edition, Valve introduced a system to help boost the TI prize pool by offering its Dota 2 community the chance to buy a DLC that we now call Battle Pass. A quarter of the money made from the sales went to TI’s prize pool and that quickly led to more and more spectacular editions of the tournament.

Each year was better than the previous one. In 2013, the prize pool was $2.8 million. In 2014 it was $10.9 million. In 2015 it was $18.4 million. Finally, in 2021 it was $40 million. This prize broke a lot of records and will probably remain unequaled for the next 5 years.

What the word failure means here

When we talk about failure in relation to the Dota 2 Battle Pass for The International 2022, the word failure is relative to what happened before. If we compare Dota 2 to other esports, then the prize pool of its world championship this year is a huge success.

But if you consider the fact that the TI11 prize pool will only be around $15 million, this is a huge downgrade compared to previous years. In fact, the amount is lower than most of the other TI prize pools. And that should make us wonder: what happened?

The causes of the problem

This year, the Dota 2 Battle Pass was underwhelming. It was poorly designed, offered almost nothing new, and its rewards required so many hours of grinding that few people will get to them. On top of that, Valve decided to sell it in two stages. The first stage is for itself (75%) and The International 2022 (25%) while the second stage is just for itself.

This selfish and greedy decision did not go unnoticed by the community. People who play Dota 2 have a passion for the game and are sensitive to stuff like this. So they simply decided to not support the move by not purchasing the Battle Pass. No doubt, a significant percentage of the community did, but millions of people didn’t.

The TI11 prize pool is now at $12.7 million and it’s growing really slow. There’s little hope for a $20 million outcome.

Header: Valve Corporation