The Dota 2 community is disappointed with The International 12’s prize pool

The International 12 hasn’t even started yet and the Dota 2 community is already disappointed. The reason is obvious to all. After a decade of bigger and bigger prize pool, we’re going back to an event comparable to The International 3, which had a prize pool of less than $3 million.

Arguably, that event was a huge success and the Grand Final between Natus Vincere and Alliance has remained to this day one of the most epic in the history of the tournament. But this time, everything feels different.

One issue is that famous players like Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi and Clement “Puppey” Ivanov won’t compete in the tournament. For Dota 2 veterans, there aren’t that many teams and individuals to genuinely cheer for, unless of course you’re from a country that’s represented by a strong group of players or teams.

The previous edition of The International offered around $19 million in prize money and everyone felt like it was a letdown because of this. Tundra’s victory over Team Secret in the Grand Final made things even less exciting because the result was 3-0.

This time, the prize pool is going to be around six times smaller, making TI12 a tournament similar to the Dota 2 Majors from the good old days, when Majors offered $3 million in prizes.

As a person who won TI when the prize pool was far lower than its been in the past few years, I really don’t think we need 30 mil $ prize pool but it’s a serious problem if TI is not the biggest tournament of the year.

— Jonathan “Loda” Berg (@LodaBerg) October 1, 2023

How we came to this

Valve’s decision to end the Dota Pro Circuit and turn The International into something relatively mundane is a bit questionable. Teams can certainly live without the DPC, but why give up on one of the community’s core values?

This game was able to gain millions of fans precisely because of Valve’s decision to offer a large prize pool for The International 1. And then, using the Battle Pass, increase that prize pool year after year. When people thought of The International, they always thought of the biggest event in all of esports.

That was Dota 2’s saving grace, along with the game’s exceptional quality. In many other ways, League of Legends is far more appealing to new players than Dota.

Now that The International has been turned into a casual event, the incentive for people to become pro Dota 2 players has been diminished. Organizations can no longer tell themselves that they can pay good salaries regardless of what happens during the regular season, because a decent result at TI will turn things around.

So we’re in a very chaotic situation right now. And it might lead to the game’s downfall, at least on the esports side.

Header: Valve