The International 12’s prize pool will likely be lower than TI11’s

In recent weeks, Valve made an important announcement, signaling its decision to shift from a skins-based Battle Pass to something entirely different. The company wants to focus more on the game itself rather than its cosmetics.

For a lot of players, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. But here’s the catch: the traditional Battle Pass that used to get released months before The International is gone. In its place, something else will be offered to the community.

But will the replacement DLC prove to be a success? Will it buff the TI12 prize pool enough to make the tournament as epic as its previous editions? And the answer is probably not.

The International 2023 https://t.co/JNZPZO2tgz pic.twitter.com/dBlJI0NSZO

— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) May 7, 2023

Upcoming changes

For the first time since The International 4, which had a prize pool of nearly $11 million, we might be going back to a much more modest version of the tournament. In esports, almost no other company does what Valve has done for the past decade. Sure, world championships are important, but they don’t offer more than several million dollars.

Hopefully, if Valve decides to severely downgrade The International starting with TI12, the company will boost the prize pool of its Majors by at least $1.5 million. Back in the good old days, when Dota 2 Majors were first created, their prize pools were $3 million. And all of them were epic. People loved these tournaments.

A quick look at their viewership statistics shows that they used to have 300.000+ average concurrent viewers and nearly 1 million viewers at their peak.

These numbers are much better than what we have today. And while it is true that the community has lost around five million players since the glory days, it’s undeniable that the excitement was much greater back then than it is right now.

Valve, at least according to its own declaration, wants to change things for the better and no longer have one focal point for the entire Dota 2 year. This sounds good in theory, but how will it translate into reality?

If the decision is made to reduce TI’s prize pool to something like $5 million, something will have to be done to make the regular season a lot more exciting and lucrative. Otherwise, in 3-5 years this game’s esports scene will be a shadow of its former self. And it doesn’t have to be this way. The quality of the game itself is phenomenal.

Header: Valve Corporation