The winners of The International not only get glory and more contracts for the following season, Valve also provides them with a significant portion of the prize pool.

The prize pool of Dota 2 itself is collected in a slightly unconventional way for big games in eSports: behind it are many interesting decisions of the organizers, the association of MOBA connoisseurs around the world, and gatherings from the Compendium. Let's consider in detail how it is replenished and in which year the winners received the largest prize fund in the history of Dota 2.

How the prize pool of Dota 2 tournaments is formed

First of all, it is worth clarifying that Valve does not like to spend too much on eSports for its games. Of course, they pay for all the organizational aspects, but how much the prize fund will collect in the end in Dota 2 depends entirely on the players.

The company contributes the first 1.6 million dollars, and the remaining amount, whatever it is, is taken from the sale of the Compendium (namely, 25%). The Dota 2 International prize fund is usually replenished closer to the end of the championship in order to receive the maximum possible amount.

Such a policy has its pros and cons. Among the advantages is the possibility of fans to influence the championship, as well as the absence of dependence on stingy investors and sponsors. On the other hand, this means that one of the most important events in eSports can offer its participants quite a bit of prize money if sales have been poor this year.

What was the prize fund in 2023?

If we take the last pro-season, then the prize pool of Dota 2 2023 was not very large. They collected only $3,135,517 , which is not bad, but quite mediocre for eSports. The biggest part of it went to the winning team, two-time champions Team Spirit - 45% or $1,411,128 . The rest of the amount was divided between 20 other places:

• 12% to 2nd place, Gaimin Gladiators;

• 8% to 3rd place , LGD Gaming;

• 5.5% for 4th place , Azure Ray;

• The 5th and 6th places were taken by 3.25% each , these are Team Liquid and BetBoom Team;

• 7 and 8 received 2.5% each (Virtus.pro, Nouns);

• teams from 9th to 12th place took 2% each (Entity, 9Pandas, Talon, TSM);

• 13-16 places received 1.5% each (EG, Shopify, Rebellion, Tundra Esports, Keyd Stars);

• 17-20 places took 1% of the fund each (Thunder Awaken, Team SMG, PSG.Quest, Beastcoast).

For comparison, the prize pool of Dota 2 International 2022 amounted to $18.9 million . Quite a large amount, which is not in any comparison with the new championship (and this is not even the maximum prize pool in Dota 2).

It is not entirely clear why the prize fund of Dota 2 International 2022 is several times larger than 2023, there may be many reasons, but the majority of gamers blame the developers themselves for this. This season's compendium was ridiculously weak: no separate sets, no fresh ideas, no decent "cosmetics" for the heroes. There was a constant feeling of hackneyedness, and such a sharp change of course from the Battle Pass to the full focus of the Compendium specifically on TI did not sit well with users.

Unexpectedly, fans were delighted by another tournament. In the rather popular Riyadh Masters Dota 2 tournament, the prize fund was as much as 15 million , a large amount for a regional competition. Team Spirit won, taking 5 million from the total pot.

Majors were pretty standard. While the first, Lima 2023, was a complete flop in terms of ratings, the second, Berlin, fared slightly better.

If we take the prize fund of the 2023 Dota 2 Major , namely the first one, it is 500,000 dollars and 1900 DPC points . It was won by Gaimin Gladiator, taking home 200,000 and 400 DPC.

In the second season of Major Dota 2, the prize pool was also 500,000, but with 2700 DPC points . It was also won by Gaimin Gladiator, receiving 500 points and $200,000 .

The largest prize pool that Dota 2 had

If we take the Dota 2 prize funds for all years, then the Jubilee International of 2021 is the unequivocal record holder among them. In addition to the obvious hype and marketing from Valve, this was also helped by the transfer of funds collected for the last Compendium, since the championship in 2020 did not work out due to the restrictions of Covid.

How much money was played? The largest prize pool of Dota 2 was more than 40 million dollars. If you compare the largest and the last prize pool of Dota 2, the difference is more than 12 times. A huge amount compared to any other The International, which is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon.

Got this Dota 2 "Team Spirit" prize pool. They took 18.2 million , and the rest went to other teams.

It remains to be seen what the 2024 prize pool will be: if Valve continues its policy of excluding the Battle Pass and Arcana from the Compendium, it is possible that The International 13 will also offer only a few million to its winners. You either need to reconsider your decisions to switch to a fully TI-dependent reward set, or integrate it more smoothly over multiple seasons. But this is all speculation, and it will be possible to find out for sure only closer to the middle of 2024.