Prize money Dota 2 tournament The International exceeds thirty million dollars
The total prize pool for the major annual Dota 2 tournament The International currently exceeds $30 million. This makes The International the world’s largest e-sports tournament this year in terms of total prize money to be won.
The official Dota 2 Prize Pool Tracker indicates that at the time of writing, 75 days after the start of this crowdfunding campaign, the prize money is at 30.2 million dollars, or about 26.9 million euros. Of that, Valve has made $1.6 million available; the rest is made up entirely of contributions from Dota 2 players. According to Valve, at the current level of $30.2 million, $8.4 million more has already been raised than at the same time last year and the counter is still running for 34 days. The International kicks off on August 20 and will take place in Shanghai this year.
The total amount available annually for the large The International tournament increases with each edition, although the difference between this year and 2018 is already quite large. Last year the counter finally stopped at 25.5 million dollars and in 2017 it came to about 24.8 million dollars. The winning team doesn’t pocket that entire amount; Team Liquid won in 2017 and took home $10.8 million.
Player contributions go through the Battle Pass. Dota 2 players can purchase this “Battle Pass” to earn special cosmetic items and access special events. The Battle Pass comes in three different tiers this year and costs $10, 29, or $45. Of those amounts, 25 percent will go directly to the prize pool for The International.
With a total prize pool of more than $30 million, Valve is confident that The International will be this year’s largest esports tournament in terms of prize money. With that, the company beats Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite. At the end of July, Epic Games will hold the finals of the Fortnite World Cup, for which exactly $30 million is available. Epic Games previously announced that it is allocating a total of $100 million for the first year of Fortnite’s competition.