The International Dota 2 tournament is known for having the biggest prizes in all of esports. The seven largest prize pools in esports history are all from The International with millions being given away each year thanks to crowdfunding. However, after a reworked funding system for this year’s tournament, the prize pool for The International 12 is at a historically low level and it seems unlikely to improve.
Earlier in the year Valve announced that the traditional Battle Pass that is used to crowdfund the TI prize pool would be going away, and instead, a new system more focused on the pro scene would be used. That system launched earlier this week in the shape of The Compendium, an underwhelming item that doesn’t seem to offer much for the price. 25% of all sales are still going to the TI12 prize pool, but so far sales have been slow and the prize pool has not increased much.
At the time of writing the prize pool for The International 12 is just $2,462,425, after one and a half days of crowdfunding. As ever the prize pool started at $1.6 million, meaning only $862,425 has been added through Compendium sales.
Compared to previous years that have been tracked since 2015, this is the lowest increase after a day and a half by a long way. Back in 2015 the prize pool was already at $4.1 million well above what the 2023 offering is. Even the 2022 prize pool, which ended up being the first one that did not beat the previous year’s total, was at $7.5 million by this point.
What is also concerning is that the crowdfunding period this year appears to be significantly smaller than in previous years. Funding for the prize pool typically stops as the final of The International ends, and that date is only a month away. In other years the crowdfunding drive has lasted multiple months, with significantly more content offered throughout that period for players to purchase.
It seems nailed on that the prize pool for The International 12 will be significantly lower than any other in recent memory, and with Valve ending the Dota Pro Circuit the future doesn’t look all that good for professional Dota 2. We know that third-party circuits will return in 2024, but if the TI prize pool continues to fall year after year we could be looking at the end of pro-Dota as we know it.
