Valve’s most popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title, Dota 2, has just broken its own record of having the largest prize pool in eSports history for the upcoming The International 2016 tournament.
To increase the prize pool, Valve uses a crowdfunding approach where it sells players in-game items and perks, with a portion of it going to the prize pool. This year, it’s in the form of the Battle Pass which includes the 2016 The Internationals Compendium. It costs RM39 each with different bundles. 25% of every purchase goes into the prize pool.
At the time of writing, Valve has managed to rack up a total of $18,537,151 (about RM75.3 million) for The International 2016’s prize pool, which is a 1058.57% increase from the base prize pool. Bear in mind that the initial prize pool sponsored by Valve was only $1,600,000 (approximately RM6.5 million), which is still a substantial amount for any international eSports event.
If you take a look at the 70-day mark since the Prize Pool was introduced, this year’s prize pool is higher than any previous The International tournaments. TI 6 garnered $18.5 million (roughly 75.3 million) whereas TI 5 and TI 4 only managed to obtain $15.6 million (about RM63.5 million) and $10.8 million (approximately RM44 million) respectively.
To celebrate the record-breaking occasion, Valve is also awarding every Battle Pass owner three Trust of the Benefactor treasure rewards when The International Battle Pass season ends.
With only two weeks to go before The International 2016 kicks off in Key Arena, Seattle, the prize pool is bound to increase and it could very well hit the $20 million (roughly RM81.5 million) mark.
(Source: Dota 2 Blog | Dota 2 Prize Pool Tracker)
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