If you, like millions of other people, play Dota 2 then you might have heard about The International. Valve hosts this annual championship for the popular Dota 2 game. Players have a huge incentive to win as the winning team and runner ups rake in a prize pool. This year there’s much more at stake then there has ever been before. The International Dota 2 prize pool has crossed $6 million, winning players will certainly be in for a big pay day.
Last year’s The International tournament had a $2.8 million prize pool, the winning team took home $1.4 million. Valve came up with an ingenious of effectively doubling it. Even if the pool is distributed among the winners and runner ups the same way, all players will definitely be laughing their way to the bank.
Valve has contributed almost $2 million to the prize pool but the bulk of the money comes from sales of a virtual book called The Compendium. Not only does it offer different ways to interact with the tournament it also keeps everyone up to date on all related matters. Valve says it is “the next best thing to being there.” The Compendium costs $9.99 out of which $2.50 from each sale is contributed to the pool.
The company also lets players purchase various cosmetic updates which bring things like better emoticons and music for in-game chat, this encourages more purchases and keeps increasing the prize pool. The International 2014 will take place on July 18th in Seattle.