The next time you catch yourself telling your kids to not play so much video games, you might want to rethink that. Why? Because Valve’s The International Dota 2 championship has just ended, where the winning team, OG, took home prize money amounting to an eye-watering $15,603,133.
To top it off, this is only about half of the total prize pool for this year’s The International, which managed to rake in a staggering $34,292,599. It also marked the team’s second win in a row where they were also last year’s champions. Of course, we imagine that the money will be split where some of it will go to the owner of the team, the managers, and then the players, so the amount that each player takes home could be a lot less than that, although it should still be somewhat substantial.
It also makes it the largest top prize in esports history, although at the rate The International is growing, it could be even bigger next year. To give you some context, traditional sports such as tennis don’t even have prize pools that huge. For example, Wimbledon singles champions Novak Djokovic and Simona Halep only took home about $2.9 million each.
For the first time in Dota history the reigning champions have defended their crown. The team that defied the odds to win last year, has reclaimed the Aegis of Champions in The International 2019. OG close the Grand Final series in a commanding 3-1 finish. #Dota2 #TI9 pic.twitter.com/ESaHeRjkpP
— The International (@dota2ti) August 25, 2019
This is actually not the first time that it has been pointed out how much money there could be made in esports. Previously, the winner of a Fortnite Battle Royale competition took home $3 million. The competition itself had a prize pool of $30 million, more than what the FIFA Women’s World Cup had.
Filed in . Read more about Dota 2, Esports and Valve. Source: engadget