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Evil Geniuses Take Home Record $6.6M First Prize In Valve's 'Dota 2' International

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A few different records were set by the end of Valve’s fifth world championship for Dota 2, The International. One is that an American team won for the first time, with Evil Geniuses besting China’s CDEC for the crown. The second is that the five members of the winning team, Fear, PPD, Aui, Sumail, and Universe, took home the lion’s share of Valve’s unprecedented, crowdfunded $18M prize pool, splitting a $6.6M first place haul among them.

Evil Geniuses won the series 3-1 over CDEC, who had previously knocked them into the loser's bracket. But despite that, and the fact that an American team has never won the tournament before, Evil Geniuses were still heralded as the favorites heading into the final. Their win and the tournament as a whole shows the volatility of the scene, as last year’s winner, Newbee, was the first time cut from TI5 this year.

The record prize pool and first place award means each of the members of the team get $1.32M, making each of them instant millionaires (depending on taxes, I suppose). That’s an incredible journey for all of them, but particularly 16 year-old Sumail who once sold his bike growing up in Pakistan to be able to fund more Dota 2 playtime.

Viewership numbers for the final are still rolling in, but livestreams indicated more than several million viewers were watching the finals concurrently. Dota 2 remains the most popular MOBA in the world, second only to League of Legends, but The International has been the biggest global eSports tournament in existence the past few years due to its enormous prize pool.

Despite massive viewership and far more monthly players, Riot Games has stuck with a $1M first prize for the League of Legends world championship. Valve, rather than paying out an enormous sum by themselves, has had the rather ingenious idea of selling “Compendiums” for Dota 2 in the lead up to The International. They contain packs of cosmetic in-game items and other bonuses, and as players buy them and the prize pool grows, more features are unlocked as the Compendium “levels up.” 25% of the purchase price goes directly into the prize pool, and is in large part the reason the grand total swells to such impressive proportions.

The continued growth of The International’s prize pool is yet another sign of the times that interest in eSports is growing, not waning. It also demonstrates the clever monetization strategies of Valve, who despite having to pay out $18M in prizes, also likely raked in a fortune from Compendium sales, and other aspects of the tournament. In an age where eSports is still struggling with profitability, it seems Valve has things pretty well figured out. I would not be surprised to see other MOBAs like League or Heroes of the Storm follow in its footsteps in the future, offering a Compendium-like bundle to hopefully ensure their prize pools keep pace with Valve’s. It does seem strange that League of Legends specifically has a significantly larger playerbase than Dota, yet its prize pool is a fraction of The International’s, (but Valve is a much larger company than Riot, to be fair).

If you missed the finals for TI5 last night, you can check out the full 4+ hours of coverage below, skipping to the matches where you see fit. Will next year’s prize pool top this mammoth amount, or have we seen the peak of Dota 2’s fundraising?

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