TI winner $10 milion.
Holy hell.
(Music)
>> It's absolutely, I think, something that no one would have predicted.
>> It will see if team (Inaudible) can be
the first team in all these sports to successfully open the champange.
(Applause) >> You don't need to open your own
champagne any more.
You can afford someone else to do it for you.
>> Was absolutely unheard of
money in the East Port scene.
I wouldn't have believed for a second that a $25 million permit was
going to happen in 2017. >> This moment will change their
lives forever.
[XBOX SOUND] >> The International
is the biggest DOTA 2 tournament of the year.
The 16 best teams in the world get together and compete for
millions of dollars.
It's the biggest prize pool anywhere in esports.
It started in 2011 with a $1.6 million prize bullet,
at the time is was an astronomical amount, where most prize bullets in Esports and
gaming were in the 10 to $50,000 range, so prize pool of $1 million for just
first place being announced was considered absolutely crazy and insane at the time.
Over the years, the prize pool has increased from 1.6 million to 3 million
to 10 million to 15 million, and the most recent one having just under $25 million.
During the first international, if I was told that (Laugh) that was on the horizon,
I think I would've called whoever said that insane.
I mean at that point I think everyone was still wrapping their heads around the idea
of the 1.6 million dollar event.
If we continue with the growth where it's going,
somewhere near 50 million dollars in five years time.
It's kind of crazy to think about.
It's such a big absurd number for just prize money alone.
I guess in theory it is possible,
I mean based on what we've see about where very effective at running these
events in such a way where they engage the comedian of the year and support it.
A prize pool is funded by the community through different
micro transactions within, in order to itself.
There is what is called a capendium or
battle pass which costs 10 dollars to purchase.
There's always incentives for individual user to put anywhere from $100 to $10,000.
There's people out there who spend thousands of dollars on these battle
passes, and 25% of all these purchases increase the prize pool.
>> Team liquid,
2017 international champions. >> It's possible to have, steady
stable income via decent professional DotA player and not win the international ever.
But ultimately it's created an ecosystem where one thing matters, and
one thing only matters, winning the international.
(Music)
Because of the prize money involved it's just how can I set myself up to win
the next international.
Every year there is a big reshuffle.
There's been many scenarios where there will be last minute rooster changes.
A team thinks they will do better without a player and
then that player's just teamless a month or two before the event.
Team secret, one of the valve majors,
they still remove two of their players from the team, and
that was done probably two or three days before the roster lock, so
these players literally had two or three days to form a new team, and went okay,
We're kind of screwed over, but they happen to then put everything together.
And by a combination of them just being amazing players and
some, probably, luck as well, they put together a team that did insanely well.
>> I don't know.
(Music)
I'm so focused in DOTA that I don't even know what to say.
I just focus on the games.
And now It feels kind of empty inside actually.
because the Games ended and I have no purpose any more.
>> Most Dota players are very hardcore,
they just play Dota.
So I had not noticed any lavish spending international.
Mind Control and the recent Liquid TI winners, as soon as they won
each national, spent the next month just playing more games than anyone else.
>Pretty sure they are going to play note it tomorrow.
>Yeah. >As is everybody else here.
>I think immediately the focus is towards that next WW2 international,
because of the cycle of video games, ten years from now, people probably won't
be playing Dota or at least they'll be a much smaller playerbase and audience.
So I don't think we'll see a $50 million prize pool in Dota 2, but
in some other game, absolutely.
I think esports has grown to a point where these prize pools are becoming absolutely
insane and ridiculous with the way that developers understand how to
engage the community, the viewers, their playerbase, and
get them to support these events through crowdfunding.
[XBOX SOUND]
(Music)