Once again, the DOTA 2 tournament The International is here. This year, over 33 million dollars in prize money has been raised so far. Around half of this is set to go to the winning team.
What is The International? The International is an annual eSports championship tournament held since 2011, featuring the MOBA DOTA 2. The event is organized by game developer Valve.
The world’s best DOTA 2 players compete against each other.
A huge prize pool
How much money can the players win? This year, participants can look forward to the largest prize pool in the history of The International so far. Currently, there are 33,016,387 dollars in the pot. But that’s not the end of the line, as the funding for the prize pool is still ongoing for about nine more days.
What does the winning team get? Currently, the prize money for the winning team stands at 15,022,456 dollars. However, this will also increase, as it depends on the total amount of money in the prize pool at the end.
How has the prize money developed over the years? The International started in 2011, and back then, there was significantly less to win. Over the years, the prize money has continually increased.
- In 2011 and 2012, it was $1,600,000
- In 2013, $2,874,380 could be won
- In 2014, the prize money was $10,923,977
- In 2015, it was $18,429,613
- In 2016, the pot contained $20,770,460
- In 2017, players could win $24,787,916
- In 2018, there was a prize money of $25,532,177 available
The current leader is The International
Is this the highest amount available to win in eSports? Yes, with this, DOTA 2 currently takes the lead. The previous leader, Fortnite, had a pool of “only” 30 million dollars. The money was also distributed across several competitions, and the winner of the solo World Championship received “only” 3 million dollars.
When and where will The International take place this year? The tournament will be held from August 20 to 25 in Shanghai.