Having reached the biggest prize pool in eSports history, The International is a yearly worldwide Dota 2 tournament which pits the biggest names in the Dota 2 competitive gaming scene against each other for insanely large prize pools; starting from The International (2011) with $1.6 million and growing to over $7 million for this year’s tournament.
The prize pool is being crowd funded by players who bought a “Compendium”, which is sort of an interactive booklet to accompany the tournament, updating itself with statistics and player information, where 25% of the sale goes into the prize pool, coupled with the purchasing of points to level up the Compendium which gives more in game rewards to players.
With a long way to the start of the tournament main event on July 18th held at the Key Arena in Seattle, one can only expect the prize pool to soar even higher. It seems eSports will grow even bigger in the coming years with growing prize pools and sponsorships, many may even consider eSports a career soon.
The International 4 – Dota 2 Championships