The prize pool for this year's DotA 2 International competition has breached $24 million for the first time, meaning gamers will have more money up for grabs at the 2017 world championships than ever before. Once again, all of it was driven by Valve selling its "Battle Passes," for the contest, which not only unlock all sorts of ways to track teams as they play, but a number of unique bonuses and extra for DotA 2 itself, especially if you level up your compendium.
This year's compendium and Battle Pass unlocks have been more extensive than ever before, hinting at why we have seen more money generated for DotA 2's biggest competition than any year previously. There were audio unlocks, extra skins, vials, pets, taunts, prestige towers, queue trivia, immortals, terrain, announcer packs, icons and of course, the commemorative Aegis itself.
You'd need to level your compendium up to 1,000 to achieve that last reward, but there are some that go even beyond that if you're willing to play a lot of DoTA 2, or pay a lot of money to get there.
Regardless how you do it though, all money spent goes into the prize pool and with millions more than we've ever seen now tucked away ready for a number of competitors to walk away with at the conclusion of the International on August 12. $10 million will go to the winners, with the rest of the $24,000,000 prize pool going to various other competitors further down the rankings.
Consider too, though, that this is just a quarter of the money earned from Battle Passes this year. That means Valve has pocketed a good $72 million from this venture. A good year for all then, it seems.
