by theygamesDota 2’s The International 2022 prize pool passes the $8 million dollar mark raised through sales of its battle pass in its first two days, as qualifiers for the annual landmark tournament kick off in South America and Eastern Europe. The amount means that the championship for the MOBA game has already become the tenth highest prize pool for an esports tournament with over a month left to go for money to still be raised. However, it’s seeing a slower initial growth rate than the previous two Dota 2 yearly tournaments.
The International marks the climax of Dota 2’s yearly esports tournaments, with teams qualifying through the Dota pro circuit and regional qualifiers. At the time of writing, the Dota 2 site lists the prize pool for The International 2022, also known as TI11, at $8,139,958 – $1.6 million of which comes from Valve’s base prize contribution, with the rest being made up from sales of the in-game TI11 battle pass for Dota 2. 25% of the money raised by battle pass sales goes towards the pool, which suggests that Valve has already made over $25 million from sales of this year’s battle pass.
Players can purchase the battle pass for $9.99 USD / £7.19 GBP, or can shell out $29.35 USD / £23.49 GBP for one pre-leveled to 50 or $44.99 USD / £35.99 GBP for a level 100 pass. Once bought, the pass can be leveled up by playing Dota 2 and completing challenges, additional levels can be bought with real money. The pass includes a range of unique cosmetics to unlock, including arcanas (high end skins with reworked skill effects, animations and sounds) for Faceless Void and Razor; personas (re-imaginings of a hero) for Phantom Assassin and Crystal Maiden; a prestige bundle for newcomer Primal Beast; and a whole wealth of taunts, cosmetic items, and more.
Given that the battle pass has been on sale for less than two days, raising that much money is certainly noteworthy – but it’s actually a lower number than that of The International 2021, which had raised $9,068,078 by the same point in time, and The International 2022, which was sitting at $8,420,161. Those two tournaments went on to become the highest value prize pools in esports history by the time they closed their battle pass purchases, at $40 million and $34.3 million respectively.
Qualifiers in South America and Eastern Europe kicked off on September 3 and will run until September 7. After that comes the North America and China qualifiers on September 8-12, and then the Western Europe and Southeast Asia qualifiers on September 13-17. The TI11 group stage then takes place on October 15-18, with the main event following on October 20-23 and the finals happening on October 29-30.
Dota 2 patch 7.32b is out now, with a bunch of new buffs to a range of Dota 2 heroes. Be sure to check out our guide to the best Dota 2 custom games for plenty of other ways to experiment in Valve’s hero brawler. Meanwhile, League of Legends patch 12.17 sees a Maokai rework and a buff to Miss Fortune.