Beginning a New Age of Competitive Dota 2

With hundreds of video games hosting professional competitions and tournaments for increasing prize pools and opportunities, it is easy to get lost in the rapidly growing market that is Esports. For many, it may be beneficial to look at one of the oldest and most profitable games in the industry to get a better sense of it all: Dota 2.

Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients) is a PC game officially released by Valve Corporation in 2013. The game is a sequel to a community-made game mode from another title, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, that had such an active player base that Valve decided to take the concept and make their own standalone game. The game is a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) with over 400,000 unique players logging in every day. Dota 2 plays similarly to a game of Capture the Flag, if the objective were to destroy the enemy’s flag rather than retrieve it.

Knowing the excitement for the game, Valve hosted a massive worldwide Dota 2 tournament in 2011 called “The International” while the game was still in beta, featuring a $1.6 million-dollar prize pool. Valve has continued to host this tournament annually with an increasing reward using a unique concept: crowdsourcing. Starting in 2013, Dota 2 would begin to offer and pioneer a concept widely replicated in today’s gaming environment known as the Battle Pass. The Battle Pass is a content-creating structure for players that have cosmetic rewards for playing the game. For those with less time to play or having greater financial means, users could also pay to receive the rewards they wanted instantly. 25% of all sales from Dota’s Battle Pass would go toward the prize pool for The International on top of Valve’s base contribution which has always been over $1 million. Sales and competition grew to the point where in 2021, the prize pool for The International 10 exceeded $40 million.

Since 2015, smaller tournaments began to be held known as “Majors.” These Majors give teams and organizations 4-7 other opportunities each year to prove themselves and claim prizes historically ranging from $500,000 to $3 million. These championships on top of sponsorship deals and revenue from live-streaming put both organizations and players in a lucrative and thrilling position. These smaller tournaments gave the scene a chance to thrive outside of The International. Teams and organizations no longer relied on one huge payout based on their performance at a single event but could now prove themselves throughout the year, leading to a healthier and more stable economy for the game.

The Majors ran under Valve’s supervision in an official league known as the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC). Starting in 2017, teams would be officially ranked based on their placement in the Majors to earn invites to The International that year. In a surprising release from Valve on September 14^th, they announced the Dota Pro Circuit will be ending this year. While this may sound like the end of competitive Dota, it actually opens the scene exponentially. In the past, tournaments had to run under the supervision of Valve to meet requirements that, simply put, looked good for the company (number of team invites, formatting, etc.). Now, the scene is open to any event organizers who wish to be part of the action. The barrier of entry to host a Dota tournament has been shattered. Companies can compete to provide the best productions for both the teams and the fans however they see fit. This means the coming years should be filled with even more competition and opportunities for everyone in the industry, while Valve still pledges to continue The International every year and keep the game updated.

The International 12 has begun and enthusiasm for the competition is as palpable as ever; the community is ready to experience the dominations and upsets that will come at the end of this professional Dota season. The Esports Services Team at Withum joins the scene’s excitement to watch the hopeful evolution as tournament organizers start to release events and schedules going into the new year. The scene is open for exponential growth as Valve removes the training wheels, bringing us into an exciting new age of Dota 2.

Author: Andrew Sosidka | [email protected]