12 years ago, the eSports industry shook. That’s when Valve introduced their first The International event for Dota 2. Its scale was something else back then. It was held in a massive eSports arena with a huge prize pool of $1,000,000.
The event caught a snowball effect. Each upcoming TI was getting bigger and bigger, increasing its prizes and scales. And now we’re here at TI 12, which will launch in October. But how is it going to be? We’ll try to figure this out today by learning — the biggest TI 12 news.
Prize Pool Suffers a Decrease
In 2021, TI had a shocking prize pool of $40,018,195. The next year, the number decreased to $18,930,775. Today, the prize of TI 12 is only around $3,000,000. Why?
First, you should understand how the prize number is calculated. Each TI, Valve releases a Compendium. This event book is where players can make predictions, complete quests, and get prizes.
Compendium costs $10. Each purchase contributes to The International prize pool. So the more active players are interested in the competition and the game, the bigger the prize.
Of course, $3,000,000 is still not the final sum. But as the TI 12 will soon start, it doesn’t have much time to grow. It’s bad in several ways.
It means that the competition doesn’t get much attention. This may be reflected in the quality of wagering and players’ motivation. Some rumors say that Valve wants to fix this.
Usually, they make an initial investment of $1,600,000 in the prize pool. But this year, they might raise it to $3,000,000. Pros even say it would be fantastic if the prize pool had seven zeros.
The Favorites of the Event
Bookmakers have already made their predictions on TI 12. They think Team Spirit will win. This team has good experience and has performed very well recently.
Their biggest victory was at Riyadh Masters 2023. It was huge. The event took place in the capital of Saudi Arabia and featured all the world’s best players. TS came out on top and won the biggest share of $15,000,000.
Next, Team Spirit has conquered Dream League Season 21. And just like with Masters, they did it one-sided. The final’s map score was 3:0.
And to finish the streak of three, it’s a sin not to mention the biggest accomplishment of Team Spirit. They’ve already taken TI in 2021. And yes, they were the team to steal its biggest $18,208,300 prize.
Clever Dota 2 fans immediately see a chance to raise some cash here. Team Spirit will be highly reliable for wagering. Want to get some easy bucks too? You’re welcome to the Esports-Betting-Bro.com. It will present you with the most profitable and cheap betting sites and explain how to make a first bet.
Veteran’s Thoughts About TI 12 and Current Dota 2
Clement “Puppey” Ivanov is one of the most reputable Dota 2 players. He is upset with the current Dota 2 state. Even though he didn’t get into the TI 12, he thinks the game wouldn’t allow him to play it he wanted.
Puppey thinks Valve puts Dota 2 players in frames too strictly. It kills creativity. As he thinks, you can no longer play Dota uniquely and invent interesting strategies.
Now, all the matches have to follow a strict plan. And if you want to decline from it, you and your team will lack. Clement is not interested in playing like that.
But he didn’t refuse to play at TI 12 himself. His team got knocked out. It has happened within qualifiers 2:0 against the Quest team.
As the Puppey states, they should’ve taken both maps. But each attempt was destroyed by a minor fail. For instance, the first map was lost due to the weak offlane.
Clement has been in the Dota 2 eSports for more than 10 years. Such losses don’t upset him much. In fact, he immediately launched Dota 2 matchmaking after the loss and started his grind again.
That’s the mentality you can’t beat! As Puppey says, he is not planning to retire any soon, so he’ll definitely see his rise once again.