Once again, when it comes to big dollars, Dota 2 breaks records. It only had itself to beat with last year's The International 6 holding first place. With 33 days left before the crowd funding finished it surpassed the record.
At the time of writing (14/7/17) the prize pool is sitting at $20,864,868.
When it comes to prize money paid in general Dota 2 slays the competition.
If you include The International 7, Dota 2 has paid out more prize money than League of Legends, CS:GO, StarCraft 2 and Counter Strike COMBINED.
For those wondering that is about $120 million USD in prize money from Dota 2 alone.
So why would anyone play any other esport?
Surely Dota 2 is the best career choice? Well actually no, it isn't. Dota 2 is incredibly player driven, they win or they lose based on their performance. Win and earn everything, but lose and earn nothing. It is truly survival of the fittest, and extremely top heavy.
It is a two way street with Dota 2. Part of the reason we love the game so much is its wild west nature. While other esports move towards large organisations owning several tiers of teams, Dota 2 is slowly seeing the rise of player owned organisations.
In League of Legends players do NOT have to be the very best in the world to make a living. There are many healthy tiers of competition with managers, team houses and even life coaches. If a player says something racist or offensive on stream they might just lose everything. In Dota 2 punishment is unlikely because the players are so much more in charge.
Is it a good thing or a bad thing? We have absolutely no idea. Dota 2 is amazing and watching 5 kids realize they just won $9+ million USD should make anyone smile, but eventually we hope to see just some of the prize money trickle down to support several tiers of competition.
Until then, BRING ON THE INTERNATIONAL 7!
Keep it tuned to IGN Southeast Asia esports channel for coverage of the SEA teams and their journey in Seattle.
Article Courtesy: DANE WEEDEN
Photos Courtesy: sea.ign.com
Comments
Post a Comment