Since 2011, my year has begun not with celebration and confetti, but rather Gabe Newell’s baritone — “Welcome to the International.”
There’s no tournament like it. It has no equal.
Last year, TI 9’s total purse was $34,330,068.
TI 10’s total will be more than $40,000,000.
The Super Bowl, but for stakes typically reserved for the World Series of Poker.
In 2015 I played against EG in the first round of the upper bracket of TI5.
The winning team, for reaching top 6, would guarantee themselves 1.2 million dollars. One series, to guarantee over a million dollars cash.
It wasn’t finals weekend. It was Tuesday.
It’s fucking incredible. From a pure spectator POV, the two weeks of TI are the dream of any Dota fan. You know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that these teams are playing to WIN. They play to prove that in their passion, their chosen discipline, they are the BEST. There can be no argument. It’s TI. There’s millions on the line. 18 teams try their best, 1 team wins. To win is to become legend, and dreams are dashed daily.
But at what cost? How has TI affected the Dota competitive scene at large?
inferniac on October 9th, 2020 at 19:53 UTC »
Maybe thats good for the players.
IMO as a spectator the best season of pro dota to watch was the 3 Valve run majors + TI, that we got once.
I'm 30, I don't really have time to follow all the tournaments going on. Having 4 big tournaments nicely spaced out through the year was a great think to have.
Also helped with regionalization a bit. Being from europe, having a proper Valve event in Frankfurt where I could actually go without breaking the bank, it was just amazing.
fcuk_the_king on October 9th, 2020 at 19:12 UTC »
Lots of times I disagree with Kyle, but Kudos to him for writing this. It's just indefensible to have a $40m tournament for 2 weeks and leave crumbs for the rest of the year.
BabyBabaBofski on October 9th, 2020 at 18:26 UTC »
Just read through the entire thing, great write up on the situation. The valve response to the player card info is quite shocking to me. While I never gave it much thought, it is true that valve is profiting off of their logos and players.
And responding to that with “We didn’t realize that was a problem. We can take out your teams IP if you’d like. This feature makes a negligible amount of money anyway”
Is basically saying ''Try it pussy, you know you ain't got shit on us''