TI 2024 is almost here and the event might have the smallest prize pool of any event since the introduction of compendiums to Dota 2.
Valve delivered a devastating gutpunch to the Dota 2 professional scene in 2023 when it killed the The International Battle Pass and ended the Dota Pro Circuit. This removed almost all the money from the Dota 2 esports scene and while third-party tournament organizers have stepped in to fill that hole, it’s effectively a 50% contraction in the amount of money paid out to pro players from 2021.
Things aren’t necessarily getting better, either. Valve seems to be making an active effort to take money out of pro players’ pockets and fans are showing that they’re just not all that interested in the stripped-down TI Compendium.
What is the TI 2024 prize pool?
The TI 2024 prize pool is $1.6 million, with more money being added through microtransactions related to the TI 2024 Compendium. Unfortunately, the prize pool is likely set to be under $3 million by the time the event wraps.
Fan contributions are down significantly year-over-year. The TI 2024 Compendium added just $750,000 to the prize pool, roughly a 45% decline from 2023’s numbers. If this holds, it would make for a $2.6 million prize pool for the event.
Not counting the winding down and removal of the battle pass across 2022 and 2023, this would be the first year-over-year decline to The International’s prize pool in Dota 2 history. So how did this happen?
Why is the The International’s prize pool so small in 2024?
The TI 2024 prize pool is smaller due to the ending of the TI Battle Pass.
In 2023, Valve announced that it was permanently canceling The International Battle Pass. While it replaced this with The International Compendium, the compendium offered no major rewards and, as such, got extremely limited support from players. According to Valve, this was due to the size and scope of the TI Battle Pass.
“The nature of the Battle Pass is such that it could grow to encompass just about any content we produce for Dota over the year. And, over the last few years, it did. Battle Pass season has grown to be a tremendously exciting time in Dota, but it leaves the rest of the year feeling barren by comparison,” Valve said in its statement.
While this implies that smaller events would come out across the year, the company never actually followed through on this.
The only notable updates to Dota 2 since removing the battle pass have been the new hero Ringmaster, The International Compendiums, and Crownfall, which is a repurposed Cavern Crawl mini-game from the past Battle Passes. Making matters worse is that Valve has actually been slower to deal with issues in the game, as seen with the lingering Hand of Midas bug.
All this adds up to Valve simply taking the money and running. That and leaving Dota 2 to sink in order to focus on its new MOBA.
