Dota 2's The International has possibly become e-sports' biggest event of the year, offering the biggest prize pool in gaming each year thanks to digital tickets that add to that pool with each purchase. This years International Compendium went on sale last week. This years compendium comes with all sorts of interesting features. It lets player partake in Dota 2 fantasy league, lets them put bets on all sorts of stats over the course of the tournament, lets players vote on upcoming hero sets, and even levels up as you play to earn rare rewards. The Compendium costs $10, with $2.50 of that purchase adding to the pool. Valve starts the pool at $1.6 million, and as of writing the total prize pool sits at $5,280,765, nearly double the prize pool of last years tournament, and we still have months to go till the actual tournament. Regional qualifiers are currently going on, with games going on every day.
Last year's International aired right around the time I started getting into Dota 2 last year so I didn't realize how big of a deal it was. Now I can't keep myself from watching almost every game of the qualifiers. If tournaments like this are any indication e-sports are just going to get bigger and bigger. I look forward to seeing where they go in the future.
Source: blog.dota2.com
