The International 4's prize pool has now eclipsed an increment of one million dollars, achieving this within 13 hours after it was released. This feat was also done last year, but that happened more than two months after The International 3's compendium was announced.
The community's growth in numbers is very apparent as it has already contributed $1,000,000 to the prize pool of The International 4, just 13 hours after the Compendium was released. With the $1,600,000 base prize pool, this year's tournament is already guaranteed to have a prize pool of at least $2,600,000.
This feat was also achieved last year when the interactive compendium was introduced. However, the additional million was reached not before two months has passed since the compendium was released. In comparison, last year's prize pool has not even breached the $2,000,000 mark a full week after the Compendium has entered the Dota 2 store.
Five stretch goals have already been reached. The first, second, third and fourth milestones were reached around two, four, seven and nine hours respectively after the release of the compendium.
The $2.6 million mark is also coincidentally the fifth stretch goal of this year's The International compendium. It opened the way for a community vote on an eight-player Solo Championship at the International. The very same goal was present last year, similarly set as the fifth milestone albeit only requiring $2.4 million then. For comparison, it took more than six weeks before that mark was reached.
There is of course a difference on how the prize was pooled from last year to this year's. While a purchase of the Compendium still adds $2.50 into the pot, there is also an additional leveling system included in this year's version.
Basically, a higher compendium level would result to more rewarding bounties. While a certain number of levels (points) can be acquired by performing specific tasks, it will be unlikely to reach the higher levels unless compendium points are purchased. They are sold in $2.49 (500 points / 5 levels), $4.99 (1100 points / 11 levels) and $9.99 (2400 points / 24 levels) denominations from which 25% of the sales will be redirected into the prize pool.
With one million added into the pool, it means that the community has already exhausted four million dollars by buying either the compendium or its points. The breakdown of the prize for the The International winners (or participants) is not released yet.
The next stretch goal is set when the prize pool reaches $2,900,000, and its an interesting reward at that. It will be a casual and fun mode that players of this game's ancestor in DotA could have remembered, an all-random deathmatch game mode. Reaching this goal would also mean that this year has already eclipsed last year's prize pool of $2,874,380.
