The online tournament, featuring world heavyweights such as Team Secret and Evil Geniuses, has reached it's final stretch goal thanks in large to a contribution of $181,000 from community members.
Dotapit's third installation hit its final stretch goal on the 27th of March and reached a total prize pool of $261,976 at the time of this article's writing. This is a dramatic three-fold increase from the S2 prize pool, which reached a final total of $80,956. The final stretch goal, a mystery set for Sven, was released today containing 6 items and a loading screen that will make it into the client with the next patch.
The success of the tournament comes as a surprise to some as the underdog tourney - lacking an offline finals and any tier one eastern teams - still manages to compete for community attention against other major tournaments, perhaps even outrun them. It has, for example, a higher contributed prize pool than The Summit 3.
Possible reasons for the popularity;
- Dotapit has been lauded across the community for it's high production value, having features such as instant replay and in-game statistics as well as a competent casting duo.
- The tournament administration holds a good reputation, having paid out season 2's prize pool almost immediately and handling controversy and drama with a fair hand.
- Although the lack of Eastern representation baulks some, the high profile names of it's other competitors, Team Secret, EG, C9 and Team Empire, ensure some very high-quality games.
- In addition to the already released Sven set, another secret reward will be released for the prize pool surpassing the final stretch goal. This will be the long delayed match between EG and Team Secret everyone has been waiting for a new cosmetic item for Skywrath Mage.
With five BO3s and one BO5 grand final, Dotapit still has a ways to go and it's prize pool could well increase further.
Sources: http://dota2.prizetrac.kr, www.dota.com
