Valve released a new Battle Pass but where is the money going since TI10 is fully funded and they have not reported what the funds are earmarked for?
Sweet right? Who doesn't love a new Battle Pass with all the bells and whistles to throw our money away for? Well.... it turns out.... not many.
The TI10 prize pool is already fully funded and has been for some time, thanks to the Battle Pass released last year.
The final total for the TI10 prize pool has clocked in at $40,018,195 when the crowdfunding and Battle Pass purchases ended this past weekend. That is a 2401.14% increase from the original base amount of $1.6 million.
Only 25% of the sales contribute to the prize pool meaning that $153,672,780 has been spent on purchases by fans across the globe.
The previous year, The International 9 prize pool reached $34,330,068 ($32,730,068 added).
What is this Battle Pass for?
So inquiring minds want to know "What is this Battle Pass for?"
There is no clear indication whether this is a standalone Battle Pass or whether a percentage of the money from it will be used to sponsor any of the upcoming tournaments or DPC League Season 2022.
It has ALWAYS been the case that the Battle Pass earnings were earmarked for International Prize Pools.
Battle Pass and crowdfunding
Valve took a new approach towards the tournaments, by increasing their base prize pool through crowdfunding, raising monetary contributions from large key audiences.
As applied to esports, the concept was first introduced by the company for The International 3, in 2013, with the release of the virtual “compendium” (now known as the Battle Pass).
The starting prize pool was $1,600,000, and Valve raised an additional $1,374,381 through the sales to the community. This would be a drop in the ocean compared to the amount that was funded by the crowd for this year.
Since then, the prize pool has gone up exponentially each year. In TI4 it was $10,930,698. At TI5 — $18,429,613, boasting the largest prize pool in history until then.
The International 6 saw another increase to $20,770,460. Thanks to such an extensive prize pool, Wings Gaming ultimately received a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records for winning the largest single prize in esports – $9,139,002.
TI7 increased to $24,787,916, followed by The International 8 at $25,532,177.
Fortnite thought it would steal the spot for the largest prize pool of all time when it announced a thirty million dollar prize pool for their World Cup — but no. The International 9 prize pool surged past thanks to the fans, and became the largest prize pool in esports history! It clocked in at $34,330,068.
What could it fund?
Not a bad idea, but most likely not.
The next logical question from the Dota 2 community is, if it won't go to The International prize pool, shouldn't it then go to the DPC next season?
It would only stand to reason that it should go to increasing the money invested into the next DPC Season, or more specifically, towards the League play and lower ranks in Division 1 and for Division 2 overall.
We already know that Dota 2 has a fractured pipeline and that the financial incentives are very top-team heavy.
One way that Valve attempted to address this was by introducing the Team Bundle concept just a few months ago.
All the content is provided by the teams themselves and 50% of all sales will go to the team whose bundle you purchased, Valve announced. The Supporters Clubs bundles will be available for purchase until The International 10 starts, on August 5, 2021. According to the official announcement, the future bundles will last through each seasonal Major.
Here's the catch.
Not only did the teams have to pay for commissioning artists for creating the content, they only get 50% of the sales.
But wait, there's more.
Only 17 teams competing in the Dota Pro Circuit had initially been added in the initial launch of the Supporters Clubs feature. More teams were to be added regularly, Valve said, “as more content from the teams is submitted and approved”.
But that didn't quite happen.
As it turns out, many of the teams are STILL not added in.
The full above thread reveals a very candid and accurate summary of what it means to be on the cusp as a Tier 2 or lower-upper or lower division team.
The team manager, Eduard, from team No Bounty Hunter went to Reddit about the situation as well.
We understand that the major may delay another wave, but our bundle still isn’t in-game, despite time, effort and investment for us to make this. Many other teams have the same issue.
Other teams such as ITB, Team Bald, Winstrike, 5 Man Midas, Team Mystery, Fantastic Five, LilGun, and others have also been affected by this.
Not every team has an organisation with thousands of fans / people to support or root for them. Even without a giant fanbase teams really put a lot of effort into making this possible, into building this content with minimum budgets or even without a budget.
So we are here right now, almost a month later after we uploaded our Supporters Club bundle without it in the game we don't know if we will get in with the next wave, we don't know when it's the next wave or if it will be a next wave...
Clearly, the funds are much needed for these teams to have a better ecosystem in which to grow and thrive. Which, incidentally also feeds into the entire health of the future state of the game and sustainability.
What does Valve owe the community?
Games across other divisions have various options for purchasing skins, cosmetics, and other in-game content. These do not provide additional financial support of crowdfunding into other aspects of the game-specific industry or community.
The primary difference between Dota 2 and these other games is that everywhere else you buy a skin, you get that skin. You make a purchase and that is it. But in Dota 2, there are greater rewards for higher Battle Pass levels. That essentially means that to get more or better items you have no choice but to keep dumping money in at a significant rate.
The International Battle Pass is on sale for $7.49, $26.99 for Level 50 or Level 100 for $41.99. And that's just the start.
One Redditor broke it down.
you can get 7.5 levels from the quests and 1.5 levels from the event = 9 levels per week. Since the BP is 8 weeks long that is 72 levels from these 2. You also have cavern crawl whose chests can get you another 0.25*53+2*9 = 31.5 levels. Hence you can't grind higher than level 103.5 unless there is some other method of gaining BP points that I missed.
This means to get the arcana you need to buy at least 225+ levels, which is going to be $100 give or take.
That's a pretty penny. While community members are accustomed to paying out the fees and grinding up the levels, in the past it was always more welcomed because the money was also funding the prize pool and made buyers feel a part of the pinnacle of all Dota 2 events. Not to mention it is a $150 community voted arcana (level 330 for it) with a time limit to purchase it.
It's a hard pill for the Dota 2 community to swallow. For years we've grown accustomed to a certain way of doing business and where our money went to (even if it was only a fraction of what was spent).
To see this after 1.5-2 years of struggle in the Dota 2 scene due to the chaos from Corona Virus (still ongoing drama and consequences *ehem TI10 ehem*) just leaves a person feeling slighted and jaded.
Oh well, guess we can cry in our $150 Spectre Arcana pubs.
