How to make a cool $40M playing Dota 2

And they say there’s no money in video games. (Photo: Valve)

Gaming requires a multitude of skills and yet is looked down upon compared to other “more lucrative” hobbies. Why shouldn’t gamers be treated with the same respect as a chess master, tennis player, or martial artist when all of these individuals require the same set of skills: hand-eye coordination, quick decision-making, and mental fortitude?

Video games and electronic sports (esports) have come a long way to curb that discrimination. Today, professional esports players can make as much as $7M in tournament earnings. To quote many Filipino parents, “Kaka-computer mo yan!” (“That’s what you get for playing on the computer!”). Millions of dollars in earnings, that’s what you can get in today’s esports landscape.

That’s what makes The International 11 (TI11) this year’s most sought-after esports tournament; it actualizes every gamer’s dream that there is a long-term career in video games.

A noob's guide to The International

TI is an annual esports world championship tournament for the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game Defense of the Ancients (Dota) 2, which is produced by game developer company Valve. The playoffs and finals will span six days: four days at the Suntec Singapore for the playoffs and the last two days at the Singapore Indoor Stadium for the finals, to the delight of many Filipino fans.

Like many other MOBAs, Dota 2 is a game of strategy, resource management, and cooperation. Dota 2 is played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team defending their respective base on the map. A team wins by being the first to destroy the opponent’s “Ancient,” a large structure located within the team’s base. 

Out of thousands of Dota 2 teams that competed in these preliminary tournaments, only 20 were invited to TI11. If you’re wondering why the Dota 2 scene is so competitive, it’s because it has the largest prize pool of any esports game to date—and even surpasses the cash prize NFL winners take home from the Super Bowl—with a whopping $40M promised to the champions of TI11. 

The tickets come at hefty prices too, to the disdain of many international and even Singaporean Dota 2 fans. Tickets to the week-long event are estimated at $615 or P34,592, which cost more than 2-week access to the Wimbledon tournament. That’s not including airfare, accommodations, and living expenses for the duration of the tournament.

It begs the question: how can Valve justify such lucrative costs and payouts?

Gameplay and goodwill

Dota 2 has always been a free-to-play game. It’s a toaster-friendly game and can even run on the outdated Celeron chips that the Department of Education purchased. There are virtually no paywalls that prevent you from fully experiencing its gameplay. So how can Valve host such a grand tech event?

They can do that because TI is the only esports tournament that is crowdfunded. Valve does this by selling battle passes for a limited period, which can give players access to rare cosmetics. Battle passes are also long-term investments, as players can eventually sell these rare items for as much as five figures in Philippine peso. So even if these additions are purely for aesthetic purposes, these battle passes always sell. 

Esports journalist Patrick Bonifacio puts it finely, “Seeing as they haven’t changed this business model by keeping every single playable facet of Dota 2 free and accessible, Valve doesn’t need to erase the goodwill they have with players by putting a price tag on the video game.”

While this gives more leeway for heightened payouts and price hikes, there’s a noticeable pattern to the rise in costs.

The scaling of the ticket prices from TI5 to TI11 has crept up quite rapidly. Attendance to TI5 amounted to only $99 in 2015– and has increased six-fold over the years. But as the saying goes, you can’t put a price on love. Demand for TI tickets will always be high, regardless of the massive costs placed by Singaporean logistics, ticket scalpers, or the infinite price point on battle passes.

Dota, Demand of the Ancients

The secret behind Dota 2’s success is its commitment to providing the best experience to all players–whether they’re first-time Dota 2 players or MOBA loyalists who have stuck around since the likes of Dota 1 or World of Warcraft. 

Valve understood that Dota 2 had to modernize its software. After many updates, the game is less buggy, players can reconnect to the game after getting disconnected, and you can even customize hotkeys (which is a pretty big deal).

But there must be something more to it if players keep coming back for this decade-old video game and are willing to shell out thousands of pesos for the yearly TIs. 

Bonifacio credits this to the never-say-die culture that comes with playing Dota 2. “Nothing quite compares to the high of making a huge comeback in Dota 2. In most MOBAs, if one team is ahead by a certain point in the game, they’re almost always going to win. In Dota 2, one team fight can change everything. And this is something even non-professionals enjoy.” 

TI itself promotes this kind of sportsmanship even among audience members. Many of my friends who casually play or watch Dota 2 casts particularly enjoy game casters’ hype banter, crowd energy, and pro Dota 2 gamers who win despite using non-meta tactics (i.e. going against gaming conventions that traditionally win games).

As a long-time gamer myself, it was inspiring to hear that this game could bring about this level of humility, community, and sportsmanship among its players.

With the amount of support and funding video games like Dota 2 has received, the future of esports looks “Unstoppable!”