Why Dota 2's The International is the Greatest Event in Esports

Dota 2 became famous for many reasons but one of the most important ones is its world championship, called The International.

For anyone who loves Dota 2, TI is the most important part of each Dota Pro Circuit. The event usually lasts for 11-14 days and offers tens of millions of dollars in prize money. Until now, around a dozen TIs were organized by Valve Corporation and every one of them was epic.

In this guide, you will learn more about the history of The International and what makes this esports tournament so special.

The Birth of Dota 2 TI

To better understand why The International has become such a fabulous event that’s admired by the entire esports industry, we need to go back to a Warcraft 3 mod called DotA or Defense of the Ancients. This mod led to the creation of two important MOBA games: League of Legends and Dota 2.

LoL was released several years before Dota 2, which gave Riot Games a huge advantage. To compensate for being late at the party, Valve Corporation decided to invest massively in Dota 2’s esports scene. At the time, esports tournaments were offering modest prize pools of tens of thousands of dollars. Or, at best, a few hundred thousand dollars.

So when Valve announced that the prize pool for The International 2011 was going to be $1.6 million, everyone went crazy. The game’s community quickly gained momentum and everyone knew that Dota 2 would soon become a big esports, which it did.

Why the TI Prize Pool Was Important

When Valve decided to offer the largest prize pool in the history of esports and $1 million to the winners of the first edition of The International, that signaled their commitment to Dota 2’s esports scene, which in turn got the attention of many tournament organizers, players, and so on.

Very quickly, an entire ecosystem was created around the game, and that resulted in a relatively big player base without any additional marketing efforts.

By 2016, the game had reached a player base of around 13-14 million. That was the peak. It could have gone much higher, but Valve treated the game’s community in a rather careless manner. However, they did invest a lot of effort into making the game as good as it can be.

As a result, Dota 2 is today one of the best titles in all of esports and arguably the best MOBA in the world. The complexity of this game is absolutely staggering and will provide a great challenge for anyone who’s interested in a long-term hobby. The road to Dota 2 mastery takes around 15.000 – 20.000 hours.

How the TI Prize Pool Grew so Much

The prize pool of The International grew substantially over the years, from $1.6 million in 2011 to $40 million in 2021. This would not have been possible without the TI Battle Pass. Unfortunately, as of 2023, the Dota 2 Battle Pass is no longer being used, as Valve decided to change their tactic again.

But while it was in use, the effect was quite spectacular. The Dota 2 community absolutely loved this yearly DLC. For $10, players were able to enjoy months of content and exciting action, as well as numerous rewards.

Dota 2 skins are not as famous as CS:GO skins, but they’re still quite popular among the fans of the game. Everyone has at least an Arcana in their inventory and likely dozens of other cool skins.

While the Battle Pass was being used, 25% of all the money obtained from it went to the prize pool of The International. That’s what got the number to grow every year until 2022, when the prize pool was around $19 million.

In 2011 and 2012, the prizes were identical: $1.6 million. But in 2013, the amount nearly doubled to 2.8 million. Just one year later, it became $10.9 million. Then $18.4 million and so on.

Dota 2 TI format

One of the amazing aspects of The International is its competitive format. In recent years, that format changed a bit, but it’s still solid.

In Dota 2, the world championship features 18-20 teams. These teams are divided into two groups. And in each group, every competitor plays against every other competitor. The match format is best-of-two. The round-robin groups method guarantees that there are no mistakes.

If a team wants to avoid getting eliminated or even secure an upper bracket spot in the playoffs, it needs to perform well against a wide range of opponents. Nobody can get away with one lucky victory. Competence is tested over a large number of samples. Out of the nine teams (or 10 in some cases), eight will advance.

At the end of the TI group stage, the playoffs stage begins and 8 of the 16 teams are in the upper bracket. The other 8 are in the lower bracket, where the first match is best-of-one. Every other match during this stage is best-of-three, with the exception of the Grand Final.

This format forces a team that starts the playoffs in the lower bracket to win 7 consecutive matches if it wants to win The International. How could you possibly get lucky 7 times in a row? You simply can’t. Either you are that good, or you’ll get eliminated.

In the upper bracket, the number of victories needed to reach the Grand Final is 3. That’s not bad at all. For the participants who lose an upper bracket match, there’s a second chance in the lower bracket.

This entire way of doing things is very rigorous and was applauded by fans and critics alike. More esports should pay attention to Valve’s methodology and implement a similar format for their most important events.

Regional Qualifiers

Before The International even begins, there’s a solid system in place to guarantee that only the best of the best will compete in this tournament.

Throughout the regular season, teams need to prove themselves and score enough points to finish the Dota Pro Circuit in the top 12. Such a result is rewarded with a direct invitation to TI.

Teams that finish outside of the top 12 get a second chance in the regional qualifiers. Here, they need to win against the best local teams that haven’t received a direct invite to TI. There are usually a dozen competitors and the battle is very challenging for everyone involved.

In recent years, the winners of the Grand Finals went to TI while the runner-ups went to a final decider that offered two more TI tickets.

This measure helped regions like Western Europe and China to avoid an unpleasant scenario in which a competitor fails to qualify for The International simply because there are too many other strong teams in the race.

TI Storylines

Almost every year, The International is full of surprises. In 2021, Team Spirit won the race despite being regarded as one of the underdogs. Until The International 2023, a tradition of dark horses was formed.

It seems that no matter who dominates the regular season, at The International there’s always someone else that needs to be taken seriously. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule.

In 2017, Team Liquid looked really strong and they eventually won the race, getting $10.8 million of the total prize pool. During the Finals weekend, they had to defeat both LGD.Forever Young and Newbee, because they became a lower bracket competitor after the first match of the playoffs.

Back in those days, South America and Southeast Asia were much weaker than today, so nobody worried about the participants from these regions. But now that Evil Geniuses and beastcoast are two strong teams from SA while Southeast Asia is represented by formidable organizations like Talon Esports, the situation is a lot harder to predict.

Esports history is full of Majors and even world championships in which other teams won the main event instead of the favorites. In Dota 2, the most spectacular storyline is that of OG.

In 2018, the Western European organization barely made it to the tournament and had to sign two players right before the regional qualifiers.

Then it entered the race as the least likely to succeed in the eye of the analysts. But despite these problems, OG went on to win the Aegis of Champions and then repeated this epic performance in 2019. Sebastien “Ceb” Debs became famous in the process.

In 2021, it was Team Spirit’s turn to achieve a similar result. Eastern Europe hadn’t won The International in a decade. But Spirit made every CIS fan believe again.

Header: Valve Corporation