Dota 2 might be celebrating its 6th birthday this year but this doesn’t mean that it isn’t able to draw new players towards it. To be more exact, five newcomers joined the games, from four countries that weren’t present at The International before. The five new players are Adrian “Wisper” Cespedes Dobles from Bolivia, Evgeniy “Blizzy” Ree and Bakyt “Zayac” Emilzhanov from Kyrgyzstan, Tommy “Taiga” Le from Norway, and Michał “Nisha” Jankowski from Poland. With the new entries, The International now reached 40 nationalities this year. Indeed, TI deserves its moniker.
Another first for the concluding tournament of the Dota Pro Circuit is the fact that it will take place in China, namely in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai. The Open Qualifiers and the Regional Qualifiers already took place in July, and starting Thursday the Group Stage begins. During the three days period between August 15 and 18, the eighteen teams will be divided into two groups and they will play in a Round Robin format. The teams that reach the first four positions in each group will advance to the Upper Bracket of the Main Event, while the next four advance to the Lower Bracket. The last teams in each group, unfortunately, go home.
The International 9 will reach its peak at the Main Event which will take place in Shanghai between August 20 and 25. During these days the sixteen teams that remain in the tournament play in a double-elimination format. The initial prize pool of the tournament is $1,600,000 USD. In addition to this, 25% of all Battle Pass sales are added to the prize pool. Given the popularity of the tournament, the prize pool could more than double. 45.5% of the original prize pool, in the sum of $14,875,861 will go to the winning team and the rest of the money is divided between the net teams. Even the two teams that are going to be eliminated in the Group Stage will get a nice prize. Who said that playing video games doesn’t earn you a living?
Naturally, in order to get this good at Dota, or any other game that has a place in the esports tournaments one needs to play a lot and focus on the game constantly. It is not only an occupation, but it is also a way of life. Another way of life for some is betting on others’ games. Betting platforms such as Betmaster Kenya are just as popular as esports tournaments, and in some cases, users can make more money than if they were really good esports players. So, if you don’t see yourself becoming the member of a powerful esports team, like the ones racing in The International 9, don’t lose your faith, you can still become rich sitting in front of a PC.
