COMMENT: TI 2023's prize pool is set to be the lowest since 2013, and that's bad news for Dota 2

The International (TI) 2023, this year's iteration of Dota 2's annual world championship tournament, is just about to kick off on Thursday (12 October). TI is one of the biggest esports events every year, thanks in large part to its prize pools that regularly reach over tens of millions.

But, by that same metric, TI 2023 is looking woefully small for Dota 2's marquee tournament. Just mere days before the event begins, its prize pools sits at just under US$2.9 million, according to the Dota 2 prize pool tracker.

To put things in perspective, TI 2022 had a prize pool of US$18.9 million while TI 2021 had the biggest prize pool in all of esports at a whopping US$40 million.

At the rate things are going, TI 2023 seems set to have the lowest prize pool of any TI since TI 2013, which had a US$2.8 million prize pool. Not only that, TI won't even be the biggest tournament this year, with the honour instead going to the US$15 million Riyadh Masters last July.

How did things get this way?

Since 2013, TI has been crowdfunded by Dota 2 developer Valve Software and the Dota 2 community. Valve would provide a base prize pool of US$1.6 million while the community adds to that by purchasing either the TI Compendium or TI Battle Pass, with 25% of the money coming from Compendium or Battle Pass purchases going to the prize pool.

The TI Compendium was used from 2013 to 2015 while the TI Battle Pass was used from 2016 to 2022, with this year's tournament seeing the return of the TI Compendium.

The TI Battle Pass led to the massive growth of TI's prize pools, with TI 2016's prize pool reaching US$20 million and progressively growing every year until TI 2021's US$40 million prize pool before coming down to earth with TI 2022's US$18 million pot.

The Battle Pass was a hit among players, as it provided plenty of in-game rewards such as exclusive cosmetic items. With plenty of incentive for players to purchase the Battle Pass, TI's prize pool ballooned as a result — even if many did not intend to support the growth of TI's prize pool with their purchases.

But as the years wore on, there were complaints that the Battle Pass had become too bloated, was missing certain features seen in previous editions, and placed too much importance on TI without spreading the wealth out to the rest of the Dota 2 esports scene.

In response, Valve decided to move away from the TI Battle Pass system back in June and return to using the TI Compendium, which had less content compared to the Battle Pass but was more focused on the event itself.

Now, going back to the Compendium isn't a bad thing in itself. While it won't be as interesting for casual players that aren't invested into Dota 2's esports scene, there's still a significant segment of the community willing to provide their support.

The problem is how Valve handled the TI 2023 Compendium, which was released with a woeful lack of content just two weeks before the tournament is set to begin.

With the lacklustre Compendium giving little incentive for players to purchase it, it's understandable why TI 2023's prize pool has failed to get off the ground.

Shorter crowdfunding period

Not only that, the tournament's crowdfunding period is also much shorter than previous editions at just 36 days. By comparison, every TI since 2015 all had crowdfunding periods of at least 88 days.

With TI 2023's prize pool already looking abysmal, even its participants — like Team Liquid William "Blitz" Lee — couldn't help but joke about the prize pool they're about to compete for.

If it wasn't obvious already, TI 2023's abysmal prize pool is bad news for Dota 2 esports, and I fear its negative effects can go beyond the game's world championship tournament.

First off, much of TI's prestige lies with its huge prize pools, which draws a lot of eyes towards Dota 2 and its notoriously endemic community and esports scene. Valve also very rarely advertises the game, which made TI and its eye-catching prize pools Dota 2's de-facto primary way of drawing attention.

Not only does TI season draw new and returning players alike, it also serves to attract prospective teams, event organisers, and sponsors to Dota 2's esports scene. With TI 2023 set to have just a fraction of the prize pool of previous editions, those same teams, organisers, and sponsors may become discouraged from entering the scene.

The fact that Valve also decided to end the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) this year further complicates things.

Say what you will about the DPC and how monotonous it has become over the years, but it did provide a degree of stability to the scene — something very important for organisers, sponsors, and the lower tiers of competition in the scene.

With the scene expected to return to more third-party tournaments next year (Valve has yet to provide concrete plans on how to replace the DPC), attracting more organisers and sponsors to Dota 2 becomes even more important.

Unless Valve pulls something out of their hat to give TI 2023's prize pool a big boost, things aren't looking too bright for Dota 2 esports for the foreseeable future.

With that said, Valve — despite their faults as a developer and overseer for Dota 2 esports — has kept the game chugging along for over a decade, so I'm willing to give them benefit of the doubt. However, the margin of error can only get smaller from here.

Just to be clear, I don't think Dota 2 will die just because of this. The game still has a dedicated playerbase and community, and that alone can be enough to keep an esports scene going even with little to no developer support. Just look at Smash Bros.

But, as a pillar of esports, Dota 2's competitive scene fizzling out will be a tragic loss. The players, teams, organisers, and fans that have been keeping the scene going for so long deserve much better.

TI 2023 will be hosted from 12 to 29 October in Seattle, the United States and will feature 20 of the best Dota 2 teams in the world fighting to claim the coveted Aegis of Champions and the lion's share of a growing prize pool.

For everything you need to know about TI 2023, check here.

For more esports news updates, visit https://yhoo.it/YahooEsportsSEA and check out Yahoo Esports Southeast Asia’s Facebook page and Twitter, as well as our Gaming channel on YouTube.