The Internationals?

Everything has its biggest event—the World Cup for footballers and Cricketers, Wrestle Mania for WWE fanatics, and for us DOTA 2 players it’s The Internationals. The Internationals is an annual event where 18 top international DOTA 2 teams compete for the coveted title of “World Champions” as well as a massive cash prize.  The initial prize pool for this year’s tournament was $1,600,000, but the community’s great dedication and Valve’s brilliant marketing scheme has increased the prize pool to $15,644,986 (it increased by over 800%). It’s the highest amount ever recorded for any E-sports event. The tides are changing, and finally there is hope for aspiring e-professional gamers.

When and where is it happening?

The grand event will be staged at the Seattle Key Arena in Seattle Washington, USA.  The event starts on August 3 and will continue for 5 days ending August 8. The arena will be equipped with multiple sources of activities for the fans. There will be Cosplayers {people who dress up as in-game characters), professional casters, game developers and professional players. The arena will have a bar, a workshop {where different items can be bought), stalls and many other features.

What are the teams participating and how are they selected?

There are 18 teams participating in the tournament. Ten out of the 18 teams are directly invited, while the remaining eight teams have to earn their place in the main events. The top 10 teams in the world are directly invited to the tournament after their recent performance in other tournaments has been analyzed, while the other teams have to compete in the regional qualifiers. The winners of the qualifiers can directly enter the main event, while the runner ups face each other in a play-off.

The Invited Teams: Team Secret, Vici Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Invictus Gaming, Cloud 9, Empire, Virtus Pro, LGD gaming, Fnatic and defending champions Newbee.

The Qualified teams: Natus Vincere, Ehome, Complexity Gaming, MVP.Hot6ix.

The Playoff teams: MVP.Pheonix , Archon Gaming, CDEC and Vega Squadron.

What is the prize of winning the event? And how did it get so large?

The Internationals 5’s initial prize was 1.6 million USD, but the DOTA 2 Community has increased the prize pool by a staggering amount of 15 million dollars. Each and every DOTA 2 player can directly contribute to the prize pool by buying a Compendium and other Cosmetic Items released within the time period.  Compendium, the major cause of the colossal increase in the prize pool, is an electronic interactive book which provides special in-game effects and cosmetic items to the buyers. It allows the users to add more money into it, effectively leveling it up to get more rare cosmetic items. Compendium also gives users the ability to select different game upgrades they would like to see in the coming updates.

To break it down: Each compendium costs $10.00 (it’s actually 9.99, but it’s easier to understand) and only $2.5 of the compendium money goes into the prize pool. The current prize pool is now at 15,651,610 USD. It increased by 878.23% in just a couple of months, and with the release of a new set of Immortal Cosmetics, the prize pool will definitely increase by 1000% or even more. The Valve Company has profited with around $50 million just from selling the book.

How can I follow the event?

The Internationals is available for everyone to watch live. You can follow the event in the main DOTA 2 Client, in the official Twitch.tv account or on the website itself. If you are completely new to the game, you can join the Dota 2 players at DWIT College for live streaming.

The Final Verdict: Who will win?

The top teams of the year are definitely Team Secret, Evil Geniuses (EG) and Invictus Gaming. But with Team Secret’s experience and collection of star players like Arteezy, S4, Puppey, Kuroky and Zai, they have crushed every other DOTA 2 team in their path. I’m definitely rooting for team Secret.  EG might possess a threat with their individual skills. Natus Vincere and Invictus Gaming are both previous World Champions so they will put up a fight. DOTA 2 is a weird game and anything can happen, so there is no telling who will walk away with the millions of dollars of prize money.