Unbox Therapy Talks About Dota 2’s TI10 Prize Pool

In a clip by Unbox Therapy’s Youtube channel, LaterClips, Lewis George Hilsenteger talked about Dota 2’s record for the largest Prize Pool in Esports history. He talks about how the game has a ‘Battle Pass Bundle’ that the players buy for various rewards and 25% of each Battle Pass purchase is contributed to the Prize Pool. He labels this an ‘incredible model’ in which players are able to engage with the game in an engrossing way.

RELATED:  Record-Breaking TI10 Battle Pass Comes To An End

Unbox Therapy On Dota 2 Having the Largest Prize Pool in Esports History

Unbox Therapy is a popular Youtube Channel by Lewis George Hilsenteger and Jack McCann that puts up videos of gadgets unboxing and has 17.4 million subscribers. They also operate a Youtube channel named 'LaterClips' where they upload clips from their popular Lew Later podcast. 

The clip starts with Lewis’ co-host talking about Dota 2’s tournaments featuring a high prize pool where he mentions that Dota 2 had a prize pool of around 19 million a year or two back. 

Lewis corrects his friend by stating the exact numbers and how the prize pool of Dota 2’s premier event The International 10 has surpassed the previous one.

“Actually Will, you got that wrong. Last year it was 34.33 million which has just been passed at 34.44 million (the clip was recorded in August) this year. They think they are gonna hit 40 million this year but they break the previous year’s record every year. 25% of Battle Pass bundle goes to the Prize Pool. It’s an incredible model. I think it is so cool that fans get something in the form of Battle Pass but also get to know that whatever team wins is going to get a portion of their payment. Now, they(players) wanna watch the game even more and play the game even more.”

Unbox Therapy's host, Lewis was amazed at how much money is distributed to the players for an ‘esports event.’

“I presume that this prize pool will be split up in such a way, not just to the top team but you’ll have the second-place prize, the third-place prize but still that is a lot of money to distribute in exchange for an esports event.” 

What is Dota 2 and What is the TI10 Battle Pass?

Dota 2 is a popular multiplayer video game that forms a large part of electronic-sports(esports). Dota 2 was officially launched in 2011 as a sequel to Warcraft III and since then has been played at a professional level. A number of tournaments are held in a year, similar to any physical sport like Football or Cricket, where teams compete against each other. Like a World Cup for any other sport, Valve who is the owner of the game organizes the premier event of the game ‘The International’ every year in the month of August where teams from around the world compete to crown themselves as the ultimate champions. Dota 2 boasts of a huge fan baseand the in-game reward events attract a lot of players every year.

The primary in-game reward event is known as ‘Battle Pass’ and becomes available to purchase months before the International (TI) is held in August. So, for around 3-4 months, players have access to this Battle Pass which includes cosmetics, new game modes, mini-games, and a lot of quests to complete for various rewards, among many other things. So, the Battle Pass adds a fun element to the game whereby players team up with friends to complete challenges, level up and get more rewards. As this is a subscription-based model and levels are purchasable through money, 25% of every transaction goes to the total prize pool of the International. As a result, players reap rewards for themselves and also contribute to the professional scene.

RELATED:  A tl:dr of The International 10 Battle Pass

Considering the massive fan base of Dota 2, a large amount of money goes into the Prize Pool. OG has won TI two times, in 2018 and 2019 and so, all their players occupy the top 5 spots of the table of ‘Players With Highest Overall Earnings.’ 

OG’s captain Johan "N0tail" Sundstein is the richest player in esports in the world with total earnings of $6,930,196.58. As a matter of fact, the top 30 players in the above table are from Dota 2 while only Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf, who happens to be a Fortnite player, sits on the 12th place.