Cover-Credits:
Valve released its long awaited The International 2022 (TI11) Battle Pass yesterday, with expectations that records would be broken yet again. However, some parts of the Dota 2 community were less than pleased with the content that was being released by the Dota 2 developers, as the Battle Pass was split into two parts and the other half of the content would only be released in early November.
Wildcard Gaming’s captain, Samuel "Sammyboy" Anderson spoke out about the issue and PGL’s decision to acquire a betting sponsorship for TI11’s Regional Qualifiers.
Reaction to Valve’s TI11 Battle Pass and partnership with betting company
Yesterday, the community was elated that Valve has finally released its long awaited TI11 Battle Pass to the Dota 2 community. However, the community’s reaction after the release was less than ideal as they felt cheated by the Dota 2 developers.
The community expressed their disappointment on social media platforms as they explained that certain parts of the Battle Pass were left missing, such as the annual map terrain skin and customized creep skins amongst other things.
Furthermore, the community was not at all happy with the content released by Valve. They complained that most of the content for Part One of the Battle Pass was not even available, with Valve opting to save a ton of content for Part Two that is scheduled to be released in November.
Furthermore, Valve’s decision to allow PGL obtain a betting sponsorship for TI11’s Regional Qualifiers as well as Last Chance Qualifiers and Group Stage left the Dota 2 community speechless as they felt that the move was wrong, seeing how The International as a whole has been fully crowd-funded by the community. Wildcard Gaming’s captain, Samuel "Sammyboy" Anderson spoke out on the issue on Twitter, as he said that “The battle pass sucks, PGL sucks, betting sponsor for TI sucks... don't get me started on greed.[by Valve]” He also hoped that the Dota 2 community would speak out regarding the issues.
Few Dota 2 personalities agreed with Sammyboy’s statement, with OG’s support player Tommy “Taiga” Le replying that it's sad to see how Valve managed to let its community down. Soniqs’s Arif "MSS" Anwar also agreed with Sammyboy’s tweet, as he shared his disappointment with Valve regarding its current situation.
Aaron "Clairvoyance" Kim, who was previously a coach for Boom Esports quoted the tweet, saying that Valve and PGL is contradicting itselves by allowing the acquisition of a betting sponsor for TI11 despite rules being set in place.
While the community was left unamused by Valve’s and PGL’s decisions, TI11 Battle Pass sales are still rising as it passed the $7 million mark earlier today despite the complaints.
