Gorgc Speculates on Why Valve Decided to Replace Battle Pass With Controversial Compendium

The Dota 2 community eagerly anticipates each year's edition of The International (TI) which is the annual championship of Valve’s popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, Dota 2. TI is renowned not only for its fierce competition among the world's best Dota 2 teams but also for its colossal prize pool. The previous TIs were primarily funded by the Battlepass sales. However, this year, the TI prize pool is solely dependent on the Compendium sales.

This has raised eyebrows in the community as the prize pool of The International 2023 (TI12) is evidently struggling to meet the standards of previous years. Dota 2 personalities and pro players have bashed TI12’s Compendium openly. Dota 2 streamer and player Janne "Gorgc" Stefanovski was one among them who expressed doubts about TI2’s prize pool even reaching the $5 Million USD mark.

Recently, Gorgc put forth a compelling theory on this year's Compendium and expressed that he finally understood why this year’s prize pool is historically low. 

Is Valve Trying To Prove a Point?

Gorgc recently shared his perspective on the low figures of this year’s Compendium. On a recent Twitch stream, he shed light on a theory that Valve might be attempting to prove a point to the pro players and teams. He speculated that this could be Valve’s way of addressing the excessive demands made by professional players in the past. Gorgc said he has heard of pro players being “annoying”.

He said, “I think pro players were being annoying, coming up with demands, this and that, and Valve was like, ‘You know what? Let’s see how much money they will actually give you if we don’t pump out cosmetics into the game. We’ll see how much they care about just pro teams.”

The streamer suggested that Valve might be testing the Dota 2 community's dedication to the competitive scene by reducing the number of in-game cosmetics and rewards tied to the seasonal pass and making this year’s Compendium all about the players and pro teams. Gorgc speculated that Valve wants to demonstrate that the community's primary motivation for contributing is not to support professional teams but to obtain exclusive in-game items such as Arcanas and Personas.

While Gorgc's take on Valve and the Compendium is intriguing, it is essential to remember that this remains just a theory. The final prize pool for TI will ultimately depend on various factors including the community's engagement and Compendium sales. At the time of writing, the prize pool is at $2,812,950 USD according to Dota 2 Prize Tracker.