Dota 2 is one of the biggest games the MOBA genre has to offer. Competitive, complex, and one of the most unforgiving MOBAs, Dota has been one of the first and has keep a distinct charm and intensity that differs from many other in the genre. Dota has always had a professional following and this year in August, will mark their 5th international championship series.
Dota is currently raising money for the event’s prize pool with the Virtual Compendium, which when bought, will contribute 25% of the price to the prize pool. The Compendium allows your Dota account a slew of pretty awesome looking cosmetic upgrades for many of Dota’s heroes, including different looks for the heroes, custom animations on certain skills, and even a full map re-texture.
This year the prize pool has already reached $11.5m which is already more than last year’s prize pool of $10.9m and almost 6 times the prize pool of League of Legends’ world championships last year. The fundraiser still has about a month to go so we hardly believe that $11.5m will be where the story ends.
The Compendium will continue to give players rewards based on the total prize pool generated for the Dota International Championship, with new rewards at certain break points, going up to $15m. In addition to the overall goal, players can buy additional “levels” for their compendiums allowing for even more prizes and further contributing to the prize pool beyond the initial purchase.
The Compendium comes in two versions. A basic level 1 version that gives you all of the stretch goal rewards for $9.99 and a maxed out level 50 version that gives you all of the bonus level up rewards in the compendium for $26.99. The list of rewards seems to be well worth for the value of usual cosmetic changes in the free to play MOBA genre and in the process you’re helping to support Dota’s largest tournament of the year.
The International will kick off this year on August 3rd.