The power of crowdfunding is once again evident in Valve’s TI. The tournament that set records for Esports in terms of prizes sees tremendous growth for its prize pool just less than a week after the release of the Battle Pass.
Dota 2’s crowdfunding for the TI, or The International, prize pool started back in 2013 with the third installment of the prestigious tournament. The crowdfunding is done through the battle pass system, also known as the compendium. Part of every battle pass purchase goes to funding the TI prize pool. It has become such an integral part of TI that every year that fans aim to set and break records for every installment of TI. The highest record so far belongs to The International 2021 which reached a total of USD 40,018,195, setting a new record high for any esports event.
But will it be the same this year? Despite the rapid growth, TI 2022’s daily growth is still behind compared to TI 2021 and TI 2019. In the same span of days TI 2021 breached the USD 11 Million mark while TI 2019 already reached USD 10 Million. It is also worth noting that this year’s battle pass is relatively shorter compared to previous years. By this we mean the length from the release of the battle pass to the actual finals event of TI itself. The 2022 battle pass launched back in September 1, and TI 2022’s finals will be on Oct 30, 2022. This effectively gives the Battle Pass a total of 59 days to set a new record, if it can compared to TI 2021’s 139 days.
Regardless, Dota 2’s new TI battle pass will still significantly increase this year’s tournament prize pool. As to what high that prize pool would be though that remains the question.