The massive prize pool for Valve's Dota 2 tournament The International, which is partially funded by the sale of an interactive guide known as the Compendium, made news recently for its rapid increase. The award money had reached $4.3 million last week, and is already now at more than $5.85 million.
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The International is Dota 2's largest competition, this year a sold-out live event to be held at Seattle's KeyArena. Crowd funding, particularly the recent offer for the Compendium, is driving the prize pool for winners and runners-up to new heights, and stretch goals are listed on the official website for reaching new milestones.
The Compendium is the interactive digital program for the tournament, which is sold for $10. For every sale, $2.50 is put towards the event's prize pool, contributing to much of the total so far. Players are given in-game rewards for purchasing the Compendium as well, and Valve still wants to raise more prize money.
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The Compendium is not just a guide book, but something you can grow and add to through in-game actions. Introduced for last year's tournament, you can now level up the Compendium, in addition to using it to pick teams and make predictions. It's a way for fans who cannot attend the live event in Seattle to interact with The International.
When I last covered the topic the funding amount was too far from $6 million to list goals for that amount, but Valve has since added base customization to that milestone. The funding looks set to break through that barrier, and it will be interesting to see what they offer next.