The history of Battle Pass: what should you expect from Valve this year?
Maksym ShylovBattle Pass, previously known as Compendium, has already become a traditional attribute of the annual Dota 2 world championship, the tournament series called The International by Valve. Every year, players passionately try to achieve as high level as possible in the pass to receive more valuable prizes and make their contribution to the prize pool, for which the best representatives of the professional scene will be fighting.
This year will not be an exception and the developers are preparing new content for the fans of the esports MOBA discipline. To figure out what to expect from the upcoming The International 2022 Battle Pass, we will analyze the history of this phenomenon in Dota2, how its contribution to the prize pool changed from year to year, and the most memorable years.
The International 2013 Interactive Compendium
The prize pool was equal to the incredible sum of $1,000,000 in the first two years of The International, which was phenomenal in esports at that moment. In 2013, Valve became one of the very first companies to implement such a monetization model as Battle Pass (it was called Compendium back then). Gabe Newell’s company provided $1,600,000, as it had been in previous years, but the rest of the sum was achieved with the help of a percentage of the sales of Compendium. This way, the company managed both to increase the sum of the prize pool of the annual main event, which correspondingly impacted the media popularity and fame of the tournament and discipline in general, and increase profits from Dota 2. The developers earned the major part of the donations.
At that time, players received rewards for buying Compendium and when the prize pool reached particular sums. Interesting rewards included:
- $2,000,000 – Valor HUD, which changed its appearance depending on your monitor's aspect ratio;
- $2,600,000 – players received The Immortal Reliquary, from which the highly-popular item for Pudge, Whalehook, could drop;
- $3,200,000 – probably, the last and most interesting reward of all. Achieving this sum, all Compendium owners could choose the next hero for Valve to add to the game.
The prize pool of TI 2013: $2,874,380.
The International Compendium 2014
The developers increased the number of rewards for the overall sum of the TI prize pool up to $10,000,000 in the following year. The main innovation was the introduction of the reward system for receiving Compendium levels. The maximum number of levels is 1000. 100 points are required to get to a new level. It can be bought in the in-game store and received for completing Compendium quests. Besides, players can try daily challenges and 10 hero challenges. To earn points, 25 and 300 respectively, you had to win a match using a random hero. Interesting rewards included:
- $2,200,000 – voting for the next Arcana item. Phantom Assassin received it that year;
- $2,900,000 – adds the All Random Deathmatch mode to the game;
- $9,200,000 – new models for creeps, which appear after destroying enemy barracks.
The prize pool of TI 2014: $10,923,977.
The International 2016 Battle Pass
Compendium changed its name to Battle Pass in 2016. Besides many rewards, events, quests, and achievements, predictions for The Manila Major were available for players. The unusual stuff included seasonal matchmaking. Battle pass owners could fight each other and earn matchmaking points. After the end of the event, Dota 2 fans had an opportunity to replace their regular MMR points with the seasonal ones, on the condition that they had played more than 40 matches. Interesting rewards included:
- $18,429,613 – Trust of the Benefactor, from which extremely lucky players could receive limited items, which cost impressive money nowadays.
The prize pool of TI 2016: $20,770,460.
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The International 2019 Battle Pass
Players gained access to “Jungle Expedition”, a network of rooms, through which you could advance by winning matches with certain heroes. As a result, users had a chance to unlock sets for Sven, Ursa, and Dazzle. Players could wager before the start of matches and the earned tokens were added to Battle Pass level points. The tip system was introduced but it was available only for the pass buyers, the ability to tip a match participant was given to all players. Also, depending on the Battle Pass level, players had an opportunity to make a double bet with their MMR points. This way, you were able to earn or lose twice more MMR points after matches. Valve introduced the function of avoiding players, which you did not want to see in your match, and the role-based matchmaking queue.
The prize pool of TI 2019: $34,330,068.
The International 10 Battle Pass and The International 2021 Compendium
2020 was a difficult year for Dota 2, especially for its esports scene. The COVID-19 pandemic made adjustments to Valve's plans. As a result, players and fans of this discipline were left without the annual holiday in the form of The International and teams had to play third-party tournaments to survive. Besides usual things, The International 10 Battle Pass included the gaming mode Aghanim’s Labyrinth where heroes were fighting monsters in the labyrinth to face Aghanim himself in the very end. The guild system with contracts, challenges, and other social elements was implemented. Also, the developers added mini-games during the in-game pause, which allowed people to pass away the time, however, not everybody liked it due to its monotony. The bright innovation was Sideshop where players had an opportunity to collect different heroes, swap them for resources and buy valuable prizes. Interesting prizes included:
- 2 blue gems – Trust of the Benefactor 2020;
- 35 blue gems – a random Arcana item.
The prize pool of TI 2021: $40,018,195.
Since The International 10 had been rescheduled for 2021 and the prize pool had been formed, the developers released The International 2021 Compendium a few months before the start of the main event of the year. It was free and allowed players to buy signatures and chat wheels of famous Dota 2 talents. Also, players traditionally were able to collect player cards and create fantasy teams for every gaming day of the world championship.
All prize pools at the tournaments in The International series
It is worth considering the situation how players were increasing the prize pool of the main event of the year throughout its entire history:
- The International 2011 – $1,600,000;
- The International 2012 – $1,600,000 – +0%;
- The International 2013 – $2,874,380 – +79,6%;
- The International 2014 – $10,923,977 – +280%;
- The International 2015 – $18,429,613 – +68,7%;
- The International 2016 – $20,770,460 – +12,7%;
- The International 2017 – $24,787,916 – +19,3%;
- The International 2018 – $25,532,177 – +3%;
- The International 2019 – $34,330,068 – +34,4%;
- The International 2021 – $40,018,195 – +16,5%.
Trends in the sum of prizes allow making a conclusion that it is influenced both by the Battle Pass content and the conditions under which it was released.
What can Valve do with The International 2022 Battle Pass?
The developers of Dota 2 have two options. The first one offers the path of least resistance. Why would you invent something new if it just works? They can release Battle Pass, which will include all features from the previous years, create new costumes for treasures, Immortal items, new chat wheel phrases, and many more but they might face the following problem. This problem is called The International dilemma. If the prize pool of The International 2022 can’t beat the result of the previous year, it will be an extremely bad precedent, which will signal the popularity decline of the discipline and the extinction of the professional scene. And it is possible in this case.
The second option for Valve is to risk and make up the brand new elements for Battle Pass. It may be new modes, ways of engagement with professional players, or any other new things, for which people will want to spend private funds and support the main event of the year in their favorite discipline. Using bright innovations might bring the players’ financial support to a new level or aggravate the situation if something goes wrong.
What path will Valve choose? Time will tell. We will publish the review of the long-awaited Battle Pass when it releases, so follow the news on EGamersWorld!
Maksym has been working at EGamersWorld since 2017. Joining the company during his first year at university, he worked as a translator until 2022. After that, Maksym began working as an editor. His main discipline is Dota 2, and over time, Maksym's responsibilities expanded to include CS:GO, CS2 and Valorant. Additionally, as an editor, he publishes various materials on gaming topics.