The evolution of Dota 2 championships till 2021

The evolution of Dota 2 championships till 2021

Dota 2 has been an extremely popular game for a long time, garnering millions of fans worldwide. Over the years, there have also been international gaming championships based solely on Dota 2. These championships are so popular that it has had the highest prize pool in any gaming tournament since 2015.

How was Dota 2 created?

Dota 2 was developed by a company called Valve Corporation. Beginning in 2009, a lead designer by the name of Ice Frog was hired by the team to remake the original Dota game. They wanted to recreate a more modernized version of the game.

Within 2 years, the game would be released to the public through a gaming expo - Gamescom in 2011. Wanting to show off the game, Valve hosted a public tournament with a prize pool of $1.6 million. This was an unheard number in the gaming industry at the time, attracting both viewers and players to watch the game.

This was one of the best moves made by the marketing team at Valve Corporation. After the tournament, a lot of people suddenly focused on playing the game and getting better. Over the coming months, as more pros started to form inside the Dota community, Valve started inviting these players for beta versions and small tournaments.

Over the coming years, they kept hosting tournaments with large prize pools, attracting more professional players as they went. Since then, Dota 2 has seen a massive increase in the number of people playing and the prize pools in the following tournaments.

The Dota 2 Championships Timeline

Valve Corporation and IceFrog continually worked on the game, improving the rosters, aesthetics, and elements. Every year they would bring in changes, and every year the player base just kept getting bigger.

2015 was a turning point for the game with the introduction of their new Source 2 Engine called Reborn. This update was a total change of how the game was played before then. With an overhaul of the UI, this was seen as the biggest update to Dota 2 to date.

This year also marked the introduction of a new tradition for the community. Valve introduced their plans for an annual series of four tournaments to be held between 2015 to 2016.

• The International (Summer Major)
• Autumn Major
• Winter Major
• Spring Major

Then in 2016 another big update was released which brought changes to the core gameplay of Dota 2. The existing map was completely changed, almost everything was rebalanced, and other interesting features were added. Players were forced to change the way they played and quickly adapt to the new style within the year.

These changes did not halt the progress of the Championships, however. Starting from 2015, Dota 2 will lead the gaming world in the largest prize pools ever seen. Every year from 2015 - 2019 saw the annual series of Dota 2 championships happen in different parts of the world.

Once the game started to explode in popularity, Valve decided to bring in third party tournaments to host Dota 2. If a tournament was able to bring in $500,000 to their prize pool, this qualified them to receive another $500,000 sponsorship from Valve to host the tournament. On top of this, they also sponsored other smaller tournaments with prize pools of about $150,000.

The point of these smaller tournaments was to identify the best players for the biggest tournament - The International. Winners of these tournaments were awarded qualifying points and were given invitations to join The International 2018.

Incoming Covid-19 changes

After the pandemic hit during the early months of 2020, the tournament which was supposed to be held in Stockholm was postponed. It was first postponed to August of the same year, but was forced to postpone again because players were not able to enter Sweden due to travel restrictions.

As a result, the tournament was postponed indefinitely until Valve Corporation could make something happen or move the tournament to another location. Just like other major sporting events such as the Olympics, the tournament was scheduled for August 2021 as the time when it was most likely to start.

The latest championship in 2021

Players around the world were left in silence, eagerly awaiting news about the upcoming tournament. Finally on July 8th, Valve announced via social media that the tournament was back on and the venue had been changed to Bucharest, Romania.

Set to be at Arena Nationale - The biggest stadium in the whole country, the tournament will start on October 7th, ending by the 17th. The other news that plagued the community was the prize pool revealed for the upcoming tournament. Breaking all previous records, over $40 million have been announced, providing a lot of incentive for the best players to take part in the tournament.

A result of Dota 2’s popularity

On top of the tournaments, there has also been a lot of interest in esports betting on Dota 2. You can find many operators and online websites that offer odds on every Dota 2 match. By using popular Dota 2 betting sites, even if people don’t play the game itself, they have a massive opportunity to make good money. With a good knowledge of the game as well as information on the professional arena, anyone can use their expertise to bet on every viable game.

Dota 2’s popularity has only risen over the years and even the pandemic shows no signs of stopping it. Whether it's to be a player, a spectator, or an online better, there is a lot to be enjoyed by joining the Dota 2 community.

Evelyn Bayton is the author expert of this article and has been following the Dota 2 championships over many years.