The Grand Spectacle Part 2: Dolla Dolla Bills LoL Because of this volatility and because so much of the prize money is tied up at the top end of infrequent mega-matches it has traditionally been quite challenging for DotA players to make a living at the game with only the very upper echelon being able to pursue the game full time. The setup for professional DotA2 teams is fairly mercenary even in the bigger teams, where the organization usually pays for travel expenses for their team but in return asks for part of the tournament prize pool winnings, usually 50 %. All but the largest teams are run like local or amateur sports organizations and the players have to fund their own expenses. It is still relatively rare for DotA2 teams to live together except for a month of boot camp before major events. The largest sponsored teams sometimes pay their players a salary and especially well-known players can make six digits just from team pay each year. DotA2 teams are independent of Valve, though they are usually affiliated with a larger esports sponsor or clan organization such as Cloud 9 which has top-tier teams in DotA2, LoL, and HotS. Teams that win more than predicted stay together, teams that lose faster than expected tend to get fired or break up. Much like the Olympics, even the largest teams tend to focus their efforts around these massive tournaments, with roster changes almost inevitable between events based on success or failure. The more of these items DotA2 players buy, the more funds go in to the prize pool. The Compendium is also an elaborate interactive fantasy sports prediction system that rewards players for making correct predictions about all manner of potential statistics, from major events such as predicting the winner of whole tournament to the tiniest details such as what the length of the shortest game will be. ![]() Which means many players buy multiple copies of these virtual programs in the hope of getting rare skins for their characters. These digital books, which are accessed in the game client, are filled with information about the teams but also as a raffle-ticket-like system for getting special in-game items. To do this, Valve sells and then gives a portion of the profit to the prize pool from a specific in-game item called a “Compendium.” They are basically interactive versions of the programs sold at big sports games or concerts. Curiously, the way that Valve creates these giant prize pools for their two huge tournaments is by crowd-funding. The rest of the year is filled with a chaotic schedule of smaller regional and online events produced by other organizations. ![]() But there are only two tournaments this size sponsored by DotA2’s parent company each year, The International which is held in America and DotA Asia Championship which is held in China but which only has about a quarter of the prize pool. dollars for the victorious team this year, which about two million dollars gross per winning player. ( Corrected on to reflect current industry statistics that DotA2 is the second most played moba not third.) This is primarily because of its massive prize pools for its top event, The International. To start our conversation, let’s look at DotA2, which only has an estimated 14% market share of the moba industry but draws the most attention from mainstream media. The Grand Spectacle Part 1: The More Zeroes The Merrier Video: Stephen Dean’s “VOLTA” is an art piece exploring the elaborate and specific fan displays that have evolved at football games. As esports are still uncharted territory, each game company has made distinct choices with their experiments in trying to promote, share, professionalize, and define their game as an esport. In fact, getting to watch this process of a professional sport that is only a decade old (via StarCraft) trying to legitimize itself highlights the artifice and art of all sporting events. This primordial vantage point is immensely interesting because it provides a clear view of how culture is constructed both in fans and from the sporting organizations. ![]() ![]() It is incredibly rare to be present in the earliest days of any cultural phenomena, but similar to seeing the supporting structure of a half-finished building. With the explosive rise of Valve’s Defense of the Ancients 2 ( DotA2), Riot’s League of Legends ( LoL), and Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm ( HotS), the mainstream media seems to be quite deeply perplexed by the claim that video games could be a sport. His multi-part essay "Demystifying MOBAs" takes an in-depth look at the game design of esports and MOBAs. Bridging Worlds is a series by LA-based artist and VGT author Eron Rauch about the blurred line between games and art.
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