The International 5 Compendium is Here. Just How High Can This Year’s Total Prizes Reach?
Fans of popular Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA), Dota 2, were surprised around noon time, May 1, 2015 as the The International 5 Compendium was unveiled and made available by game publisher, Valve.
The 2015 Compendium is effectively a companion application to Dota 2. The Compendium costs $10 USD and gives players and fans a set of accomplishment goals to fulfill during The International 5 (TI5) season, the lead-up to Dota 2’s grandest annual tournament.
But what makes the Compendium so valuable? The $10 application effectively crowdfunds TI5’s prize pool. Last year, when The Compendium was released, purchases of the digital booklet raised TI4’s prize pool from a $1.6 million base to a staggering $10.9 million by the end of the entire affair.
As a result, TI4 went down in history as the highest paying videogame tournament. It dwarfed the record then by the previous year’s tournament, TI3, which offered $2,874,381 to be split among eight of the 16 teams present during the tournament.
Each $10 purchase of The Compendium adds 25% of the sale or $2.50 to the existing prize pot. Within months of its release, fans of Dota 2 managed to add $9.3 million to the total prize of the event. Last year’s champions, Team NewBee from China, walked away with the lion’s share of the prize — a whopping $5,026,578 divided among their five players, gaming club and coaching staff.
Tit for tat
Following a crowdfunding model, fans who purchased The Compendium will receive a collective set of bonus rewards per tier of funding reached. Owners of The Compendium can enjoy returns such as in-game cosmetic items and updated display options, to short film competitions sponsored by Valve and a full-length, long-form graphic novel based on one of the game’s most popular heroes, Mogul Khan the Axe.
On their announcement post, it seems like Valve is aiming for a lofty prize pool target for this year’s competition as it described rewards tiers all the way up to $15 million of funding.
Last year, The Compendium sales for TI4 managed to add at least $2 million to the TI4 pot within the first week of its release. Will this year’s TI5 rival or even surpass last year’s spectacle? Only time will tell.
For more details on The Compendium, you may visit this link.
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