Dota 2 prize money more than SA cricket and rugby

Here is some advice to all the youngsters out there who want to pursue a career in (e)sport and make lots of money – learn to play Dota 2.

The prize money for Valve’s 2014 Dota 2 The International tournament reached R62 million recently, making it one of the most lucrative tournaments of 2014. It won’t stop there, as the tournament only gets underway on 18 July 2014 and Valve continues to raise funds.

Based on the division of last year’s prize money – $2.8 million was the total prize pool for 2013, of which $1.4 million went to the winning team – we can deduce that this year’s winners may walk away with over $3 million (±R31.3 million). Valve has yet to confirm the prize pool distribution for 2014.

Given that a professional Dota 2 team is made up of five players and a handful of support staff, each member will receive a healthy cheque at the end of the event.

If we compare this to the pinnacle of SA’s local sporting competitions, these eSport athletes financially eclipse our cricket and rugby players by quite a margin. For example, 2013’s Absa Currie Cup prize pool was R5 million – less than a 10th of The International’s current total winnings.

Below is a table profiling some of the main local and international sporting tournaments and their prize pools, allowing us to get an idea of where Dota 2 sits.

Tournament	Prize Pool
2014 Fifa World Cup	R5.9 billion
2013/14 FA Cup	R265 million
2011 Cricket World Cup	R83.2 million
2013 Nedbank Golf Challenge	R67 million
2014 Dota 2 The International	R62 million (and climbing)
2013 League of Legends World Championships	R21 million
2013 Absa Currie Cup	R5 million
2014/14 Sunfoil Series (local four-day cricket)	R2 million

As you can see, international soccer is miles ahead in terms of prize money, but The International is not far behind the Cricket World Cup, and easily surpasses local rugby and cricket competitions.

Would you take up a career in Dota 2 if you had the chance? Let us know in the comments and forum.