Dota 2 prize money tops Wimbledon winnings

Now that Valve’s Dota 2 The International’s prize pool for 2014 has broken the magical R100 million mark, we thought it fitting to again compare the MOBA-based tournament to mainstream sports tournaments.

At the time of writing, The International’s prize tally was up to $10.2 million – around R108 million. The majority of the funds in the healthy cash prize have come from sales of Valve’s Compendium – a virtual book that lets gamers interact with this year’s tournament.

Although the total prize pool for Wimbledon 2014 is just under R350 million, the top man and woman on the grass courts will each receive “only” R32 million. Taking into account that Wimbledon is arguably the most prestigious tennis tournament in existence, The International can be proud it offers a substantially bigger reward than the tournament’s top prizes combined.

Let’s also take a look at how The International’s prize compares to other large-scale sporting events popular in South Africa.

Tournament	Prize Pool
2014 Fifa World Cup	R5.9 billion
2014 Wimbeldon	R349 million
2013/14 FA Cup	R265 million
2014 Dota 2 The International	R108 million (and climbing)
2011 Cricket World Cup	R83.2 million
2013 Nedbank Golf Challenge	R67 million
2013 League of Legends World Championships	R21 million
2013 Absa Currie Cup	R5 million
2013/14 Sunfoil Series (local four-day cricket)	R2 million

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 just over R54 million. 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.

Valve has yet to confirm the prize pool distribution for 2014.

The International takes place from 18-21 July 2014 at the Key Arena in Seattle, USA.