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Dota 2
Dota 2 is one of the most popular free-to-play multiplayer battle arena games. The game was created and published by a well-known name in the gaming community, Valve Corporation. It was introduced as the sequel to another game Defense of the Ancients that was an entire community created mod for popular Blizzard Entertainment’s game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos expansion pack. Dota 2 is played between two teams consisting of five players where every team occupies and defends their own base on the certain map.
Every player participating controls his powerful character known as a hero, who has some unique abilities as well as different styles of play. During every match, participating players collect items for their heroes and experience points in order to successfully battle their way to the top while defeating the opponent team which is trying to do the same. A team wins in the case of destroying a large structure which is located in the opponent team’s base, called The Ancient.
When it comes to the development of Dota 2 it began back in 2009 when the Pseudonymous lead designer IceFrog released the original game’s Defense of the Ancients mod. Sometime later IceFrog was hired by Valve Corporation in order to create more modern sequel of the original game. The game was officially released back on 13th of July 2013 following public beta phase on Windows. The game’s beta phase began two years before the game was officially released. Dota 2 was initially released for OS X, Microsoft Windows, and Linux-based desktop computers.
The game has gained an amazing popularity on the esports gaming scene despite its complexity and its steep learning curve. Even though there was some initial criticism, the game has been leading since the very beginning due to its production quality and of course its faithfulness to the original game. Dota 2 was initially used on the original Source game engine until integrated into Source 2 back in 2015. It should be noted that Dota 2 is one of the most popular games ever, with millions of players making up the player base. The popularity of the game has led developers to produce merchandise like accessories, apparel, and toys followed by huge media promotions. The game also allowed loyal Dota 2 community to create various game maps, modes, and hero cosmetics that are uploaded to the Dota 2 Steam Workshop that is curated by the game’s developer, the Valve Corporation.
Dota 2 has a very active and widespread competitive scene with professional teams coming from all over the globe playing the game in various tournaments and leagues. When it comes to the premium Dota 2 tournaments, prize pools can reach into millions of U.S. dollars which are the highest prize polls than in any other eSport game tournament. Major Dota 2 tournaments feature both a good amount of leading teams with amazing skill and performances and amazingly large prize pools. Their professional tournaments commonly take place online, but there are also single region LANs.
The first big Dota 2 tournament is The International or simply TI. It is the biggest annual tournament hosted every year by Valve Corporation since 2011. The first tournament was played in Cologne, Germany with a total prize pot of $1.6 million. The second TI took place in 2012 at the amazing Benayora Hall located in Seattle retaining the same $1.6 million prize pool. The following year the game’s developer Valve Corporation introduced a digital compendium that fans could buy in order to follow the event as well as to contribute to the prize pool which at some point reached astonishing $2.8 million prize pool accompanied with $1.2 million of compendium purchases. The prize pools of The International keep growing on a yearly basis, with tens of millions being handed out in recent years to the winning teams. Other than TI, Valve organizes a series of Major tournaments on a yearly basis, with million dollar prize pools, while other organizations like ESL throw tournaments of their own, with hundreds of thousands of dollars often at stake.
When it comes to the most successful Dota 2 players we have to mention professional players coming from South East Asia who were able to find major financial success in the game. Even though a South East Asian team is yet to win a Major or The International, players coming from the region are definitely some of the best when it comes to the Dota2 competitive scene like Daryl Koh ‘iceiceice’ Pei Xiang from Singapore with $1,127,603.56 in earnings and Chai ‘Mushi’ Yee Fung from Malaysia with $774,863.03 in earnings. Of course, European players like KuroKy or Americans like UNiVeRsE are currently at the very top, but the top 20 list is filled with Asian players.
When it comes to the most successful Dota 2 team, team Evil Geniuses has been leading the scene since the team has earned $13,618,199. The team was able to achieve an amazing success in the last three Majors. The second most successful team is definitely Wings Gaming that has earned $9,688,187 across only two Dota 2 Majors which is more than impressive. Wings Gaming is followed by Newbee that has earned $7,197,305, Vici Gaming with earnings of $4,987,169 and LGD gaming which has earned $4,969,812. When it comes to the current Dota 2 rankings, Team Liquid is leading closely followed by LGD Gaming, Newbee, Virtus Pro and LGD. Forever Young.
When it comes to the highest earning Dota 2 players, in the first place is definitely amazing American player “Sahil UniVeRsE” Arora with total earnings of astonishing $2,720,623.84 which makes him the highest earning Dota 2 player coming from the United States. His biggest money prize from a single tournament was that at the Dota 2 International Championship 2015 in Seattle when he took home $1,326,932. The second player with the highest earnings is Peter Ppd Dager playing for Evil Geniuses with total earnings of astonishing $2,603,724.
On the third place is Sumail Suma1L Hassan with earnings of staggering $2,401,560. He also holds the flattering Guinness World Record for being the youngest gamer who surpassed that $1 million in professional tournament winnings. American veteran Clinton Fear Loomis from Oregon ,who recently retired in order to become a professional Dota 2 coach, during his time on the field has earned more than one million dollars playing for EG, so he ranks four with total earnings of $2,372,459.
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