posted by guardiangel07,
The International 5 will definitely see fiercer competition as the prize pool exceeds $17mil at the time of writing. This would mean that the champions this year stand to win $6mil - that's $1mil more than last year's prize. Last year, Valve revealed their introduction of Techies to Dota 2 by way of giving a Techies Taunt as a hidden stretch goal. With the prize pool still climbing, will we be seeing hidden stretch goals announced soon, as was done last year?
The Top 3 Highest Prize Pool before TI5


On April 30, Valve resounded a call to the Dota 2 community to contribute to the TI5 prize pool, and to the amazement of many, that call was overwhelmingly well-responded to. As with TI3 and TI4, Valve released a compendium to be purchased, of which 25% of the purchase price will be contributed to the prize pool. Besides this, they also released The International 2015 Collector's Cache, which also contributes to the prize pool.

Whatever the method of contribution, TI5 has now raised the bar of eSports tournaments in terms of prize pool. According to E-Sports Earnings, the top 3 tournaments with the highest prize pool in eSports history before TI5 were all Dota 2 tournaments, with the highest being close to $11mil from TI4. In comparison to other eSports, Smite had roughly $2.6mil whereas League of Legends 2014 World Championship recorded approximately $2.1mil.

Breakdown of the prize pool


Valve has also released the breakdown of that prize pool, and at the time of writing, the Champions will pocket a whooping $6mil! With such a huge prize pool, Valve has also decided to change the format, not only in terms of the tournament but also the division of the prize money, in that no team will leave empty handed. Read more about the change in format here.

With the numbers still rising, there has been much discussion within the Dota 2 community whether or not Valve will repeat what they did last year, that is to reveal a hidden stretch goal. The last stretch goal was set at $15mil, but there hasn't been any announcement yet with regards to this, even when the prize pool stands at $2mil above the final stretch goal.


If there is going to be a secret stretch goal, what do you think it will be?



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    guardiangel07

    guardiangel07

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