- Both tournaments currently have similarly sized prize pools
- However, Riot plans to sell Event Passes to boost the World Championship’s prize
- Valve is expected to do something similar by selling Compendium levels at a discount
LoL’s World Championship has had a lower prize pool than that of Dota 2’s The International for the past 11 years, however, this might soon change.
Will Champions Overtake TI?
League of Legends and Dota 2 are the two quintessential MOBA games currently. For over a decade, fandoms of both games have been arguing over and over about various aspects of the games in order to see which one is better than the other. These arguments often extend to the games’ esports scene, with Dota 2’s The International and LoL’s World Championship often being the main focal point of comparison and discussion.
However, when it comes to those events specifically, The International has almost always had one major advantage over Worlds – its prize pool. Dota 2’s biggest competitive yearly event has always had the upper hand, sporting a larger monetary prize than that of LoL, but that might change soon.
Like other years, Valve has allocated $1.6 million to The International, with the rest of the money being gathered through various other means. However, the lack of Arcanas, Immortal Treasures, and some novel sets and items, among other things, has contributed to the slow growth of the tournament’s prize pool. This isn’t necessarily new either, as last year TI11 didn’t surpass even 50% of TI10’s prize pool, breaking a decade-long streak of constant linear growth.
However, League of Legends World Championship might surpass that of TI for the first time since 2012. Currently, TI12’s prize pool numbers have been trickling in and stand just near $3 Million at the time of writing of this article. But Riot Games have also been making several campaigns to gather more finance that will go towards the prize pool, which initially had $2.25 million allocated by the company. This means that the World’s prize money might very well soon overtake that offered by TI12.
Riot Games’ secret weapon in this race is the Worlds Unlocked, a limited-edition product bundle that “captures the spirit of Worlds 2023 with exclusive physical and digital items” for the most dedicated LoL fans. A portion of the proceeds from it will go straight to the Worlds 2023 prize pool. “Worlds Unlocked is tailored to the ultimate Worlds fan who lives for every crushing defeat and glorious victory,” Riot’s announcement reads. “From physical keepsakes to Worlds skins and emotes, the bundle of items within Worlds Unlocked provides substantial value to fans.”
It is expected that Valve will boost TI12’s prize pool by selling Compendium levels at a discount in the following days, which means the race between the two tournaments will be a close one this year.
