it's the christmas dota update, everyone who smurfed got a gift box full of coal that permabans them when they get it, tons of streamers who were smurfing got the coal live.
oh fun christmas gift box, full of coal permabanned and vacban
(btw he reads "banned until 1/18?" but fails to read that the ban is until 1/18/2038)
This past week-end was my first time going to #Dota2#TheInternational in Seattle, WA but from the few conversations I had with other attendees on my way home it was the most expensive and disappointing one to date since the yearly tournament started in 2001.
Oh well, I guess I had to try, and the little I saw of a city I had never been to before was nice.
@Gargron Was hoping GG could win this one since I don’t see them coming this close in the future and Spirit already won one, but Spirit was very clearly the best team this tournament.
Not sure if staying up late to watch TI games is worth it anymore....most games have the same picks and bans and a lot of them are >50 mins. Not pleasant to watch.
OG really peaked at the right time. Winning back-to-back TIs with the 2nd and 3rd highest prize pool in history.
For the past 2 years (TI 2022 and TI 2023), the prize pool has fallen precipitously. It's down to just ~$3M this year, the lowest since TI3 a decade ago.
From a financial point of view, it sucks to win it all this year and get the same prize money as a 5-6th place team from 3 years ago.
@benhur07b pro or amateur? Because pro doesn't really matter. Dota 2 revenue is 290 million per year, a drop in the bucket for steams 8 billion dollar yearly revenue. If valve decides to drop pro Dota for good (which it looks like they're planning to do), it wouldn't matter for the userbase. Only 0.005% of players are pro (or less, might have the numbers wrong here). That's nothing meaningful in the big picture. Sure there might be some outcry, but that will pass. They might keep updating the game and what not, sell some hats. But that's probably where it's going. And honestly, I don't think it matters too much.