2019 was quite a year for Esports, it is been getting recognition, becoming more mainstream and Germany introducing a dedicated visa for esports recently looks like we are ending this year on good terms.
We are in that time of the year again looking back who stood out above them all in terms of financial results.
It’s none other than the Dota 2 team of OG who won the second International in a row. They bagged in the largest chunk of the record $34 million prize pool, with about $15.6 million going home with them.
Not forgetting they had won TI8 and combining wins of 2019 season. All of OG’s five players will rank top on the leaderboards of the most earned players of the year as per Esport Earnings. There’s not much of a difference between them, but the ranking came in as a 3-way tie to the top spot taking a few missed tournaments and scenarios under consideration.
| Player | Total Earnings (2019) | Total Earnings (Career) |
| Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka | $3,163,536.20 | $6,470,000.02 |
| Sébastien “Ceb” Debs | $3,163,536.20 | $5,489,233.01 |
| Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen | $3,163,536.20 | $5,414,446.17 |
| Johan “N0tail” Sundstein | $3,155,536.20 | $6,890,591.79 |
| Anathan “ana” Pham | $3,146,536.20 | $6,000,411.96 |
Each tournament that has been played by OG, call it Dota Pro Circuit or not, Jerax, Ceb and Topson have the same number in their name after TI9 victory.
The team’s coach “Sockshka”, substituted Notail due to health problems at the EPICENTRE MAJOR. Despite the change, OG made it to the top eight and won a corporation bonus of $40,000. With Notail’s almost $6.9 million career earnings, he is also crowned as the best paying sports competition in history.
”Ana” has also missed several events because after his TI8 win he decided to take a long time break from the team and competitive Dota.
OG has participated only in a single tournament after their TI9 victory. It was the entertaining one but less meta-driven, Midas Mode 2.0. The team called it quits with just $5000 at the event. OG are still on a long vacation heading into 2020 and also to the second DPC major of the season.
OG earned the top five places with TI9, which essentially makes overall career earnings even impressive. There has been no word yet when the team will return to the competitive scene but the accomplishments of each player in the past year are already significant.
