Valve has unveiled the International 2019 Battle Pass for the upcoming tournament, which as always, will see 25% of all sales going directly towards the tournaments prize pool.
For this year’s Battle Pass, Valve has chosen a “Jungle Expedition” theme which will see players take part in a Wrath of the Mo’rokai special event. Reward line items include custom ‘Overgrown Empire’ terrain, evolving courier, ‘Majesty of the Colossus’ Tiny Prestige Item, ‘Planetfall’ Earthshaker Arcana, weaponless ‘Axe Unleashed’ item set, and lots more.
SEE ALSO: Valve makes changes to Dota 2 Pro Circuit qualifications
After 18 hours of release, the Battle Pass has already contributed $5.19M (£3.99M) to the International Prize Pool. This is already 29.86% ahead of the 2018 prize pool. With a base prize pool of $1.6M(£1.2M), the total is currently at $6M (£4.61M) and growing – as tracked here.
Last year the TI prize pool reached an incredible $25M (£19.2M) making it the biggest in history. However, Epic Games announced its $30M (£23M) Fortnite World Cup this year meaning The Battle Pass will need to raise 28.4M (£21M) and more to claim back the record
This year sees The International head to China for the first time with the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai playing host from August 15th to 25th. The tournament will see 18 teams go head-to-head, including 12 teams via the DPC and six teams from the regional qualifiers. Virtus.pro, Team Secret, Vici Gaming, Evil Geniuses and Fnatic are among the teams already announced to be heading to Shanghai.
SEE ALSO: MDL Dota 2 Major confirmed to be hosted at Disneyland Paris
At the beginning of May, Valve announced the schedule for the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) 2019-2020, inviting tournament organisers to apply to host five majors and five minors next season. Majors are set for Nov 16-24, Jan 18-26, Mar 14-22, May 2-1 and June 20-28. Additionally, Minors will take place on Nov 5-9, Jan 7-1, Mar 3-7, Apr 22-26 and June 9-13.
Tomorrow… pic.twitter.com/3ybh3p1WBe
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) 6 May 2019
Similarly, Valve also confirmed dates for Counter-Strike; Global Offensive Majors to be held in 2020 and 2021. The dates are confirmed as May 11-24 and Nov 2-15 2020 and May 10-23 and Nov 1-14 2021. Valve has highlighted that the Majors should be held in a timezone convenient for the majority of viewers, suggesting 21:00 CET as a primetime slot.
Esports Insider says: It’s incredible to see that every year DOTA 2 fans get behind the game and help contribute millions to the prize pool. This year’s TI is gearing up to be an incredible event, although Western fans are not overly enamoured with the prospect of Shanghai time zones for what’s normally an NA based event.
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