One of the most popular tournaments world wide is Dota 2’s elite stage, The International. The tournament has been an inspiration for esports everywhere since its inception. The crowdfunded prize pool grows larger and larger every year. Currently, the prize pool is sitting at a solid $24,146,282 with about 22 million of the prize pool contributed by the crowd and will continue to grow for the next couple of weeks. While the prize pool continues to grow, the show must start. The International kicks off on August 15th. The group stages will be held outside of the arena in a private location. The teams will be slotted into two groups and will play a round robin style of best of two matches. The wins will count toward a point system instead of winning a best of three. Two wins is 2 points, a draw is 1 point, and zero wins is 0 points. It makes every game more important as every point will matter as the bottom teams will be eliminated before the bracket stage.

After a two day break, the Bracket stage will commence on August 20th to the 25th. The remaining teams will compete in a double elimination style bracket. Each match will be a best of 3 games. Valve has included a wrench in the losers bracket. The teams that are slotted into the first round of the losers bracket will only play one game. We should see diversity, new heroes, and cheese strategies as teams realize that they can be eliminated within 30 minutes if they are not at 100%. After the first round, the bracket will continue as normal with a best of 3 for every stage following. Grand Finals will kick off on the 25th and will not contain a bracket reset. This means, if the team coming from loser’s bracket wins the best of 3, they will be crowned champions. Listed below are the current placement prize totals as of August 12th.

FIRST PLACE  $10,624,051

SECOND PLACE $3,863,291

THIRD PLACE $2,535,285

FOURTH PLACE $1,690,190

FIFTH PLACE $1,086,551

SIXTH PLACE $1,086,551

SEVENTH PLACE $603,639

EIGHTH PLACE $603,639

NINTH PLACE $362,184

TENTH PLACE $362,184

ELEVENTH PLACE $362,184

TWELFTH PLACE $362,184

13TH PLACE $120,728

14TH PLACE $120,728

15TH PLACE $120,728

16TH PLACE $120,728

17TH PLACE $60,364

18TH PLACE $60,364

Don’t miss what many esports fans call the biggest tournament of the year. Catch all of the Dota 2 action on Twitch!