Yesterday, The International 2014, Valve’s premiere and annually
held Dota 2 tournament, broke a $6M prize pool milestone. Funding this respectable
sum of money are fans. Valve offers fans the opportunity to purchase “The
Compendium”, a digital booklet that enhances the viewing experience of The
International, for $9.99, while allocating 25 percent of the proceeds to plump
up the prize pot. Fans can level up their Compendium by “watching games,
collecting player cards, making tournament predictions and more”, doing so well
grant players in-game rewards. The more money funded, the more milestones are
reached and each milestone grants purchasers of the compendium with some nifty,
non-game breaking rewards. Today, Valve introduced nine new milestones, with
the 22nd/final milestone granting purchasers with a “Victory
Prediction Taunt”, whatever that means, when the prize pool hits an audacious
$10 million mark.
Now… crowdfunding is by no means a revolutionary concept,
but Valve’s approach is an exemplary model and should be utilized by smaller,
more nascent eSport studios to foster their respective scenes. Most eSport
aspiring titles are free-to-play games and although microtransactions maintain
the life force of an eSport studio, a robust competitive scene is necessary in
maintaining players’ interest. And the only way to do that is to properly pay
competitors.
With behemoths like Dota 2 and League of Legends, breaking
into the eSports scene in a prominent way seems like an impossible task. Fans
are resources, use them.
SOURCE: Valve
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