The prize pool of The International 2020 (TI10) has exceeded US$10 million just two days after the release of the TI10 Battle Pass.
TI10’s prize pool reached its first major milestone at around two days and 19 hours after its accompanying Battle Pass was released, according to data from the Dota 2 prize pool tracker. A quarter of the sales from the TI10 Battle Pass contributed US$8.4 million to the prize pool at that point.
For comparison, it took three days and 15 hours for the prize pool of TI9 to breach the US$10 million mark. Meanwhile, it took all other previous TIs at least 12 days to grow their respective pots to over US$10 million.
As of the time of writing, TI10’s prize pool sits at over US$10.2 million, over US$600,000 ahead of what TI9’s pot was at this point in its crowdfunding period.
The record-shattering growth of TI10’s prize pool can be attributed to the fact that the TI10 Battle Pass is the biggest one yet. This year’s Battle Pass notably gives owners the chance to acquire three Arcanas and two Hero Personas right off the bat, alongside the customary Immortal Treasure sets and other Battle Pass features.
- TI10 Battle Pass: Every item in the Immortal Treasure I
- TI10 Battle Pass: Every new Arcana and Hero Persona, and how to get them
Even if the crowdfunding for TI10’s prize pool is in full swing, the tournament itself won’t be happening this year after Valve announced earlier this month that TI10 has been delayed indefinitely due to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
“After extensive consideration of the global health emergency stemming from COVID-19, we have made the difficult choice to delay The International. We have been exploring various date possibilities, but it is likely that the event will need to happen in 2021,” Valve said in a statement.
TI10 was originally scheduled to be held from August 18-23 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Even if we’ll have to wait until next year for TI10 itself, the tournament seems to be already set to break the record for the biggest prize pool for a single esports tournament that its previous iterations have set before.
Last year’s event, TI9, notably had a total prize pool of US$34,330,068, with the grand prize of over US$15.6 million going to the first-ever two-time TI champions, OG.
READ MORE: This is the story of the smallest big play in Dota history
