Polymarket Dota 2

🇨🇳 WE ARE GOING TO CHINA! Direct invite to The International secured. Now it’s time to show who really is the best 💪

We fell short at the very last step of the tournament. Taking second place at DreamLeague S29, it was an unreal run and we’re ready to show you more. See you at BLAST 🫡

Dota 2 completely changed my life. I never made it pro, but getting involved in this scene gave me a career, let me travel the world, and introduced me to an incredible community of people, some of whom I am proud to call my friends. That is exactly why it hurts so much to say this out loud: The Dota 2 esports scene is dying rapidly, and we’ve been ignoring the red flags since, imo, 2020. When the world stopped spinning during COVID-19, and when geopolitical crises later destabilized crucial tournament organizers in CIS region, the landscape of Dota changed. We lost some TOs who helped shape this scene. Yet, instead of a reality check, the industry doubled down on unsustainable spending. Why? Because we were blinded by two massive financial anomalies: The International 2021 peaked at an unprecedented, historic $40M prize pool. The Riyadh Masters got onto the scene in 2022 with $4M, $15M a year later. Because the very top of the pyramid was flushed with an absurd amount of money, everyone ignored the rotting foundations. Teams started to demand revenue shares from tournament organizers, and player salaries climbed to absurd heights. But the bubble has officially burst. Today, TI prize money has drastically fallen from its peak. The Riyadh Masters prize pool plummeted from $15M to $2M, even lower than its inaugural year. The money has dried up, but the cost structures haven't adapted. Player salaries remain heavily inflated, and the math simply no longer works for esports organizations. Without a betting company, you can't justify having a Dota 2 team. Orgs aren’t saying goodbye to Dota 2 because they fell out of love with the game. They are leaving because from a business standpoint, it makes zero financial sense. Why would an organization pay a premium for a single Dota 2 player when they could secure an entire, world-class roster in a mobile title like MLBB for a fraction of the cost and see actual ROI or at least minimal loss? We are entering a harsh era of forced correction. We chose to ignore the warning signs when times were good, and we are about to severely miss the golden era we took for granted. I know I already do.

Someone should make a video game that is actively harmful, not like its propaganda for dangerous opinions but just simply playing it somehow measurably deteriorates your physical/mental/emotional health like just booting it up and playing for an hour guarantees you ruin your day

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