@Darius Düsener: Dota 2 has many sponsorships too FYI.
All the major teams have sponsors.

Starcraft is still a better Esport.

The thing about EVO is: If you're making a good, professional appearence and end up in the higher ranks (top 16) the chances of a sponsor coming up to you are really high. In the end it's an investment for the chance of a sponsorship.

[url=#user_comment_346267]@Geary[/url]: but taking out money is why dota less snowballing. You can take out money from your opponent as they getting it from you. In LoL you have no options to punish aggressive play. Only way to snowball in dota - is when your opponent just s*cks hard.

[url=#user_comment_346267]@Geary[/url]: exacly because you're losing money it makes snowballing harder. Defending much easier than attacking, so you can stop snowballing just punishing enemies for hyperaggression, killing them when defending. In dota only one way to "really" snowball - is when opponent sucks hard.

... and offer it to the top X players of an online tournament (name it as you want it). By the way, seeming that now videogame players are "e-athletes", we warhammer-players are "tactical & strategical councilors"? Sheesh...

Wait. Let's see if I got it right. Valve is selling a bundle to get the cash of the prize or is actually a crowdfunding to do so? Hope the former, because if it's the latter it seems pretty lame por a company who has made so much cash with steam to do such a thing...

Aaand prize pool is over 5 million by now. Volvo's gonna need to add additional milestones.

@What The Hell: Except LoL doesn't *take money away from you* when you die, the turret AI isn't counter-intuitive for why turrets exist in the first place, and it doesn't place giant skill gates based entirely around memorizing when you can off your own minions due to an exploit-made-'feature'.

Fuck money!
I just want to have a good time with any game.

[url=#user_comment_346256]@dealwithit[/url]: Winning an riculously large amount of cash is why dota sucks? Humm, nice logic :D "prediction of future" dealwithit about 1 minute ago [url=#user_comment_346262] @Raxyz[/url] Deal with it

[url=#user_comment_346260]@Geary[/url]: >Fact of the matter is that League has too many anti-snowballing features doesn't feels the same way for me. If in dota one good fight/punish can turn the game in your favor, in LoL bold play much less punishable, so there is more room for snowbolling.

I don't think a prize pot is going to switch anybody over from League, and definitely not from SC2 unless they want to main Meepo. Fact of the matter is that League has too many anti-snowballing features for a long-time-player to really enjoy DOTA2's complete opposite design.

VGHS is not a fantasy any more.

[url=#user_comment_346236]@Jigglyboo[/url]: lol, good luck to anyone that tries to join the Marines just because of Call of Duty. You won't make it past the recruiter, let alone their basic training.

[url=#user_comment_346243]@Milokot[/url]: It will slow, but not by much. http://dota2.cyborgmatt.com/prizetracker/international2014 The pool is already near $5M, and even with decline, should hit $8M by the end of this month. Making it hands down, the largest epool prize pool in history - probably a whopping three times larger.

Want solid multiplayer that warrants your time? UT99's still going strong.

Goddamn MOBAs.

[url=#user_comment_346245]@Boobr[/url]: Really? You must've played like 2 games then, because the depth in Dota 2 is astounding. There are more unique heroes, less emphasis on every hero having similar toolkits, much more open laning positions (3-1-1, 1-1-3, 1-2-1-1, 1-3-1, 1-2-1+roam, etc), a lot more risk/reward, etc, etc

[url=#user_comment_346245]@Boobr[/url]: Depth? You mean no denying, much higher passive resource regen, enforced and stagnant metagame, overall smaller hero pool (As not everyone can access every single hero); Pendragon aka money-sold running it? How the hell LoL isn't effectively a watered-down DotA2?

[url=#user_comment_346245]@Boobr[/url] Probably you began by playing LoL then tried Dota 2 after already used to the former. Most people I see playing one first a lot then finding the other boring is because they already used their patience and invested enough time to know what is what in the game, so switching is a bit of pain.

[url=#user_comment_346245]@Boobr[/url] gr8 b8 m8, I r8 8/8.

[url=#user_comment_346245]@Boobr[/url] Get a team. DOTA2 will be absolutely awful alone after a short while; It was for me, too. Relies on the strategic element to provide variety and a challenge, really, and the higher up you are, the more organized are the matches, so you wouldn't get far without a partner or three anyway.

I can see this copied by many games. I say it's a good thing though. More money, more people join, e-sport will get bigger.

I swear, DOTA 2 has got to be one of the most boring games i played in a while. League has much more depth in my opinion, and i'm sure DOTA 2 is good as well, but i can't get through the boredom barrier. How you guys do it?

If you buy a compendium, 2.50$ goes to price pool and 4.69$ is taken by Volvo. 1.6 milions is starting price pool, so for every milion above that Volvo gets 1 876 000$. And we have almost 5m here. So far, V get 6378400$ ONLY from that sale.
And it will slow down, most people buy it already.

I think the prize poll is so big because of the way they are getting the money. I bet that if you gave rewards to those who donated to the prize poll in the same way as DotA, LoL would probably get a bigger amount.

In LoL, the only way of donating is through some lame icons, that few people buy.

Q: How are e-sports like sports? A: I don't do either.

[url=#user_comment_346236]@Jigglyboo[/url]: Not even remotely the same as joining the marines and losing your legs because of COD, if anything it's similar to pursuing the dream of being a top athlete, a career many find worthwhile. Being a Dota would-be professional in no way prevents you from also following an education.

[url=#user_comment_346236]@Jigglyboo[/url]: So according to you people who dedicate their whole lives to "real" sports are retarded. Because it is exactly the same thing. The income is pretty good: most of it is through sponsors; and the "security" and "chances" depend on exactly the same thing as "real" sportsmen: performance.

do note guys that its still like the 5th day... there's still 2 months left for people to buy.
we're already close to 5 mil, honestly I wouldnt be surprised if we reached the last goal, 6 mil, by this week.

then valve creates more stretch goals, we could probably even go for 10 mil at this rate.

I really feel a little sorry for the individuals that will decide to pursue this "dream". It's as silly as joining the US Marines and losing your legs because of Call of Duty, but it doesn't even come with the benefit of a steady pay and having a cool uniform that attracts chicks like a magnet.

(cont.) employment. While I'm willing to grant that some people might greatly enjoy being "e-athletes" (not me) and that the only educational cost is the precious time you could have spent on a real education, it's a pretty stupid choice in terms of either job security, income or employment chances.

>I can see more -stupid- people trying to pursue this as a career.
You're a much nicer person than I am, Jo, that's for certain. There are three important factors when choosing a job: income, enjoyment and job security. When pursuing a job, there are two more: education costs and chance of...

Considering the time of the comments, it's totally possible Jo missed a chance to use DIGITAL SPORTS.

C'mon man, you have to be more cutting edge. :V

LOL, NOW DEAL WITH IT, dealwithit!!!!!

I'm surprised you used paperboy instead of newscasters, cause seriously only a few people I know actually go out their way to read the paper than read it online.

Fighting game tourney prizes are really small. Most of the people who play at a high level lose money by attending tourneys.

f dota. f lol. I wanna play Savage 3.

[url=#user_comment_346220]@HiddenSanity[/url]: It seems there is only a few people, who play for fun. Others are bitchin about who's dick bigger, for example, Alliance or Na'Vi. Srsly, watching sports or e-sport, football or dota 2 - is a disgust for me. Why watching when you can PLAY IT?

Mmm... I kinda feel like the two dudes in panel 1&2 are really picking their games for the wrong reasons. Jo probably knows that already, but I found myself thinking they were stupid as the best reason to play a game is because it's fun.