The previous e-sports tournament only had a prize close to the $3 million mark.
As the game’s popularity has increased so did the estimated attendance. In order to accommodate the International 4 e-sports tournament will take place in a bigger arena. The chosen place: Seattle’s KeyArena offers 17,000-seats. At a cost starting at $99 all the tickets sold-out just an hour after becoming available.
Chief funder and organizer Valve provided a fair amount of the prize money but the bulk of it comes from the in-game compendium purchases. The whole thing was done in crowd-funding style. Valve is offering bonuses, challenges, goals and extra items for Compendium owners. With time still to spare until the tournament begins the fan-funded video game tournament could end up having an even bigger prize.
