While game developers make millions of dollars selling video games, it is now the gamers’ turn to rake in the money, via worldwide video tournaments which take place for several big games such as Counter-Strike , Call of Duty and others. But ahead of all these games, with a prize-pool of over $10 million this year, is the fourth annual edition of the International tournament by video game makers Valve for one of their most popular multiplayer games yet, Defense of the Ancients (DotA2).
Ten million dollars is a lot of money to the kid who sits in front of his computer for a marathon gaming session that probably drives his parents insane. We know this because a recently-released documentary, commissioned by Valve, shows exactly that. Free to Play follows different teams of gamers from several countries, exploring their cultural differences to video games. They throw in enough commentary from outside sources – ranging from the disapproving, somewhat resigned parents of gamers to basketball player and DotA enthusiast Jeremy Lin – to hype video game tournaments. The claim that E-sports have a lucrative future is backed by the prize-pool, which The International has been building up since its first edition in 2011, with the total winnings calculated at $1.6 million.
The prize-pool, which is collected by offering users premium add-ons to their game such as weapons and loading screens, has reached exactly $10,417,617. The top prize receives 46 per cent of the share, which amounts to more than $4 million. The high prize-pool means that even teams placed in the 14th place walk away with cash up to $20,000. The teams in Free To Play include Alliance from Sweden, Natus Vincere (Na’Vi) from Ukraine and Scythe Gaming from Singapore and the multi-national team Online Kingdom. The documentary perfectly sums up, with the right amount of emotional poise, what it’s like to be a pro-gamer. Scythe’s leader Benedict “Hyhy” Lim is facing parental pressure to give up playing DotA 2 altogether and even misses his exams to compete at The International. Online Kingdom’s Clinton “Fear” Loomis got kicked out of his home and ended up using an old CRT monitor to feed his gaming addiction. Loomis says In the documentary, Loomis mother, Karen, says, “It is kind of a scary thing when you see your kid putting their whole life into gaming and not college and traditional things. What if nothing comes of it?” Na’Vi’s Danil “Dendi” Ishutin is on the other end of the spectrum. He lost his father to cancer. Dendi says, “I spend more time near the computer because I could not think about the loss.”
Then there are the Chinese teams, who are treated as rockstars in their home country, giving pep talks to actual sports teams and endorse products. Invictus Gaming, TongFu and Team DK are all certainly shown as foils to the major teams from other countries, hoping to ruin the dreams of Loomis, Lim and the likes, but Valve makes sure they show the humility in the Chinese team’s losses, disappointed but graceful in accepting defeat during the tournament. The documentary twists and turns as the games are played out, with disappointment for Lim and Loomis, but the ultimate victory going to Na’Vi. Dendi led his team to victory and goes on to become a new face in the pro-gaming industry.
With The International 2014 (held in Seattle between July 18 and 21) set to receive an impressive boost in the prize-pool, the stories behind the gamers and their reasons for wanting to win will surely become even more interesting. More than anything, the tournament is now setting a benchmark in the world of E-sports. As the tournament’s commentator James Harding sums it up towards the end of Free to Play , “That kid who you thought played too many video games is potentially going to be on a path where he's earning $250,000 a year salary. He’s going to fly across the world. He’s going to be endorsing the biggest entertainment industry in the world. So if you’re a star, you’re potentially one of the biggest stars in the world.”
