Dota 2 tournament prize pool raised to $2.6 million

Originally, the upcoming Dota 2 tournament, the International 3, was going to have a prize pool of $1.6 million. However, with the introduction of the Compendium, Valve has managed to beef up the prize pool quite a bit with the help of gamers all over the world. According to Destructoid, the prize pool for the International 3 tournament has now been raised to $2.6 million.

The Compendium was released in the Dota 2 in-game store in order to further promote the International 3. Valve is crowd-funding the prize pool for the tournament by adding $2.50 for every Compendium that is bought. The Compendium also has some stretch goals for hitting certain numbers for the prize pool. Out of the seven stretch goals, six have been accomplished. The last goal sits at $3.2 million, which would essentially double the original prize pool.

Again... playable bears = awesome game

Just recently, a number of new features were added to the Compendium in an update. The update added the ability to have a fantasy league revolving around Dota 2 teams, players and the ongoing International 3 tournament. Using the Compendium, players can assemble a team of players that are taking part in the International tournaments for their fantasy league. After each tournament, players earn points depending on the performance of their fantasy team's real-life counterparts.

The new feature also rewards players with trading cards which can be collected and traded. Along with this, there is also a prediction system that allows players to make predictions on upcoming matches in tournaments.

Dota 2 is a free-to-play game available on Windows, Mac and Linux, and is available on Steam.