The prize pool for The International 2014 — Dota 2's world championship — pushed past $8 million this weekend, claiming more stretch goal perks that were added as the crowdfunded bounty grows.
The prize pool is funded with sales of The Compendium, a digital program for the action at The International, which will be July 18-21 at KeyArena in Seattle. $2.50 of every $10 purchase goes to the pool. With more than a month to go it seems likely to surpass $10 million in all, and already easily dwarfs the $2.8 million awarded to the teams who participated in the 2013 International, also supported by Compendium sales.
Stretch goals added after the pool reached $6 million include alternate voice and dialogue packs and an updated model for heroes, currently under construction and to be sent to all Compendium owners soon. Five additional stretch goals have been added for milestones ranging from $8.4 million to $10 million. Details are available at the link.
The International's regional qualifying rounds recently finished, filling out the roster of teams that will compete in July. Qualifier winners are North American Rejects (winners of the Americas qualifier), Arrow Gaming (Southeast Asia), LGD Gaming (China) and mousesports (Europe).
They will join invited teams Alliance (the 2013 champions), Invictus Gaming (2012 champions), Natus Vincere (2011), Titan eSports, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, NewBee, Vici Gaming, Team DK, Cloud9 and Team Empire.
Finally, the winner of a four-team play-in tournament will complete the field of 16. Vying for that bid are Team Liquid, MVP Phoenix, CIS Game and Virtus.pro, all of whom were runners-up in their regional qualifying tournaments.