The International Dota 2 tournament kicks off today, $18m prize pool

The time has come, as Valve's annual Dota 2 championship tournament, ‘The International' is set to kick off at 6PM today here in the UK. There are 16 professional teams all geared up and ready to go for a chance to make it to the finals, which take place on Saturday. As the event has finally kicked off, we also know what the final prize pool is.

Sales of ‘The Compendium' have really helped out this year as The International's prize pool has managed to break over the $18 million barrier. As a result,the earlier prize pool breakdown that we posted is now out of date. The first place team is set to receive $6,481,986 in total. You can see the full breakdown below but it looks like every team is getting a bit of extra cash for competing:

This year's Dota 2 tournament has way more money poured in to it compared to previous years. Back in 2011, the prize pool broke the $1 million mark for the first time. 2014's tournament managed to raise over $10 million and this year things have managed to skyrocket even further.

The games kick off tonight so if you're a fan of Dota 2, or want to see what all of the fuss is about, then you will be able to watch the streams in the Dota 2 client, from the Dota 2 website and as always, Twitch.

Or you could just watch the embedded player below:

Watch live video from dota2ti on www.twitch.tv

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: I followed last year's international tournament a little bit although I only watched a couple of the games, including the final. Are any of you planning to tune in for any of the matches this year? Better yet, do any of you have a team you're rooting for? 

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