For the past 10 years, Valve Corporation has maintained undisputed leadership among game publishers in global eSports. The company’s policies are often criticized by Vulkan Bet Dota 2 players, fans, clubs, and analysts.
But other developers’ projects still can’t come close to Valve’s disciplines in terms of popularity, the scale of tournaments, and hours of viewing time.
How the First Tournaments Were Organized
The developer’s first game was Half-Life, released in 1998. Counter-Strike originated in 1999 as a custom mod. The mod was created by Min Lee aka Goosman and Jess Cliffe. They joined Valve in continuing their work on the project.
The first versions of Counter-Strike held competitions, but Valve Corporation did not pay much attention to the cyber-sports component. However, the discipline is still considered legendary, with world-renowned clubs such as
- Natus Vincere;
- SK Gaming;
- Fnatic.
Since 2005, game designer Abdul Ismail, a.k.a. IceFrog has been developing the custom DotA map for Warcraft III. In 2009, he joined the Valve staff. DotA was also once a competition but also didn’t receive much support from Valve.
The situation changed dramatically in 2011 when the corporation announced the first championship of The International with a record prize pool of $1.6 million which attracted players and spectators alike. Dota 2, the game on which it was held, was still in beta testing at the time.
Dota 2 cybersport scene
Though the Dota 2 game was officially released only after The International 2013, by that time the corporation took the main step to put the game on the cyber-sports pedestal.
While the funds of The International in 2011 and 2012 amounted to $1.6 million, they were increased to $2.8 million in 2013 due to the sale of an interactive compendium.
CS:GO cybersport scene
In order to heighten interest in the competition, Valve added souvenir chests to CS:GO, which were given to spectators as tournaments were played. The strategy proved to be very successful and was adopted by other eSports game developers.
Another successful move was the autograph sales of professional CS:GO players. Especially for Major tournaments they have started to produce capsules with autographs of the participants, which can be applied to weapons in the user’s inventory.
A percentage of sales goes to eSports clubs. The system is considered to be more sophisticated.
The last major update to the tournament system took place in 2020. Valve announced the creation of RMR (Regional Major Rankings) tournaments to replace the Minor.
One RMR event is a series of six tournaments for each region individually. The best teams have to gain more points in order to qualify for the Major.
The new system was supposed to be launched at ESL One: Rio, but it was canceled. Therefore, it will be tried for the first time at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021.