Authored anonymously

Valve’s decision to abruptly cancel the Winter Tour Major, first of the DPC 2021-22 season, left everyone with a bitter taste. Blindsided, everyone was left in a conundrum, especially the teams that have been working religiously to inch a step closer towards every Dota player’s dream – The International. A sudden update, out of nowhere, detailing the fact about the Major being cancelled and the DPC points being redistributed towards Major #2 and Major #3, without any logic or reason was what irked the community the most. Are we missing anything? Not really. Oh shoot.. the money. Although Valve were gracious enough to enlighten us about the point redistribution system, they went completely incommunicado about the Major prize money. It definitely must be a mistake, no? Valve might have just forgotten to mention anything regarding the $500,000 prize purse of the Major. LOL! They in fact completely forgot to relay any information pertaining to the prize money. Terming The International as a passion project that doesn’t generate much revenue for the small indie company, Valve politely asked teams to reach out to them in case of any problems rather than venting out on public platforms and thus creating a harmonious relationship. It appears that whenever teams/orgs sought to convey their displeasure through social media, it made Valve less motivated to keep running TI. Of course, even though it isn’t much revenue, every year’s battle pass contributes 75% of the purchase towards Valve’s kitty. In hindsight, we are thankful to Valve for developing Dota 2 and taking it out from the bottomless pit of Blizzard’s clutches. But does that warrant Valve taking us for granted? Nope, they don’t. Dota has withstood the test of time, at a time when other titles were flourishing. The neglected OG didn’t lose hope and stayed strong, the reason being – the passionate community. The love, affection and the fire is what has made Dota into the beast it is today. Today, the situation is similar where Dota 2 finds itself lagging behind amid other flourishing titles such as League of Legends, Valorant, etc., that have a better foundation in the esports hemisphere – a place where the companies behind the titles actually care. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise since Valve has seldom been keen on the esports side of things, and just whisk away the responsibility to third parties when it comes to organising events. They don’t care, and we shouldn’t entirely depend on them. After all, they focus more on hats, in-game cosmetics, and going dark. We have survived before, we are surviving now, and will do so in the future. Valve, you’ve something beautiful at stake here, and given the efforts, it’ll yield unyielding results. Love us and don’t treat us like a neglected child. You feel like we owe you, and to a certain extent we do but it won’t matter since it is only a matter of time where we will start despising you. So Valve .. why you do tis?