Who Develops Esports in Dota 2

Since Dota 2 was announced in 2011, the game quickly gained popularity among fans of MOBA games. Being close to the status of monopolist, Dota 2 offered fans of competitive gaming deep and multi-level mechanics: thanks to them Dota 2 competitive matches are filled with action and their results often become unpredictable.

Since the start of the development of the esports stage, Dota 2 matches have been developing as well, having moved from chamber arenas and local gaming clubs to the world-famous platforms and stadiums. The switch of the championships to the new level was done by tournament organizers who we will tell about in our article.

Valve

The main organizer of Dota 2 championships is Valve. They gave a start impulse to Dota 2 tournaments and set the quality bar for future events.

Valve’s main merit is the first International. The biggest tournament in the history of esports took place in 2011.

The International 1 became a test of Valve’s pen: the company used to focus on game development and maintenance of Steam, and only after Dota was released, they dived into organizational questions.

The first event of The International series took place in techno pavilions of the Gamescom exhibition in Cologne. Due to the specifics of the venue, it did not receive huge publicity and did not draw the attention of the audience. The prize pool of the tournament became a precedent as it was 1,600,000 dollars.

As esports was developing, The International was being modernized. The tournament found its home, Seattle where the main headquarters of Valve is based. Now the event also has unique traits: growing prize pool collected through fundraising, alternating champions from the west and the east, and so on.

In 2018, Valve went away from Seattle for the first time. The main tournament of the year visited Vancouver, and later it was held in Shanghai, Bucharest and Stockholm.

In fact, The International is the only championship that is fully organized by Valve. This is how it was till 2016 when Valve gave Dota to third party companies, keeping the role of the sponsor of Dota 2 events.

ESL

ESL is considered to be a leading tournament operator and broadcaster of the competitive Dota 2. The company was founded in 2000 and now is an example of reference TO and creates exemplary Dota 2 tournaments.

The real rise of ESL in Dota started in 2015. Then Valve announced the move of the competitive stage to DPC: the competitive stage was divided into regions and the year was split into several equal parts.

Then they added a major tournament between the parts of the competitive year. ESL was in charge of the first tournament of this kind – Frankfurt Major 2015.

The tournament in Frankfurt became a home event for ESL, and Valve seemed to like working with the famous studio. After 2015, ESL is listed as the main partner of Valve.

The company holds their own series of Dota 2 tournaments named ESL One. The main feature of ESL One events is not only high quality of production but also distribution of Mercedeses to the most valuable players, for example.

Besides, ESL is developing Tier-2 stage as well. Mainly, the team holds events on the local stage.

PGL

Another major player in the market of tournament operators is PGL. The Romanian company appeared in the vast esports in Dota in 2014 but it gained popularity later – in 2016.

PGL became organizers of Manila Major and Kiev Major in 2016 and 2017 respectively. The championship had a few technical issues however Valve was pleased and PGL became a constant partner of the developers of the MOBA game and tournament operator.

PGL managed to acquire the leading position on the market of tournament operators: the Romanian company held championships of The International series. The company organized The International in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022. Besides, PGL is in charge of holding regional DPC leagues in Western Europe and North America.

Perfect World

Perfect World from China also contributes to the sphere of organization and holding Dota 2 tournaments. The company develops Dota 2 in the Chinese region which is quite beneficial: strict censorship policies and closed esports ecosystem facilitate monopolization of the market.

Perfect World has been collaborating with Valve since 2014. Then the first tournament that they held was MarsTV Dota 2 League 2014, and later PW moved to holding only championships in the region as well as international Dota 2 tournaments of different kinds.

Perfect World’s portfolio includes The Shanghai Major 2016, Perfect World Masters, Dota 2 Asia Championship 2018 and Dota2 Supermajor. Besides, Perfect World works on tournaments of the Dota 2 Professional League, the Perfect World Dota 2 League series and the DPC league – the company has been holding all tournaments of the main competitive line in Dota since 2021.

Beyond The Summit

One of the main links in the chain of the most important competitive Dota 2 stage is Beyond The Summit. The team started as a collaboration of enthusiasts and turned into a fully-fledged ТО.

The company holds tournaments of the BTS Pron series and also has been in charge of holding DPC events for several years. BTS was responsible for the organization of competitions in North America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Asia in 2021-2022.

As we can see, there are a few major players on the market of tournament operators in Dota. Valve’s policy allows third party companies to enter the industry and try to create a unique product, however, it is quite a challenge in reality with the only central ecosystem.