With The International almost upon us, Valve returned to its roots and released a Compendium instead of its usual battle pass. The lack of content in a relatively underwhelming Compendium has prompted responses from several pro players and Dota 2 personalities, including Janne “Gorgc” Stefanovski. Gorgc believes this move was made to prove a point to the Dota 2 pro players.
According to Gorgc on Oct. 4, the bare-bones nature of this year’s Compendium exists because of Valve’s focus away from premium cosmetics, like its Immortal Treasures, Arcanas, and Personas. This has led to a more pro-player-centric Compendium instead of a cosmetic-incentivized battle pass and players haven’t taken that well to the new changes.
Gorgc also adds that the reasoning behind Valve shifting its focus to a Compendium based on professional teams is to prove a point to the community. He followed it up by saying that since the demands from pro players got increasingly higher over time, Valve decided to give them what they wanted and turn the battle pass back into a Compendium focused on pro players.
These changes led to a Compendium will no real content. Following its release, Gorgc mentioned how this year’s prize pool will not cross even $5 million. Compared to TI10’s historic $40 million prize pool and the drastic drop to TI11’s $18 million, this year’s prize pool will seemingly hit a low point the likes of which Valve hasn’t seen in years.
The lack of content inevitably led to a lot of disappointment in the community as well. The rewards for leveling up the Compendium this year are all related to professional teams with no focus on skins or cosmetics at all. In some ways, these changes took away a lot of incentive for casual players to pick up this year’s Compendium, leading to a drastically lower prize pool.
Valve’s statement on Sept. 28 about the 2023 Compendium reads differently from Gorgc’s, however. Valve mentioned that the annual battle pass system consumed a year’s worth of content each time it was released. Its intention was to shift away from that system in favor of a more player-centric system by spreading out its changes throughout the year instead.
For players still waiting for their cosmetics, Valve has also claimed it will release its Arcanas and player creations after the conclusion of TI12, so stay tuned for more updates.
