Valve continues to make some baffling decisions in regard to The International 2023 and the content surrounding it, this time announcing the full talent list for the event by using the Dota 2 Compendium and no official graphics. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the talent bundle pricing and how it fits into the TI12 content plan.
Instead of dropping a graphic and fully announcing the talent lineup for TI12 on socials, Valve posted a breakdown of prices on Oct. 9 for the Talent sticker bundles and said the “Talent” tab of the Compendium in the Dota client is where players needed to look for additional details.
It took Dota community man Wykrhm almost an hour to share additional details about the broadcast lineup, which was long enough for the community to meme the fact GoDz didn’t have a photo or any other content loading for about that long.
While the fact Valve announced all this information in the game itself is mostly a joke of a complaint, the community is happily pointing out that these Talent bundles are offering more than basically the entire TI12 Compendium in terms of usable content.
As part of this revamped Talent offering, 50 percent of all purchases go to the talent and any voice lines you purchase are permanent, meaning you can use them whenever you want and not worry about them expiring post-TI12. Most players don’t seem to care about the stickers, much like last year, and will just go for the voice lines, which you can purchase separately from the bundles.
Not only can you purchase the voice lines on their own, but none of this technically counts towards the TI12 Compendium’s total, which means 50 percent of those purchases go to Talent and the other 50 percent is likely heading straight to Valve. If that is actually the case, then the memes about talent potentially making out of TI better than players this year might not be far off with the current state of the event’s prize pool.
As of 2am CT on Oct. 10, TI12’s total prize pool is still flatlining and has yet to cross the $3 million threshold—sitting as the lowest prize pool since TI5 by almost $5 million. Since there was barely any hype around the Compendium at the start with its lack of cosmetics or meaningful unlocks, the voice lines only being an adjacent addition doesn’t do much to change that outlook.
At least something fun was added for disappointed players to grab before TI12 begins on Oct. 12. Just be ready to hear people spamming Slacks and Ephey’s voice lines for all of eternity since they are here to stay this time around.
