14 DAY TRIAL // As long as fans are willing to pay to see someone playing DOTA 2, those who put together the event or the match can get access to a portion of the money spent on it to compensate them for their efforts.
The new Tournament panel included in the most recent version of the game client for DOTA 2 offers users new ways of finding events that are organized and then purchase tickets for them.
Those who buy them are then able to quickly access both live and replay matches from the selected events and a portion of the money will go directly to the people who have organized them.
As part of a developer blog post, Valve states, “We think there are some customers who’d like to invest in a higher fidelity, richer experience that they have more control over, and we hope to be able to provide that with the in-game Tournament view.”
It adds, “We also believe that external companies providing financial support for tournaments is a crucial component to the competitive scene, and we have several ideas for how to provide them with features that will work in both the Tournament view and web-based streams.”
Valve has made it clear that the new payment option included in the DOTA 2 client is not designed to replace web-based paid streams, free access to some of them or third-party organizers like Major League Gaming.
Valve is only trying to give fans of the MOBA concept yet another simple and quick way of accessing content they are interested in.
DOTA 2 is a free-to-play video game and Valve will get money from it by selling items and, probably, characters.
The community that will embrace DOTA 2 will also be able to use the Steam Workshop in order to create their own content and sell it to others, an initiative that has created a 3.5 million dollars (2.76 million Euro) market.