Valve put professional Dota 2 players in their place with Compendium 2023, - Gorgc

The Compendium 2023 lacks cosmetic items, with the focus shifting towards esports to teach top Dota 2 teams a lesson.

This idea was put forth by Jean "Gorgc" Stefanovski, a Dota 2 content creator, during a Twitch stream.

According to him, the Dota 2 developers were aware that emphasizing esports would negatively impact Compendium sales and prevent the accumulation of a massive prize pool.

"I've heard about this before, I told you that Valve isn't foolish. I think pro players were annoying them with their demands.

Valve was like, 'You know what? Let's see how much money players will actually give you if we don't pump the game with cosmetics. Let's see how much they care only about pro teams. Will they buy a lackluster Compendium for the sake of pro teams?'

And now they're doing it to prove their point: 'To hell with you, people spend money not just for the pro scene. We're generous enough to give you 25%.'"

It's worth noting that The International 2023's prize pool could be one of the smallest in the tournament's history. So far, Compendium 2023 has disappointed fans, which has significantly impacted sales.