Puppey spoke about how the first Dota 2 pro players actually lived

Clement “Puppey” Ivanov said that for the first Dota 2 pro players tournaments were a real challenge because the organization was chaotic and everything had to be figured out on your own and you also had to spend your own money.

The legend of the pro scene shared this in a post-match interview to Khezu.

“I truly went to a LAN for the first time when I was 18 when the scene as such almost didn’t exist and at tournaments we were fighting for $100. I wentdot to China walked around there trying to do something without understanding anything. There was nothing about it on the internet someone just mentioned it like, ‘Something will be there, go’. You had to buy tickets with your own money work hard and figure everything out by yourself. It was a real Wild West”

According to him it was hard for the first Dota 2 pro players because they had to travel to LAN tournaments on their own and there was nowhere to read about rules conditions and organization even online this information did not exist.

He also noted that prize pools at tournaments were around $100 back then but in order to win them you still had to buy tickets with your own money and organize food and other needs at your own expense.

According to him everything changed after the first The International when the Dota 2 pro scene finally formed and conditions for players started to become more comfortable.