Team Spirit manager explains why Valve is late with the release of Compendium 2025

Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov believes that it is too late for Valve to release Compendium 2025 in order to replenish the prize pool for The International 2025. The Team Spirit manager believes that the delay may be related to a change in the game's monetization strategy by the developers.

Korb3n shared his opinion on Twitch.

"It's too late to release something to increase the prize pool — there's no point in that anymore. Yes, they will most likely release the Compendium after all. Perhaps together with team bundles. Or without them. But they will definitely release something — as they did before. Plus, team bundles will most likely be released as well. Perhaps they just want to reformat the system: to make it so that teams receive money directly from these bundles."

Although Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov believes that the Compendium will still be released this year, he sees the delay of the event as a sign that Valve is becoming indifferent to the fate of Dota 2, or that the developers want to rework the game's monetization strategy, but their approach is turning The International into a mediocre tournament. The Team Spirit manager sees the main problem not in the reduction of the prize pool, but in the cancellation of everything that made the series of tournaments special.

"I just expressed my opinion. I think they will release the Compendium anyway, just like last year. It just usually came out a month before the tournament, and now there is less than a month left. Overall, it's clear that Valve doesn't care about any of this. That's one option. The second is that they want to fundamentally change the monetization system itself. That's how I would describe it.

Why? Because before, people really looked forward to the International as the main event of the year. And the problem isn't just the prize pool. The main problem isn't even the amount. Yes, the prize pool should be higher than any other tournament. But that's not the point. We've simply been deprived of everything that made The International special."

Earlier, Matvey “MieRo`” Vasyunin shared his expectations for the upcoming The International 2025, revealing details of BetBoom Team's preparations.