TORONTOTOKYO revealed the real reason behind the reduction in The International prize pool

Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Hertek stated that Valve deliberately does not want to make The International prize pool too high, although the developers could have raised it by releasing a high-quality Battle Pass in a timely manner.

The player shared his opinion on Twitch.

"It seems that they waited until the end of The International and released a treasure chest, which in theory would have brought in a lot of money for the prize pool.

In fact, I realized that this is their policy — they don't want to make the prize pool more than $3 million. They don't even want to make a Battle Pass — they just don't want a big prize pool, that's all."

According to Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Hertek, if Valve had released the treasure chest earlier, it could have added at least another million dollars to the prize pool due to the number of purchases.

“If they had released this treasure chest and it had affected the prize pool, I think there would have been another million. A lot of people bought it, even me.”

The prize pool for The International 2025 exceeded $2.8 million, which is slightly more than last year's tournament, but much less than in 2021, when the tournament participants played for more than $40 million.

Earlier, Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Hertek spoke about Miroslav “Mira” Kolpakov's plans to change his position in Dota 2.