Stagnation of the pro scene, dependence on bookmakers and player salaries: Ghostik talks about the realities of professional Dota 2

After HEROIC left Dota 2, streamer and former professional player Andrii Ghostik Kadyk released a video in which he stated that the main problem for organizations is the lack of a stable financial model, which means that even successful rosters are not always profitable.

According to him, the modern professional scene is almost entirely dependent on betting sponsors:

Any esports organization receives huge profits from betting advertisements. Almost all teams and tournaments rely on bookmakers, including Counter-Strike and practically every other game.

At the same time, the streamer separately highlighted HEROIC’s position, as he believes the organization deliberately refused such sponsorships:

I think this is a principled position that deserves respect in my eyes. If a team does not advertise a bookmaker, it loses a massive amount of money. For organizations, this is a necessity if they want to survive in Dota 2.

In addition, Ghostik criticized the current salary levels of professional players. According to him, organizations continue to pay players excessively high amounts even after the reduction of The International prize pools:

Players in top teams receive salaries of around $10,000 or even more. In the past, there was The International with massive prize pools, but now there are many tournaments and no such huge profits anymore.

If these are media personalities who run social media accounts and attract people to follow their team, that is one thing. But when they are simply players who just play the game, then logically salaries should be reduced.

Andrii Kadyk also touched on Valve contribution to the development of the discipline. He believes that after the removal of the Battle Pass, The International lost part of its uniqueness:

Now The International is just a world championship. I would like people to once again talk about it as a tournament with a massive prize pool, where everyone lives with the dream of making it there.

The first championship was a phenomenon in esports, everyone knew who won it. Dota is still supported by veteran players who started playing many years ago and continue passing their experience on to new players.

In conclusion, Ghostik added that one of Dota 2’s main advantages remains its open ecosystem, where any stack can qualify for a major tournament without needing to buy a slot or have organizational support. As an example, he mentioned Overwatch by Blizzard Entertainment, where organizations had to pay $20,000,000 to enter the Tier-1 league.

Later, on his Telegram channel, Kadyk commented on remarks made by former Heroic player David Parker Nicho Flores, who stated that the team’s players earned an average of $10,000. According to Ghostik, only an organization sponsored by a bookmaker can afford such spending. The streamer predicts a decrease in salaries and prize money next season, as well as an increase in payments to clubs.

This information was also confirmed by Avery SVG Silverman and Austin Cap Walsh during their podcast. They added that bookmakers primarily sponsor tournaments for betting purposes, which in their opinion has become one of the reasons behind the decline in LAN tournament quality, including player conditions and the amount of media content.

They believe that the Dota 2 professional scene is not dying, but the current model with an increasing number of online tournaments and a large amount of matches looks unstable. If one of the major tournament operators such as ESL, PGL, or BLAST were to leave the scene, Dota 2 esports could suffer a major decline.

Earlier, Cyberscore reported on the reasons why the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is slowing down the activities of its esports commission.