We're not likely to see the Dota 2 Battle Pass this July, as Valve pushes the release of the TI 2022 Battle Pass to a later date.
The latest Dota 2 7.31d Patch brought the seasonal Dota Plus refresh with new cosmetics, new ways to earn Shards, and treasures! But what most Dota 2 fans are waiting for the most is the Dota 2 Battle Pass. Sadly, there's some bad news and some good news for fans in regards to that. According to the Dota 2 blog,
“To capture this excitement from current and returning players, we're structuring the Battle Pass a little differently this year: we want to make the time right after The International concludes the best time to play Dota. To do this, we're going to adjust the timing of the Battle Pass release to be later in the year than in previous years — that way the Battle Pass will run both throughout the event, and for a significant amount of time afterwards.”
That means this year's Battle Pass will not arrive this July, as per expectations, but will be released much closer to the TI dates. Valve is also planning to continue the Battle Pass past TI, for a “significant amount of time afterwards.”
It doesn't appear like the Dota 2 Battle Pass duration will be shortened, though, so at least we have that to hang on to. However, one big concern is how this change will affect the TI prize pool. As fans would already know by now, the TI prize pool starts at $2 million, with a fraction of Battle Pass earnings added to the TI prize pool. This system has brought the prize pool to astronomical heights and still is a record-setting number to this day. However, since the portion of the Battle Pass duration before TI will be considerably shorter now, would that mean that this year's TI prize pool will contain a much smaller pot? We've yet to hear from Valve on what the prize structure for TI 2022 will be like, but we hope that Valve isn't doing this to take home some pocket change from the Battle Pass earnings.
One thing we wish Valve would do however is spread out the entire yearly pot more evenly across the entire year. Instead of focusing all of the Battle Pass contributions on TI, why not set a ceiling on the TI prize pool, and any excess would be added to the next year's Major prize pools? Or if Valve will not retroactively apply the earnings from the Battle Pass earned post-TI on the TI prize pool, then at least have those carry over to the prize pool of the Majors next season?
In the end, regardless of what Valve does, TI will have an enormous prize pot, and we're sure that regardless of any changes to the prize structure, TI will still make Dota 2 players multi-millionaires overnight. We're largely more concerned about how the prize pool will be affected by the new Battle Pass release date timing – and in the bigger picture – how this money is distributed across the entire DPC season. Hopefully, Valve would be more willing in spreading out the prize pool instead of chasing new prize pot records – and add more support to smaller tournaments, organizers, and grassroots using an even larger portion of these earnings. They probably already do – but the Dota 2 grassroots scene needs more help.
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