The grand final of 2018’s Dota 2 International took place in Vancouver yesterday, boasting a prize pool of just over $US25.5 million ($34.8 million AUD). While there’s a fair chance you’ve never even heard of the game, it’s by far the biggest esports tournament in the world, and an Aussie just took out the grand prize.
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Well, he was an integral part of the winning team, OG, who were total underdogs going into the International. As reported by Kotaku, team member Anathan ‘ana‘ Pham was one of just two Aussies competing in the entire tournament. OG took home a total of $US11,234,116, which, assuming they split the prize evenly, works out to about $2.2 million ($3 million AUD) each. Not bloody bad, huh?
Ana had played in OG previously but took a break from esports after the 2017 Dota 2 International where the team placed 7-8th. His return to competitive gaming earlier this year was a quiet one, but clearly, his efforts have paid off.
OG is based in Europe and while its main team plays Dota 2, they also have a presence in the Super Smash Bros. series. Apart from ana, the current Dota 2 team consists of Topias ‘Topson‘ Taavitsainen from Finland, Sébastien ‘Cebs‘ Debs from France, Jesse ‘JerAx‘ Vainikka from Finland, and Johan ‘N0tail‘ Sundstein from Denmark, who captains the group.
Congrats to OG for winning the finals against opponents, PSG.LGD, with a final score of 3 to 2. Nice one.
