During its beta phase in the early 2010s , several other esport events would begin hosting '' Dota 2 '' events , including the Electronic Sports World Cup , DreamHack , World Cyber Games , and ESL . By the end of 2011 , '' Dota 2 '' was already one of the highest-paying esport games , second only to '' StarCraft II '' . At E3 2013 , South Korean company Nexon announced the investment of 2 billion ( approximately 1.7 million ) into local leagues in the country , which coincided with their distribution partnership with Valve for the game . In February 2015 , Valve sponsored '' Dota 2 '' Asia Championships was held in Shanghai with a prize pool of over $ 3 million , raised through compendium sales . Since then , other '' Dota 2 '' Asia Championships have taken place , with it being sometimes being referred to as the " Chinese International " . In total , professional '' Dota 2 '' tournaments had earned teams and players over $ 100 million by June 2017 , with over half of that being awarded at the International tournaments , making it the highest earning esport game by a margin of nearly $ 60 million
E3 2013
E3 2013
Dota 2