MoonMeander highlights difficulties facing mid and low-tier Dota pros

Syed Mujtaba Naqvi Published 15/07/2019

Canadian professional Dota 2 player David “MoonMeander” Tan has stated that he hasn’t earned a dime during two years of playing in Valve’s Dota Pro Circuit tournament structure.

MoonMeander tweeted that his former team Tigers hasn’t paid him for a minor win with the squad or for playing at the Kuala Lumpur Major. He hasn’t received payments from GESC tournament organizers for the last season of play either. 

“Tough times to be a Dota 2 professional if you aren’t on top,” Moon said.

It’s not the first time a pro player has complained about the financial situation for players that compete in mid and lower-tier teams in professional Dota 2.

A veteran player Ramus “Chessie” Blomdin has just recently highlighted this issue after spending a number of years playing in North America. Chessie recently returned to his native Europe after leaving former team Complexity, but has since stated that he’s thinking of moving regions again or retiring from competitive Dota 2 altogether if the situation doesn’t change for teams outside of the very top tier of squads.

Peter “ppd” Dager, the captain of Ninjas in Pyjamas, has also shared his opinion that Dota 2 lacks sufficient opportunities for progress for those players who aren’t already on a top-tier team.

Top-tier teams offer players more money and more exposure, which in turn leads to greater stability. As such, these players always ensure themselves the best rosters. This is not something lower-tier teams can currently compete with. The system of open and closed regional qualifiers in the Dota Pro Circuit additionally complicates the issue, since lower-tier teams need to fight against top-tier squads just to earn a spot in a major or minor.

This leaves lower-tier teams with very small earnings potential and without consistent access to international competition. And while Dota 2 positions itself as the highest-grossing esport in all of professional gaming, the reality is that most of the money is focused on one tournament only: The International. And it’s a relatively small number of players who have any real opportunity to compete for the prizes on offer there.

Read Also

Dota 2

ESIC hand down ruling in EWC Dota match-fixing case: Lifetime ban for coach as DarkMago gets a nickel Michael Hassall South American Dota 2 player Gonzalo "DarkMago" Herrera will be banned for five years from competitive Dota 2, with his coach Juan "Vintage" Angulo banned permanently, following the results of an The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) investigation. ESIC handed down the findings and rulings from its investigation into match-fixing allegations leveled at members of South American Dota 2 team PlayTime during the Esports World Cup on Sep. 10, in a ...

News

Polystrike Turns a Dota 2 Mod Into a Standalone Tactical Shooter Hannan Mundia After the community-made mod found success within the community, developer and publisher Robin Entertainment has decided to turn Polystrike into a proper standalone game. Community-made mods of games finding success within the respective game’s community is nothing new. However, only a handful of those mods are able to go on and become a standalone game. One of the more recent examples is The Forgotten City, which started as a mod ...

Dota 2

Team Spirit wins TI15 to lift a record third Aegis of Champions Michael Hassall Team Spirit has defeated TEAM VISION in the grand finals of TI15, The International 2025. In a full five-game series on Aug. 23, Spirit pulled out all the stops and narrowly defeated an incredible VISION team in a back-and-forth series in Shanghai, China. With Spirit’s victory, Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk and Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov become the first ever three-time TI champions, and Team Spirit becomes the first ever organization to lift ...

Dota 2

The International 2026 (TI15) Finals Preview and Predictions Michael Hassall The International 2026, TI15, has reached its final day, and just three teams remain in the fight for the Aegis of Champions. With the lower bracket final and Grand Final still to come, everything comes down to one final day of Dota 2 action. The lower bracket finalists will first battle for the right to reach the main event’s final series, while the winner will advance to face the upper-bracket ...

Dota 2

TI15’s opening ceremony weaves a tapestry of emotion for Valve’s storied title Michael Hassall The main stage of The International 2026, TI15, kicked off today with the traditional opening ceremony heralding the start of the biggest celebration of Dota 2 on the calendar. On Aug. 20 fans in Shanghai, China, and at home, were treated to a rousing 11-minute series of performances and video packages, introducing TI15’s main stage show. Here’s how the magic unfolded: The ceremony began with a graphic which quite literally ...

Dota 2

The International 2026 (TI15) Playoffs preview and predictions Michael Hassall The Group Stage of The International 2026, TI15, is in the books and we’ve whittled down 16 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams to just eight finalists. One of these talented lineups will be the ones lifting the Aegis of Champions come Sunday, Aug. 23, but until then, there’s plenty of playoff shenanigans that could go on. Below we’ve put together a preview of the upcoming Playoff Games, along ...

News

The Esports Nations Cup Has Been Postponed to November 2027 Ben Boland The 2026 Esports Nations Cup has been suspended until 2027. The Esports Foundation announced the delay on August 18, citing ongoing regional uncertainty. The inaugural competition was scheduled to take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, comprising over 100 national teams and featuring 16 different games, including League of Legends. According to the Esports Foundation, this decision follows ongoing developments in the region and consultation with key stakeholders. Moving the event ...