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SEATTLE — When the most lucrative video game tournament ever was over on Monday, explosions of confetti blasted from the stage at Key Arena here, as 12,000 spectators cheered from the stadium’s stands. The winners, from a team called Newbee, hoisted a shield-shaped trophy over their heads. They were each $1 million richer.

Newbee’s members, five young men from China, were the winners of The International, an annual tournament for the online arena battle game Dota 2. This was the fourth year for the tournament, which is produced by the game’s publisher, Valve.

In E-Sports, Video Gamers Draw Real Crowds and Big Money Professional video gaming is becoming a worldwide spectator sport offering big prizes to competitors and helping the game industry gain even greater cultural and economic clout.

The total prize money at this year’s tournament was by far the the biggest in the history of eSports, as professional gaming is called. A total purse of $10.9 million will be divided up by the top teams that finished the competition. Of that amount, $5 million will be split by the five members of Newbee, the first-place finishers.

Last year’s Dota 2 tournament in Seattle had the next biggest total prize purse, at $2.9 million.

After the members of Team Newbee claimed the trophy, modeled on a virtual shield from Dota 2 called the Aegis of Champions, they were each asked how it felt to be millionaires. A translator summed up their responses as “very, very awesome,” noting that he was omitting an expletive.