This week, Frag Reel Friday takes a look at the most lucrative tournament in professional gaming: the one-million dollar DOTA 2 International.

The growth in MOBA - multiplayer online battle arena - games has been staggering, but it wasn't until PC developer Valve stepped in with a million-dollar prize pool for a beta version of a game that people from all corners of the gaming industry started to take notice.

Riot Games, developer of the free-to-play League of Legends, has since stepped in with more money, but the inaugural DOTA 2 International was responsible for introducing the one element that the scene had been missing: a global face.

Unlike Counter-Strike, Warcraft III, Quake, Brood War, Starcraft 2, Halo or Call of Duty, the MOBA scene had yet to break onto the international stage with a tournament with a level of professionalism so high and a breadth in scope so wide that it could attract interest from audiences outside the hardcore.

Naturally, the second DOTA 2 International, which concluded last weekend, was bigger and better with a US$1.6 million dollar prize pool - even the 7th-8th place finishers received US$25,000 - and a massive crowd attending solely to spectate, unlike last year's International which was held alongside the Gamescom annual event.

The original International was also an invite-only affair, although this year's iteration restricted the number of invites to two and opened up global qualifiers for the remaining 14 slots. As expected, Chinese teams put in a strong showing to secure several placings - DOTA has a strong following in the country, which still has a vibrant support base for Warcraft 3.

The rest of the world was well represented though - even Australia took part in the tournament, with Absolute Legends making it to the quarters of the lower bracket, taking games off German powerhouse mousesports and Russians Moscow 5 team along the way.

From an eSports perspective, it's interesting to watch DOTA 2 purely for the performance of many Southeast Asian nations such as Singapore and Malaysia, with Team Zenith and Orange Esports winning a combined US$60,000. Four slots were allocated to the region, but the winners of last year's World Cyber Games Asian Championships - MUFC Esports - were unable to make the event and were forced to forfeit.

Nevertheless, the event was truly the collection of the best DOTA 2 teams on the planet as spectators tuned in to see if the reigning champions from Ukraine - Na'Vi - could retain their title against the wave of highly talented competitors from Asia.

One of the common quips I saw on Twitter last year was that pundits were keen to tune into the International if only to see what it looks like when somebody wins a million dollars for playing a video game (although the players technically only won US$200,000 each).

That sentiment was echoed again last weekend and was only fuelled up by the running West versus East narrative that built up as the Chinese teams dominated the bracket. Na'vi, however, managed to stem the tide with some surprising tactics in the upper bracket to secure a spot in the grand finals for the second year running.

Invictus Gaming, on the other hand, pulled out an upset of their own by defeating LGD Gaming, a team praised for their near-robotic perfection of the fundamentals. The crowd was heavily biased towards Na'vi - understandable for an audience based from the United States - but it didn't prevent the atmosphere from being electric, making for one of the most captivating finals to date.

MOBA games aren't for everyone. They're certainly not my cup of tea, but even I can appreciate the quality and skill on show at The International. There's a massive amount of fans for games like DOTA 2 and League of Legends around the world, and they deserved an event like the one Valve threw together.

But it's not just for MOBA fans - it's for general gamers too. Events like this raise the bar for everyone else while laying the groundwork for players of the calibre of Na'vi and iG to fully dedicate themselves to the game.

Next year's International? Bring it on.

Alex Walker is the regular gaming columnist for ABC Tech + Games. You can follow him on Twitter at @thedippaeffect.