Valve has finally released the Dota 2 Battle pass for The International 2019. The release date remains the same as last year. As usual, 25% of all Battle pass sales contribute to the TI9 Prize pool. Valve contributes a base amount of $1.6 million for The International every year.

The International 2019 will take place in Shanghai and it is the first time it will take place in China. Considering how many Dota 2 players and fans are from China, it is not an entirely surprising move. Regardless, teams and players will look forward to playing in the biggest esports prize pool tournament.

The Battle Pass Price:

Standard Battle Pass = $9.99

Level 50 Battle pass = $29.35

Level 100 Battle pass = $44.99



Users can also level up their Battle pass. Additional levels are also available for purchase. These levels help to level up the Battle pass and achieve more rewards that are to exclusive to higher levels of the battle pass.

The pricing for additional levels is as follows:

Additional 5 levels – $2.49

An additional 11 levels – $4.99

Additional 25 Levels – $9.99

Key Features of the New Battle pass

The new Battlepass has several key features. Many of the features from the previous year’s Battle pass have found a home in 2019 as well. However, there are few features such as Avoid player, Party finder, Coaching amongst others which enhance the value of this battlepass even at the base levels. You can find a full list and details of the new Battle pass on the official website here.

Coach Team

The Battle pass also has some features for players looking to improve their gameplay. With Coach facility, Dota 2 now provides an incentive for high-skilled users to coach low skilled players.

The ability to coach a group of lower-ranked players is only available to people with a good behaviour score. If your behaviour score is less than 8000 then you cannot coach a group., At the end of the coaching session/match, the team can rate the coach and the coach will receive a unique coaching rank accordingly.

Party Finder

Another new feature with this year’s Battle pass is the Party-finder. The Party Finder is an ability to create a limited set of players who you would like to party with.

Party Finder helps you create a pool of fun teammates without worrying about expanding your Steam Friends list. Just add teammates you like playing with after a match to include them in your pool. Then when you want to play, toggle the Party Finder option to invite everyone in your pool to join. You can also add existing Steam Friends to your pool so you can send an invite to everyone you like at once with a single click.

Avoid Player

The Avoid player feature comes as an experimental feature. Valve will closely monitor the situation and how ‘Avoid player’ actually affects the gameplay. Users could end up facing very long queue times if they keep avoiding multiple players in the game. Maybe, they can add a timer to ‘The Avoid Player’ feature, which would essentially temporarily disallow the players to be on one team.

This feature is something that the Dota 2 community has requested for a very long time. However, it is not foolproof and will definitely increase the queue times for players. Valve will use this information to further enhance the service and hopefully, we will be able to see its implementation outside of the Battle pass as well.

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New Cosmetics for Axe, Invoker and Tiny

Three heroes will receive new cosmetics, although they are only accessible at certain levels of the Battle pass. Here are the heroes and the levels at which you can unlock these items.

Tiny : Level 255

Invoker : Level 305

Axe: Level 425

Introducing the first-ever Hero Persona, a completely different visual and thematic take on a classic hero. Invoke level 305 to unlock the Young Invoker Persona. Coming soon, this new variant of an old favourite features all-new models, animations, and voice lines to help send the ageless Invoker back to his earliest days studying the wizarding arts. Every legend has a beginning, and the Arsenal Magus is no exception.

This item has been widely appreciated by the community who cannot wait to see the hero in action. Invoker has a very dark nature in his persona and the voice lines. With Baby invoker, it will be akin to hearing a totally new personality in the game altogether. We are sure to have some exciting voice lines for the ‘Acolyte of the Los Arts Set’.

Earthshaker Arcana

EarthShaker will receive an Arcana at a later stage. The TI9 Battle pass will be valid from now till September and we will see the release of multiple features till that time. The Earthshaker Arcana is named ‘Planetfall’. There is no fixed release date yet for the Arcana, however, judging by past releases Valve should release the Arcana somewhere around June. The Earthshaker Arcana will be available only to users with a level of 365 or more.

Jungle Map

The Jungle map is a repetition from last year. Players are given a maze which they have to traverse in order to unlock certain cosmetic items. The way to complete the map is to win via choice heroes which open the next path.

There are three different items to be won via completing the Jungle Map. It is a fun interactive way of playing the game it definitely allows users to experiment with their hero pool and play a variety of heroes.

Daily Hero Challenge

The Daily hero challenge grants bonus XYZ to users if they are able to win their matches using that hero. It is a very small reward, but it builds up over time and can help you unlock new battle pass levels. Since players cannot recycle Immortals for two levels this year, the methods of levelling up the Battle pass are scarce. The Daily hero challenge assumes significance this year, as it is one of the few methods for users to level up their battle pass. Valve will also release a custom game mode at a later point in time. Details of the game mode and its release date are not yet public.

In addition to these features, we do have a number of chatwheel sounds, In Game Tipping and betting of shards. There are numerous achievements which grant XYZ to the players. The Battle pass raised $25,532,177 and was the biggest prize pool for one tournament in esports history. This year, we expect the amount to be crossed and it might also reach near $30 million. Will you be buying the Dota 2 battle pass? Let us know in comments below.