We’re on Day 26 of the Dota 2 International 2022 Battle Pass and Oracle’s prediction speaks of Battle Level Bundles on the horizon.
The International 2022 Battle Pass is on its long road to redemption. With one of the Personas released, Stickers turning out to be very fun, and the Cavern Crawl fully ruining any chance anyone has of enjoying Dota, the Coming Soon Battle Pass has almost lived up to its potential in almost all ways—except one.
26 days in and the prize pool for The International 2022 is the lowest it's been since 2017. At just $12,492,853 (at the time of writing), all editions since 2018 had surpassed this amount by Day 25. And we think that means the Battle Level Bundle is on the way.
A sort of Battle Pass sale, the limited bundles that come each year are often the best way to level up your pass. Granting 60 levels each, the two bundle deal that usually runs midway into the pass is starting to come due. Here’s why we think the Battle Level Bundles will drop this week:
Why we think Battle Level Bundles are coming this week
1) It lines up with past Battle Passes
In 2021, the Battle Level Bundles for Nemestice Battle Pass, Aghanim's Labyrinth Battle Pass, and the International 10 Battle Pass were released on or around Day 30 of the Battle Pass. In 2020, the Battle Bundles were released on Day 29 of the Battle Pass.
Prior to this, For the 2019 Battle Pass, the Battle Level Bundles released on Day 50. The same for 2018 Battle Pass. But since then, the trend has been sooner, in order to drive the sales. The 30th day of the Battle Pass is this Friday (the Pass released on September 1st), then we expect the Battle Level Bundles to release this week.
2) The Battle Pass is behind the pace
According to the Dota 2 Prize Pool Tracker, the prize pool for TI11 is now falling behind TI7, and is on track to fall behind The International 2016 if it doesn’t course correct. The decision to split the pass and with so much Coming Soon, means that player just haven’t bothered buying the pass.
Even with Dota 2’s largest player base spike since 2018, it’s simply not converting into cold, hard cash. Don’t be surprised to see Valve pull the trigger on the Battle Level Bundle to counter this.
3) There’s nothing else going on!
Last Chance Qualifiers are next week, with predictions opening on September 29th. At the moment, it’s a pretty dull time to be a Dota 2 fan. The Battle Pass relies on momentum and excitement, especially in its current format.
Barring releasing the second Persona (which many players have now reached), the Battle Level Bundles are the best way to drive player hype and excitement for Dota 2 right now.
And finally…
4) We really want it to release this week.
Look, we’ll level with you. We’ve played the game a LOT and even with a level 100 kickstart, our Battle Points are looking BAD. The weekly quest changes are nice, and the bonus Battle Points just for playing are helping. But at this rate it’s going to take until this time next year to get to that Faceless Void Arcana.
Just take the money Volvo. Release the Battle Level Bundle, we know you want to…