Gorgc said that TI's big prize pool was destroying the pro scene

Dota 2 streamer Jean Gorgc Stefanovski discussed the large prize pool of The International series tournaments. The content maker noted that other tournaments weren't a big deal when TI was a big event. Stefanovski discussed this during a live broadcast on Twitch.

Since then [when TI had a big prize pool] players have become much richer. They receive a salary of $20 thousand or more every month. This didn't happen before. The problem with the scale of TI was that nothing mattered for the entire year. Valve realized that the rest of the year was complete nonsense. Just complete nonsense. It makes no sense to make a $20 million prize pool and force players to retire instantly. How can this benefit the scene? How can this benefit the scene if you can win TI and never play Dota again? Of course, the developers want people to play for ten years. Had a professional career rather than retiring straight away. Too much prize money will completely destroy the professional scene. So it's a terrible point of view [that the big prize fund should be returned]. This has been talked about a lot, but it is a very, very stupid point of view. Why are people so obsessed with the prize pool being big? Do you think you can convince little Timmy to play Dota 2 just because the prize pool is bigger? No, he will still play LoL or CS because his friends play it. There's still a lot of buzz around CS. It has ten times more views than Dota 2. I don't think adding a couple million into Yatoro's pocket will help at all. And I'm not saying that the TI prize money couldn't be a little higher, but making it $20-40 million again... I don't know. This definitely had a very bad effect on competitive Dota. I sound like an irritated bore, but no, guys, I just haven't streamed in a while.

From 2012 to 2020, Valve released a Battle Pass that gave players access to a wide range of cosmetic items. Because of this, the TI prize pool was constantly growing. In 2022, it dropped for the first time - more than $18.8 million was collected. At The International 2025, $2.8 million was raffled off.