Patryk Stachowiak
Valve ditched the Battle Pass this year — here’s how Supporter Bundles are funding the Aegis of the Immortal instead.
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With The International 2026 just a week out in Shanghai, Valve has confirmed the numbers behind this year’s prize pool — and the model looks nothing like the Battle Pass gold rushes of years past. The TI 2026 prize pool starts from a guaranteed base of $1.6 million, and instead of a Compendium driving it into the stratosphere, Valve has built a leaner, more direct funding system around team and talent Supporter Bundles. Here’s exactly how the money moves, where the pool stands right now, and why fans shouldn’t expect the eye-watering totals of the old crowdfunding era.
No Battle Pass, No Compendium — What Changed for TI 2026
For the first time in years, there’s no Battle Pass and no Compendium attached to The International. In their place, Valve has introduced a straightforward collection of cosmetic rewards players can earn simply by tuning in and playing during the event window. It’s a deliberate simplification — one less layer of grinding, and one less mechanism inflating the prize pool to the record-setting figures Dota fans got used to during the Battle Pass years.
How Supporter Bundles Fund the TI 2026 Prize Pool
Every dollar spent on a Supporter Bundle is split three ways:
| Share | Recipient |
|---|---|
| 50% | The team or talent whose bundle you purchased |
| 30% | The International 2026 prize pool |
| Remainder | Valve |
The split matters for anyone deciding where to spend. Buying a specific team’s bundle sends the majority of that money straight to the organization itself, while the prize pool gets a flat 30% cut regardless of whose bundle is sold. As of the latest count, fan spending has added roughly $926,821 on top of the $1.6 million base — pushing the total prize pool to somewhere around $2.5 million, according to figures published on the tournament’s official site.
Who Gets a Supporter Bundle This Year
All sixteen qualified TI 2026 teams have their own bundle, and Valve has expanded the programme well beyond the rosters themselves this year:
- Talent bundles covering casters and analysts across four primary broadcast languages
- A brand-new community broadcast category, folding smaller-language and community streams into the funding structure for the first time — including bundles for outlets like WXC Co. (Filipino), NS_ART (Brazilian Portuguese), and Maincast (Ukrainian)
It’s the widest the bundle programme has ever stretched, giving fans a way to directly support the broadcast talent and community voices they actually watch, not just the teams on stage.
Bronze, Silver, Gold: What’s Actually in a Supporter Bundle
Bundles come in three tiers — Bronze, Silver, and Gold — each featuring embroidered team logos, with higher tiers stacking additional rewards rather than replacing lower ones. Stickers are available in four finishes: standard, glitter, holographic, and gold.
A few permanent items carry over regardless of tier:
- Team emoticons
- Sprays
- Loading screens
- Chat wheel lines
Everything else in the bundle expires at the end of September, so it’s worth checking tier contents carefully before buying if permanence is a priority — the storefront doesn’t always make the seasonal-versus-permanent split obvious. New for TI 2026 is a team logo effigy, a collectible with an upgradeable appearance and custom visual effects.
Predictions and Fantasy Are Back — But They Don’t Fund the Pool
Predictions and Fantasy have returned alongside the bundles, complete with a new set of Immortals and unlockable terrains earned through gameplay. It’s worth being clear on one point: neither feature contributes to the prize pool. They’re purely engagement tools running in parallel to the funding side, so fans chasing cosmetics through Predictions and Fantasy are playing a separate game from the one driving the Aegis money.
Keeping the Numbers in Perspective
It’s tempting to compare this year’s total to the eye-popping, eight-figure pools of the Battle Pass era, but that comparison doesn’t really hold. Valve moved away from that crowdfunding model on purpose, and Supporter Bundles are designed as a smaller, more direct replacement rather than a like-for-like successor. A $1.6 million base topped up by community spending is the new normal — expecting a repeat of past record-breaking totals in the days before Shanghai is working from an outdated picture of how TI funding works now.
There’s also a competitive subplot worth remembering as the pool grows: Team Falcons arrive in Shanghai as the defending champions after winning last year’s event in Hamburg, and they’ll do it on patch 7.41e, a fresh update that reworked 56 heroes on the same day Valve announced this year’s bundle programme. A prize pool conversation always sits alongside a meta conversation at TI, and this year is no exception.
What a Growing Prize Pool Means for Betting Markets
A prize pool that keeps climbing tends to pull outright odds along with it, and Cloudbet’s TI 2026 winner market shifts as Supporter Bundle sales and results come in. TI’s prize pool has always been crowdfunded, which makes it a fitting match for a crypto-native operator — Cloudbet runs esports betting online through USDT and other major cryptocurrencies, so funding a bet takes about as long as buying into a Supporter Bundle tier.
FAQ: The International 2026 Prize Pool
How much is the TI 2026 prize pool right now?
The base guarantee is $1.6 million, with community Supporter Bundle sales adding roughly $926,821 on top — putting the current total near $2.5 million.
How does the prize pool grow?
Through Supporter Bundle sales for teams, talent, and community broadcasters. 30% of every bundle sale goes directly into the prize pool, with 50% going to the team or talent and the remainder to Valve.
Is there a Battle Pass for TI 2026?
No. Valve replaced the Battle Pass and Compendium this year with earnable event rewards and the expanded Supporter Bundle programme.
Do Predictions and Fantasy contribute to the prize pool?
No. Both are live again for TI 2026, but they’re separate engagement features and don’t add to the prize pool total.
When and where is The International 2026?
The tournament runs August 13–23 in Shanghai, China, featuring sixteen teams.
The prize pool number will keep moving right up until the group stage begins, and with Team Falcons defending the Aegis on a freshly reworked patch, the money chase in Shanghai is shaping up to be just as compelling as the bracket itself.