Valve sells 10,000 Dota 2 International Championship tickets in an hour

Valve has sold all of about 10,000 tickets for its 2014 Dota 2 International Championship, the company has confirmed. “Tickets were gone roughly one hour after they went on sale”, Valve’s Doug Lombardi told Rod “Slasher” Breslau at GameSpot sister site onGamers. Tickets are already popping up on eBay for as much as $500. Key Arena could not confirm if another wave of tickets would be put on sale.

Roughly 10,000 tickets were sold this weekend in under an hour for Valve’s The International 2014 event, their yearly championship for Defense of the Ancients 2. Hosted at Seattle’s Key Arena, the finals will feature top DOTA 2 teams battling it out for an enormous prize. Last year, Swedish pro team Alliance took home $1.4M after beating rival Na’Vi in a best of five. It’s serious money, an enormous live event and an even larger spectacle online. DOTA 2 proves that it’s not just one specific eSport that commands this sort of sprawling, hyper-engaged fanbase. Last year, the League of Legends Season Three World Championships sold out LA’s Staples Center in under an hour. First place took home a million dollars while millions and millions of fans watched online.