The International 2019 Battle Pass: Is it worth it

The wait is over for The International 2019 Battle Pass. Valve Corporation has released their Dota 2 Battle Pass for the year 2019.

Given that the Dota 2 Pro Circuit is almost at it’s end and fans have been waiting to gear up for The International 2019, the news of this Battle Pass is like music to any and all Dota fans out there.

You can get the Standard Battle Pass for 699 INR whereas the Level 50 and Level 100 Battle Pass cost 2,049 and 3,149 INR respectively. A quarter of all the Battle Pass proceedings will add up to the International 2019 prize pool.

Here’s what Valve Corporation said in their official Dota 2 website –

“The International Battle Pass is here to blaze a trail into the heart of the Dota summer season. Loaded full of exclusive features and legendary rewards, the Battle Pass is your treasure map to mythic fortune and glory as we journey to the conclusion of this year’s Dota Pro Circuit and the ultimate showdown in Shanghai.

25% of all Battle Pass sales go directly to The International 2019 prize pool.”

In addition to cosmetics and special items, the International 2019 Battle Pass comes with a new game mode, new challenges and consumables, along with slight modifications to returning features.

Let us talk about this year’s Battle Pass in detail.

The most notable feature in the International 2019 Battle Pass is the addition of a special game mode called Wrath of the Mo’rokai where players need to feed their Mo’rokai with arcane energy by killing heroes and destroying objectives, so that the monster can reclaim it’s strength and help the team destroy their opponent’s Ancient. The Jungle Expedition mode is a good place to look for Battle Points, treasures, and exclusive items. Players will be able to unlock the Guardians of the Lost Path custom towers with the purchase of this Battle Pass.

Players can use new consumables such as the Trusty Shovel, Silly Monkey, War Drums, and Snake Balloons to help them throughout various game modes in Dota 2.

The new Coach’s Challenge mode let’s you play with players having lower MMR than you, whom you can guide throughout a match to achieve victory. Your Coach Rating depends on your performance throughout the match as well as how your team rates you based on your coaching abilities. When it comes to matchmaking, this Battle Pass comes with two amazing features – Party Finder and Avoid Player. The Party Finder allows you to add players to your pool without expanding your Steam friend list whereas the Avoid Player option let’s you blacklist players so that you are never matched with them in the future. The new MVP Vote system allows all players in the game to vote for an MVP from the winning team after an Ancient falls. As stated by Valve, “the chosen player will be featured in the post-game screen, receive a mention on their friend feed, and be recognized during the pre-game of their next match. Battle Pass owners that win enough MVP awards will unlock Achievements that snag special infusions of Battle Points.”

Another addition to the Battle Pass is a cool re-imagined Versus Screen where players can show their prior notable Dota 2 achievements. The new Assistant Feature helps players learn the meta in real time on how the hero they are considering to select will perform in the lineup.

Returning features include Rank Double Down, Recycling Immortals, Wagering, Trivia, etc.

It is apparent that The International 2019 Battle Pass has been globally appreciated as it had way more to offer than a bunch of cosmetic items and banners. However, Valve’s modification to the Immortals Recycling system have been bugging players all over the world. Previously, we could recycle 1 duplicate Immortal that we got from a treasure and get 2 Levels. This has changed with this year’s Battle Pass. We now need to recycle 4 Immortals to get back only 1 treasure in return. This makes it harder for players to level up, thus, kind of forcing them to buy Level 50 or Level 100 Battle Pass which cost way more than the Standard one.

To summarize, this year’s Battle Pass is worth every penny, and now that The International 2019 is coming up and fans are all gearing up for it, I guess Valve’s plan for the tournament is pretty much sorted as the prize pool keeps on increasing with every passing second.