Now you can get in the mood for DIGITAL SPORTS! with the help of the smooth, comforting and somewhat sociopathic Narrator from The Stanley Parable. As teased all those months ago, his gently mocking wit is now available as a Dota 2 announcer pack. Sure, it's not hard to make fun of an incomprehensible game about internet wizards, but it takes skill to do it and still make the game's fans want to give you money.

The announcer pack was made by The Stanley Parable creator Davey Wreden and the Narrator's voice actor Kevan Brighting. According to Wreden albeit jokingly it aims to make Dota 2 "not only understandable but even downright accessible to the common layperson". Has it succeeded? If you'd rather not experience the pack in a live Dota environment, you can get a full preview at the Dota 2 wiki.

If you're so entrenched in Dota 2 that you don't know what The Stanley Parable is, you can find out via a 50% weekend sale. The Stanley Parable Announcer Pack is out now, and will be 10% off for 48 hours after release.

Three Lane Highway is Chris' sometimes silly, sometimes serious column about Dota 2.

Last year I arrived in Seattle a couple of days before The International began. Being ahead of schedule meant spending a few afternoons hovering around the hotel where the players were housed, watching the group stages and trying to grab interviews with whoever I could. Some of that material ended up in the feature that I subsequently wrote about the tournament, but a lot of it didn't.

Every player I spoke to was keen to point out that the prize money wasn't as important to them as being able to say that they were the best in the world at something. Despite that, many players felt dissatisfied with the way the prize pool itself was divided up.

Last year, sixteen teams took part in The International. First place took 50% of the prize pool, second place took 22%, and subsequent placements earned 10%, 7%, 4% and 1.5% until 8th place, after which point teams went home with nothing. Finishing 7th and 8th nonetheless earned Liquid and Fnatic $43,116 each, the kind of money that would make for a grand prize in any other tournament.

This year's Compendium has been incredibly successful. Less than a week after its launch, the crowdfunded prize pool is scraping the underside of $5 million. That's crazy. According to the numbers on Cyborgmatt's tracker, that means that the 7th and 8th place finishers at this years tournament could be making upwards of $75,000 - as long as Valve stick to the same distribution pattern as last year.

I'd like to argue that they shouldn't. Last year, several of the players I spoke to pointed out that the lack of a prize for 8th-16th place finishers was a missed opportunity. Maintaining a steady income is a huge challenge for pro gamers, and much of what Valve have done with Dota 2 has been done with the aim of solving that problem. Compendium cards, pro player cosmetic sets, pennants: Valve want to find a way to build a stable business environment for e-sports, without assuming central control over the scene as Blizzard did with StarCraft II.

Part of the answer, I think, is establishing prizes for every finisher at The International. Simply getting to the tournament is a huge achievement - the quality of play in the American qualifiers this week testifies to that - and rewarding that achievement with guaranteed cash doesn't seem like it would dilute the competition. Nobody is going to be happy with $10,000 when they could be winning a million-plus. And the money would give teams an incentive to stick together in the months that followed the International, avoiding the spate of dissolutions that struck teams like Dignitas and Mousesports after they bowed out of the tournament early.

Distributing 0.25%-0.5% of the prizepool to the bottom eight finishers wouldn't put a dent in the vast amount of money that the Compendium is capable of raising. We're talking about prizes vastly in excess of what is available to teams throughout the rest of the year. This is an opportunity to distribute that money more evenly across the scene as a whole, using the draw of The International to inject funds into teams that otherwise might not get another shot at a big title. The money isn't everything, at the end of the day, but it's a problem - a problem that Valve are in a position to solve.

If you enjoyed this article, you can find more of Chris' Dota columns by clicking here.

The Compendium is a magical tome filled with knowledge, riches, and small pictures of people who are absurdly good at Dota 2. No wonder then that the community has been snapping up copies in record numbers. The digital sticker-book-companion to The International 2014 has upped the tournament's prize pool to over $4 million a more than $1.24 million increase over the last International. Impressively, it's done all this in under 5 days.

As was the case last year, The International prize pool starts at a base level of $1.6 million. For every Compendium sold, $2.50 is added to that total. This year because Valve enjoy a smooth flow of money into their bank account a point system has also been introduced. For every 100 points a Compendium owner earns, they'll receive extra immortal treasure, custom in-game effects, bonus Loading Screens and an increased Battle Point Booster percentage. Points can be earned by watching matches, picking favourites and making tournament predictions within the Compendium, or by paying cash, with 25% of point sales boosting the prize pool.

In addition to providing more money for competition winners, raising the prize pool also unlocks stretch goals that give benefits to Compendium owners and the Dota 2 community at large. So far, the following bonuses have been unlocked:

$1,800,000: The International 2014 Battle Point Booster (Battle Point bonus increases as the compendium levels up)
$2,000,000: Portfolio of Heroes Triumphant (Bonus Loading Screens)
$2,200,000: Ability to vote on which hero should receive the next Arcana.
$2,400,000: A new Compendium-themed HUD.
$2,600,000: Ability to vote on the participants of an 8 player Solo Championship at The International.
$2,900,000: All Random Deathmatch game mode available to all players.
$3,200,000: A Treasure containing Valve created Immortal Items. Every 10 compendium levels grants an extra Treasure.
$3,500,000: Access to special emoticons that can be used in Dota 2 chat.
$4,000,000: A Mini Pudge courier. (Level 50 compendium owners have an alternate skin)

Future stretch goals include new music, a 1v1 mid-lane matchmaking mode, bonus environmental effects, and at $6 million the ability for Compendium owners to customise a building on their team's base. For more, head to Valve's Compendium micro-site.

The International's American qualifiers started yesterday, beginning a process that will determine the invitational tournament's final five teams. The International will begin July 8th.