During a recent livestream, RAMZES666 discussed his earnings throughout his esports career and shared his thoughts on how much tier-1 Dota 2 players might be making today:
There is too massive of a salary gap in Dota: some teams pay five grand, and others immediately jump to twenty. There's no middle ground paying ten or fifteen. You have guys making $5,000–$6,000, like NAVI, and then there's an instant gap to tier-1, where they pay twenty grand or more.
In Aurora Gaming, I think they pay around $10,000–$12,000; in PARIVISION, Team Liquid, and Falcons, salaries start from thirty grand ($30,000). That's for tier-1 teams. In Team Spirit, I'd guess they pay $20,000–$25,000, maybe $17,000–$25,000. I think Collapse and Yatoro just have completely different salaries there».
RAMZES666 shared his exact salaries across various pro teams during his career:
- Team Spirit: His first salary was $1,000 (2015);
- Team Empire: Exactly $1,500 (2016);
- Virtus.pro: Starting salary was $3,000 (2016). The contract included a clause for a salary bump if the team reached the top 8 in the GosuGamers rankings, adding another $2,000. So the actual salary ended up being $5,000 rather than $3,000;
- Tundra Esports: Played for free without a salary (2024);
- L1GA TEAM: Paid $10,000, but RAMZES666 also held an ambassador contract (2024);
- 9Pandas: Paid €6,000 or €8,000 (2023);
- Evil Geniuses and Virtus.pro (golden times): Paid roughly $20,000 a month, which was his peak salary.
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