Castaway: Southeast Asian Non-Top Players Seek $8,000-$10,000 Monthly Salaries

Recently, Southeast Asian team Neon announced its inactivity. Strafe reached out to Neon’s South African player Castaway to delve into the issues faced after the DPC cancellation, why the current tournament landscape favors top teams, and the current salary situation for SEA players.

In the long run, I don’t think it’s good

Following TI12, Valve announced the discontinuation of the DPC and stepped back from the tournament scene, giving rise to an abundance of third-party events but at the cost of professional circuit stability.

When asked about the DPC’s cancellation, Castaway had a nuanced perspective.

Short-term, it’s good because there are more tournaments, more prize money, HappyHappy! But in the long term, I think it’s very bad. If you’re really honest with yourself, how do we continue to funnel new players, new teams into the top level and have sustainable growth? How do we even talk about that now? Because as a club, before you could get support through the DPC, and if you participated in the DPC, there was prize money, which was like a stable income. Maybe not enough to make you profitable, but it was something.

Valve invested heavily in the DPC, with prizes ranging from $7,000 for A-Division to $30,000 for S-Division across six regions, with 14 out of 16 league teams receiving rewards. This didn’t include the $500,000 Majors, commentator salaries, production costs, and licensing fees. It was a substantial workload for Valve, and ultimately, they deemed it not worth it.

In 2024, Dota 2 third-party tournaments emerged with prize pools ranging from $50,000 to millions. This injected incredible funds into the Dota 2 scene, but most of it went to the top teams, leaving little for potential future stars.

Now, assuming you have a club like Neon, not in the top 1 or 2 positions in your region. You have salaries, base rent, and all these other miscellaneous expenses. What do you get in return? Sponsors are interested in sponsoring teams that participate in big events, but those teams don’t necessarily need the sponsorship. For them, it’s like the cherry on top, the cream on the cake, while we’re still making the cake, trying to find the ingredients for it.

Castaway bluntly stated that the current situation is “the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer.” He also mentioned that if he were already dominant in the competitive scene rather than climbing up, he might appreciate the current state of affairs.

I think everyone would agree, except for the top 20 teams in the world. If you’re Liquid, Spirit, you might say something different in interviews. You’d say, “Yeah, give me more prize money; great, I got a direct invite; easy peasy, I don’t have to go through these lengthy qualifiers that people call the DPC.” But the DPC was good for up-and-coming talents. Same for new casters and players, a step-by-step growth, like a tunnel with light at the end. Now, you have to create your own light, and that’s very challenging.

Southeast Asians Asking for $10,000 Monthly Salaries

With Castaway now parting ways with Neon, he is looking forward to the next chapter of his career, which includes negotiating with different clubs to find the best fit.

Aside from considering potential teammates and the region he will play in, Castaway also discussed salaries and the astonishing expectations some players now have.

Everyone is asking for insane salaries, and now players want more and more. How is this sustainable? This whole bidding war is crazy, sometimes I laugh about it. In Southeast Asia, there are people asking for eight to ten thousand dollars a month, and they’re not even tier-one players. I don’t want to be too harsh, but these people are out of touch. You need to look at the scene, know who you are before opening your mouth. Not saying, “I used to lead a team to a Major in 2020, so now I want this much money” kind of thing. I hope Dota players become more reasonable.

Strafe asked Castaway about his future plans, and we eagerly await updates on his life and career.

I have a lot of job opportunities, not bragging. I have a few offers that I’m quite happy with, two of which look very promising, and some others depend on what happens in other regions. I’m not sure if I’ll leave, my girlfriend is here, and we want to get married in the Philippines. But I’m still open to invitations from other regions.