Gamers compete for $5m cash prize

The online arena game pits two teams of five heroes against each other

Gamers are competing for a share of a $10.9m (£6.3m) prize pot, in the world's most lucrative gaming contest.

The International pits the best players of a game called Dota2, created by developer Valve, against each other.

Chinese teams NewBee and Vici Gaming are set to fight it out for the title.

The winning team of five players gets $5m, the runners-up $1.4m, with $4.5m distributed among the other 19 teams taking part in the tournament, which began on 18 July in Seattle.

Valve donated $1.6m of the prize money, but the rest was raised by some of the millions of people who regularly play the game.

Dota2 is as a multiplayer online battle arena game for the PC.

Each player assumes the role of one of 107 different heroes and must work together to defend their own and destroy their rival's "ancient" - an artefact sitting in a fortress sited in one corner of the game map.

Video streams of the matches have been shared online, and Valve even ran a "newcomer" series to educate people new to the game.

In addition, some bars, pubs and gaming centres around the world are holding parties for people keen to seen the finals in a crowd.

The final is also set to be shown on one of the ESPN channels.

"Valve have put an awful lot of thought into packing digital sports up as actual things for people to actually follow and watch and enjoy," wrote Alice O'Connor in a blogpost on the Rock, Paper Shotgun website.

Michael O'Dell, manager of the UK's Team Dignitas, said: "This year has certainly been the banner year for eSports, with massive tournaments in Dota, League of Legends and CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive). And there are more to come. The scene is very vibrant right now."