ESFI World

Dota 2 is still a computer game in its infancy, not even out of Beta; fewer than twenty thousand players around the world and yet great things are expected from it.  DreamHack was a tournament that provided such unique situations and gave us such crucial insight into how Dota 2 is developing as an esport.

We saw a lot of technical issues, as well as a lot of problems external to the actual gameplay this weekend, and these are issues that need to be addressed in order for the growth of Dota 2 to continue as an esport. We also saw a lot of positive things this weekend, and hopefully this is an indication of things to come.

We need more lumber, and viewers

Starcraft 2 currently completely and utterly dominates anything else in raw viewers (outside Korea) when it comes to esports. One hundred thousand viewers of MLG Providence, and close on eighty-three thousand this weekend’s DreamHack coverage makes Dota 2’s eleven thousand viewer peak seem like an almost trivial spike.

Valve put up $1 million for ‘The International’, got over three million viewers for it and then suddenly went quiet and got back to work. If they want traction to build around Dota 2, in the same way it has built around HoN and LoL, they need to communicate and help establish the communities in which Dota 2 will flourish, not just to drop some cash once a year. More viewers means more prize pools (as sponsors can see more return for their investments) which in turn leads to more viewers.

Lights, camera, microphones, action!

If there’s one thing that annoyed me personally this DreamHack was the limited casting that could be done in the team games due to the on-stage setup (no booths for the players). It meant that (our otherwise dubious ginger) Tobi could only give limited commentary on the game to avoid inadvertently informing the competitors of crucial tactical knowledge. Tobi did a great job in the solo casting role, but the lack of a casting partner reduced him to mainly focusing on the play-by-play. The analytical portion of the cast that is usually present with syndereN was simply not there.

Because of the way the tournament was set up and structured, it provided very limited access to other casters the option to cast any games, meaning viewers were forced to watch the very amateurish ‘official’ stream. This was not unique to Dota however, and we saw similar problems in the CS finals, meaning that the ‘unofficial’ streams provided a much more rich and enjoyable viewing experience.

If there is one thing I think that Dota 2 has to learn very quickly from its esports sibling is that of a quality and slick production, like SC2 currently has: a multitude of interesting and well respected casters, fan interaction between games, game “couch” discussions and great in-game analysis. This is where the door is slightly ajar for casters such as Luminous to really edge in and provide some more rounded commentary. Even though there is such competition for the SC2 casting market, we see how Day9, Apollo, TotalBiscuit, Tasteless and Artosis and Mr. Bitter all work together for the common goal of promoting esports.

Fnatic falling …

Within the actual gameplay of the weekend’s tournament, I think that calling fnatic chokers would be a cruel assessment of them at this event. Only recently picked up by the fnatic organization after ESWC success, the former “4GL” team was very impressive in the group stages and indeed all the way to forty minutes in game two of the finals. They showed us they were not a one-trick pony that many accused them of after ESWC, and indeed were skillful and resourceful throughout. When their almost unkillable Spectre somehow died to WHB and syndereN’s constantly bought-back Prophet Teleported to rax top and bottom in one cruel sweep, internet chat rooms around the world cringed for fnatic as their dreams of ending the game, and winning the series and championship in a clean 2-0 crumbled before them.

The Spectre’s decision to buy Diffusal Blade and not retain enough gold for buyback seems foolish in hindsight, but I don’t think at that point anyone could have expected WHB to pull such a turnaround so quickly after losing so many team-fights before that, and with such a gold disadvantage.

 … And Wild Honey Badgers picking up the pieces.

Kudos of course must go to the Wild Honey Badgers. Determination and stubbornness pushed them through game two, and somehow mass Eul’s Sceptre of Divinity provided them with an edge in game three’s team-fights and to victory. The drafting by both sides was reasonable throughout the finals, but it seemed that the game was decided almost entirely by key heroes in each game (Mirana in game 1, Furion vs. Spectre in game 2 and Nightstalker in game 3), and the other heroes seemed to matter very little. I’m not sure if anyone could have predicted the outcome of many of the spontaneous team-fights, and in some sense WHB were very lucky to constantly capitalize on fnatic’s mistakes.

DreamHack Summer

All is not lost, within a few months thousands of gamers will once again unite for DreamHack Summer 2012 and almost definitely Dota 2 will be on the cards. This will give us a great time to benchmark the improvement in quality of Dota 2 since DreamHack Winter 2011, and to see if the people behind the scenes have rectified the quite blatant mistakes. A key issue will be getting more top tiered Dota 1 teams transitioning and involved, especially some Asian teams who are still focusing on Dota 1.

All in all, DreamHack Winter 2011 will not be remembered for being a ‘poor’ tournament in any respect, but it will take a lot of work and changes to improve before the next Dota 2 event. Dota 2 is definitely an esport here to stay; the question is only how quickly it will grow compared to its esports siblings.

Photos: GosuGamers, DreamHack