Can Dota 2 thrive as an E-Sport?

[Sliver]

With the planned release of Dota 2, it’s evident that Valve wants to take a dip into the booming world of e-sports. A big decider on how important Dota 2 will be is the exposure and popularity it will get in South Korea and China, two key foreign e-sport markets.

For those not so familiar with Dota-esque games, Valve’s upcoming Dota 2 is the sequel to the ultra-famous Warcraft 3 map Defense of the Ancients, which is credited as being the first Moba game (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena). In these sort of games either a team of three or a team of five battle each other for map control. It’s a combination of strategy, communication and teamwork that allows each team to take down the other. Players can choose from a huge number of heroes with different sets of skills, spells and abilities. The original Warcraft 3 map spawned a good number of similar games, usually varying in hero selection and superficial aspects.South Korea jump started the Starcraft: Brood War e-sport scene in the early 2000s by broadcasting matches on OGN, a gaming channel on Korean television networks.
[box=left] 2008 finals for the Bacchus OSL, a popular Starcraft: Broodwar tournament.[/box]
As a result, the game exploded in popularity, and has been among the top 10 games played in LAN cafes ever since, while other games come and go. Teams formed and gained sponsorships solely for players to live and play together to compete in various tournaments in the nation. More than 10 years later it still draws enormous crowds and crack competitors, all for the game’s fierce competition, sponsorship money, prize money and pure love of the game. Other games and genres have had forays into e-sports with varying results, yet none have had nearly as much success as Brood War.

Now the same story seems to be happening for League of Legends, a popular Moba. It too is modeled after the original Dota and will arguably be Dota 2’s biggest competitor. Riot’s marketing campaign has been very successful so far in Asia. Riot started an ad campaign featuring very popular and influential Korean pro-gamers, such as Nada, a legend from the BW community, and have them talk and discuss the game. One factor in Riot and other MOBA developers’ favour is the way that most games are played in South Korea. Most gamers thrive in PC Cafés, which are the perfect places to set up matches for small, competitive multiplayer games like BW and LoL. Recently, LoL has overtaken BW as the most popular game in PC cafes around South Korea.

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It debuted on OGN with a record amount of viewers coming in to see it at the studio. This is in addition millions of online viewers that LoL tournaments accrue on broadcast. While these numbers are high, they could be easily attainable by Dota 2 depending on the distribution and marketing.

With all of this information considered, how viable is Dota 2 as an e-sport? Valve had a great start with their initial tournament, The International. The tournament had an enormous first place prize of 1 Million USD, which is a significantly higher prize than usual. For reference, the first place prize for the OSL, the most popular BW tournament in Korea, is 400,000 Won which is roughly $108,000.
[box=right] Team Navi with their check for 1 Million USD from the International Dota 2 tournament.[/box]
The number of teams competing was pretty staggering at first, a whopping 16, but considering how rapid pros can transfer their skills between Dota to Dota 2, it’s not hard to see how. Viewer counts for The International were said to hit near 3 million, an astoundingly high number and one that probably won’t be topped for quite some time. Valve’s best bet in marketing for foreign countries is simply to cater to their gamers’ preferences. MOBA games have a distinct edge over most other genres; most of them are free to play, and they don’t require the latest hardware to play smoothly.

Valve can already reach millions of gamers with Steam, their digital download gaming service, and Dota 2’s beta has already had a respectable amount of success, with around 25,000 clients on average playing it daily. There’s still no word on when the game will actually release, or the planned pricing model. Gamers currently expect a system similar to LoL: play for free, buy bonus content in store. It will remain to be seen whether the purchasable items will be purely aesthetic or have an impact on gameplay.

E-sports is a growing and flourishing market, and the success of Dota 2 ultimately lies in the hands of Valve. It’s already been proven that Moba games can absolutely kill the market, and if the right choices are made then Dota 2 could be bigger than them all.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I certainly see Valve taking a big chunk of the market with Dota 2. Not only using Steam as a distribution platform but also as a streaming service for viewers to see their favourite players / tournaments via feeds built into Steam.

 

[juliowasden]

I don't think it should be considered sport at all.casino online

 

[MFL]

Why?

Sport is competitive organized or unorganized recreation.

 

[Eejit]

Dota 2’s beta has already had a respectable amount of success, with around 25,000 clients on average playing it daily.

Nonsense.

Current Players Peak Today Game

131,615 283,477 Dota 2


Update this shizzle!

 

[Wanted Bob]

Lol Eejit, for a second there I read that as one gigantic number.

 

[nVy]

Tbh, thinking that Dota2 will not take a big piece of the moba market is just ridiculous. Dota2 still has a deeper Meta than all the other games, which will be a great appealing fact for most competitive players/teams.

 

[MFL]

Appeal to the pros does not necessitate appeal to the masses.

 

[Vegeta897]

Appeal to the pros does not necessitate appeal to the masses.

Well the article asks about the game as an e-sport, not just about general popularity. And good meta is key to e-sport success/sustainability.

 

[MFL]

As e-sports evolves I believe we will find that general popularity (which may or may not collaborate with good meta) and venue will be more important to a game's long-term success as an e-sport.

 

[Vegeta897]

The game already does appeal to the masses, so it's a moot point anyway.

 

[MFL]

Not if we are measuring the relative "thrive" of games, within a genre, as e-sports against each other.

I'd certainly like for Dota 2 to survive, and it will, but I don't think it would thrive without being subsidized by Valve.

 

[Vegeta897]

I'm not sure what your point is.

 

[Rorschach120]

You need to appeal to the masses or else being an e-sport is pointless. Whether you are pro or not makes no difference to how valuable you are to the game. I think the main reason e-sports differ from sports (besides computers and lack of athleticism) is because anyone will watch a football game while only players watch a Dota game. The credibility as an e-sport depends on the amount of viewers you get. I believe the companies managing these tournaments are depending on viewers seeing this "pro" potential in themselves. What do you normally do right after or during "The International?"


I think LoL is going to continue to be more popular than Dota 2 and will restrict Dota 2 from ever becoming the dominate MOBA e-sport. It is easier to play and It already has many more players. I'm not saying it isn't better or worse of a game and they can co-exist. It will just require a lot more jumpstart from Valve. ...Oh and they need to release the damn thing to the public already.

 

[MFL]

And with these predictions I'd like to mark for the record here and now, ladies and gentlemen, as the point where we sucked the joy out of large scale e-sports before they ever began.

 

[kineaesth]

year old newspost guys

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

Still as relevant as ever, brah.

 

[Rorschach120]

The quest tutorials are a huge step in the right direction. I can't wait for more to come out, and I've been playing more Dota2 than LoL since they did.

 

[tomemozok]

This will be a long post,so prepare for a read.

I am an avid Action-RTS player,and have been playing dota since 2004,so let's assume 8 years(it was late 2004). It is the game with the most steep learning curve that i have ever played online,hands down. If you are new to ARTS, you will be disappointed and decimated and humiliated, trust me.

And then riot came with LOL. It was a refined DOTA, but made a bit more noob friendly because of the core dota problem. And it made a lot of things more complicated.
These are the 2 things that will ultimately sink LOL. But for the time being it was the thing everyone played. Easy to access and hard to master. Pros quickly started playing it on tournaments and a whole new e-sports came to life. But there were,and still are more variables than skill involved in LOL. Like you are playing a sort of hybrid between DOTA and WOW, with unlockable heroes. And worst of all, you can buy yourself power (to be fair you can grind it aswell, but it's a long grind).
The Graphic didn't help with more mature players either. But we swallowed everything and went with it, since it had a few key features DOTA didn't (reconnect was the most important one for me tbh, with the net connection as it is here).

And then Valve stepped into the ring.I was actually praying for valve to get to do DOTA since 2006,when i actually started playing more actively DOTA online.
Anyway, what was their opening act? Showing the game on a booth? Throwing some fancy trailers and commentaries on gameplay?
No,they held the first international, with 1M $ as the grand prize! Talk about upping the game! That alone drew new blood to dota,as well as see old dogs like us return.
They offered early beta access, only to realize that they can actually release a full beta(e it invitation only) and go from there.
Why will DOTA2 thrive as an e-sport?
It's more pure, more skill and feel based, more to the point.
It's not trading difficulty for new players, it teaches new players how to play better (the tutorials will do that, and the coach system will be like a tutor program).
As for the art style, nothing beats a meat hook from pudge with blood on it, and dismembering someone, just to see their blood flying all over the place!

And valve has another thing RIOT doesn't. A distribution platform.And it's the biggest platform out there. STEAM will turn a lot of new players to DOTA2, will explain that in a bit. And valve has greater customization on the heroes, has better developers, has more developers which know how to treat a mod and perfect it(hi CS!).

And let's look at the figures,shall we?
RIOT says it has around 500k users concurrent LoL players in the US and Europe alone.
So,that figure is close to 5mill concurrent on global level according to them.
2 Things:
A)LOL was out 3 years before DOTA2 has started it's beta
B) I believe that riot actually has around 400k playing each moment,with a peak of around 800k per day. Anything more than 1 mill players online,and we would have heard for it a long time ago from the net obsessed people that measure traffic to servers

DOTA2 Peaks constantly at 300k users in a day,and has approx 150k playing it every moment.It had 3M118 different players log in to DOTA2 this month.and let's not forget, its still in beta.
I believe these numbers to be accurate,more or less.

And think about this,everytime anyone opens the most played tab on steam,the first place will be cemented for DOTA. And what does anyone new to a sport do? Watch a match, right?
What will anyone that want's to improve his mindset about the game do?
Watch Na'Vi vs IG, and the epic games! And veterans will watch just for enjoyment.

TL: DR- Valve will smack the shit out of riot.
P.S. if you came to here,sorry for the long post...

 

[morgs]

It doesn't have to be one or the other. There's room for DOTA and LOL to thrive. Sorry, but you're coming across as a bit of a fanboy.

 

[tomemozok]

It doesn't have to be one or the other. There's room for DOTA and LOL to thrive. Sorry, but you're coming across as a bit of a fanboy.

I think i have been misunderstood.

LOL will deffo exist,and will have a lot of players, but i think dota2 will overtake it and be more played by amateurs and pros.

I am a fan of dota, but i have played LOL for a long time aswell(round 2 years) before i flock to dota2 as my main ARTS(MOBA). I can see the approach both valve and riot have for their fanbase and think that dota2 addresses the issues in a more friendly way with benefits to all.

 

[Cecil01]

In fact, dota2 is so hot in china,everywhere you go,you can hear people talk about it

 

[trunk_slamchest]

dota2 is the next counter strike. bold statement i know, but counter strike's player base even at its peak is only a fraction of what dota2's daily player base is. CS never had +6 million players per month. both CS and dota share very similar strategies, mechanics and tactics right down to the map design, so it has a large appeal to people like me who played CSS in CAL/Cevo/ESEA Main.

valve has spent alot of time learning from their mistakes, i see it every time i play or watch dota. valve wont release Dota: Condition Zero and Dota: Source to completely divide its player base and ruin any structure for a competitive scene to form like they did with counter strike. when the CPL and WSVG bit the dust in 07, then the CGS in 09, it was because CS:CZ and CSS were no where need as good as the original, and instead of everyone jumping ship to CS:CZ or CSS like everyone thought was gonna happen, the entire competitive community just went back to 1.6 instead and it just ****ed up esports completely because no one knew which game to support. CSS and CZ werent getting the same support from the competitive side because CSS was just flat out inferior, and everything just airballed. especially in North American esports. eventually shit like CS: Promod came out and everything just turned to shit.

but this time, its just one game. and the Dota2 is primed to thrive for a very long time as a dominate e-sport. MLG just picked up Dota2 and im calling a $5 million prize pool for ti4

EDIT: plus, all of the school shootings linked to killers playing counter strike made it really hard to get companies or people outside the video game industry interested in video games, let alone e-sports

 

[Rorschach120]

eSports are competitive video games that are spectated as sports are. They aren't sports, but the way they are expanded by their viewers is much like the way a sports program is (besides the point I made earlier about players as opposed to just viewers). The word doesn't literally mean "these video games are actually sports now." Otherwise they would just be called sports.