A few steps forward

As recently announced, DotA is finally getting it's big break in North America. The eMg organization is holding a large-scale DotA LAN in Chicago, with a prize pool of $8000. Surprised reactions were expected, but it just goes to show that DotA does have the potential of being a major e-sport. With the expected attendance of MYM, eMg, Pandemic, xLo and other popular names, it proves that there will be good attendance at LAN tournaments and that there is an audience.

In Europe and mainly Asia, DotA has grown to be a more demanded e-sport and loved game. DotA LAN tournaments and online competitions are more widely seen and are favored over FPS games. When the WCG 2008 poll came out recently, the DotA community was shocked. Why were some of the most random games included in the poll and not DotA? What's even more surprising is DotA was in WCG Asia this year. It is a shame to see a game that has gotten so far to not even have mere recognition in a poll.

A couple of mainstream LAN tournaments have picked up DotA, Dreamhack in Sweden and ASUS in Russia. These LAN tournaments are currently a major part of DotA's backbone. When the Pandemic team went inactive, they stated the lack of LAN tournaments in North America as a major reason for their decline. Fortunately for teams like SK Gaming and MYM, they have something to work for and look forward to. The DotA community can only hope that other organizations see the success and popularity of other DotA tournaments and follow in their footsteps.

Within the past year a new organization has emerged, the GG community. GG Client has made it possible for DotA players to enjoy games with international players with low latency. Not only has it become a requirement in most online tournaments, but it has provided something else; live video streaming. GGTV has become really popular over the past few months. In an old interview with Jason Lake he stated, "I think any game that can't be watched "live" suffers in terms of a smaller fanbase. There are rumors that such a feature is being developed, but for now the fans will have to settle for replays unfortunately." Thanks to GGTV, the community can now watch live matches instead of waiting for replays to be posted.

Complexity and Strategy

It has been widely accepted that in DotA, the team wins rather than the individuals. Competitive DotA is a completely different world in comparison to casual play, to a more extreme unlike less complex games. Contrary to popular belief, becoming a top tier DotA team is harder than believed. Because of this, competitive DotA is so much more interesting to watch. Teams always come up with innovative strategies and sometimes pull off amazing moves in matches that people have never even thought was possible. To the DotA community, that is spectator value, the complexity.

DotA has something that is not frequently seen in other games; strategies and counter strategies with items. It is occasionally seen in WC3; buying healing scrolls to counter mass AoE (Area of Effect) damage. However, in DotA it plays a major part in the game. Strategies are constantly destroyed, reworked and countered solely because of items. Many teams have focused their strategies on mass AoE spell damage, picking heroes like Queen of Pain, Sand King and Zeus. The focus on spell damage has drifted since teams have found many ways to counter it; mekansm (healing), black king bar (magic immune), diffusal blade (purges spell buffs), hood of defiance (magic damage reduction) and blink daggers (teleportation). One thing that is noticeable in the DotA community is the popularity of new replays. Fans eagerly wait for the most recent Pride Tournament replay featuring their favorite team to see what hero lineups they used, what item builds they went and how they countered the enemy team.

Those who don't thoroughly follow the game wonder, what is so complex about competitive DotA? DotA is just a bunch of heroes running around killing each other and trying to make gold right? Wrong. There are many things teams have to focus on in order to become a powerhouse team. Teamwork; consistent warding of the map, successful ganks, proper execution in battle (not stacking stuns, all focusing the same target, protecting allies), correct item builds and supporting the carry hero. Individual; good micro, farming ability, communication and map awareness. These are all things that competitive players have to keep in mind and are not things that come easy, rather things that are mastered over time.

Many see DotA being a custom map handled by one person as a flaw, but there are positives to it. Unlike other games, the DotA community is more directly involved in shaping the game to meet the desires of its players. There are many beta testers, and IceFrog always asks for feedback. Like Matt Marcou said in a recent interview, "I know first hand that the developers of the mod (Icefrog & co) are continually looking into improvements that will shorten the length of games and many of those strategies have been implemented successfully already."