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In the competitive DotA world, many issues have begun to arise that need to be talked about. DarkFire, MYM|Slahser and eMg.Rwar give their opinions regarding the current competitive scene, with topics including the DOP and Mineski controversy, Plug Reform, Backdooring, ESWC, Asian DotA and the new DotA map version.

The DOP and Mineski Controversy

For those who aren't familiar with this topic, here's a background of the situation. Mineski vs. Emperor's Domain of Pain created a bit of controversy that the admins had to deal with. Mineski backdoored 3 towers, without DOP seeing the first two. After the game was over, Mineski won, but the MYM Admins gave DOP the win. DOP offered a remake, but the MYM admins turned it down.

DarkFire: Rules are there to be followed, but also to be broken. It is the admin's job to administrate the rules. Mineksi backdoored, most likely because they are an Asian team, and are more familiar with Asian rules. This is an international tournament, so they must follow the international rules.

I believe that there should have been a remake, as there was most likely time for them to complete a remake - the Preliminary Playoffs are still not even over. DoP showed great sportsmanship in offering the regame, and everyone should stop flaming them - as they in fact offered the remake to begin with. DoP wanted a true win, and Mineski wanted to keep moving into the Playoffs - both of which did not happen.

Slahser: You can't expect the players to notice things like that during the game. Maybe they should have noticed this rule break, but a rule break like 3 Eul's might go unnoticed. The best solution is having an admin in game checking the rules, but that isn't always possible. I believe it was a fair decision that DOP was given the win.

Rwar: It’s not exactly what happened from my point of view. Mineski (playing Scourge) won a team fight in Sentinel woods, and immediately got to the second tower bottom without their creeps support (from afar). They continued to backdoor (BD) the base tower hard up until it was down to red hitpoints. It's so unreal that at this point DoP did not notice they BD'd so much, so they answer them to play on. All the problem come from that misunderstanding.

In my opinion, Mineski played a bit better game but it was still in all points a balanced game, and I'm not sure of what would have happened if those 2 towers would not have been stolen. A rematch would have been the best end of this story, even if it would have needed one more week for MYM tournament.

Plug Reform

Lead by FearDarkness, the team has been in the American, and somewhat European spotlight for a few weeks now. Fear was once considered one of the top players in the world until he retired. Plug is made up of three ex-coL players (Fear, ezy and Throzz) and a few newer players to the competitive scene.

DarkFire: Plug Reform has created a lot of talk between the DotA world. Not only was Fear one of the most skilled players in the world at his time, but also arguably the most famous. With Fear back, everyone thought Plug would be shining in the MYM PriDe #9 tournament, even myself, but they went out in the first round of the Preliminary Playoffs.

Many people have hyped up Plug too much, and we all forget they have only been a team for 3 weeks, and Fear and Throzz have only been back to DotA a little time before that. Once they have time to adjust to the new play style, I expect Plug to rise up in USA DotA, and maybe even Internationally.

Slahser: I remember playing one game with Fear before he went inactive, and he certainly had an immense understanding of the game. It's always nice to see old school people going active again, so best of luck to Fear and his team.

Rwar: I surrender.

Backdoor in League play

Backdoor has been talked about over and over, but once Asian teams starting playing in the European and American tournaments, the Backdoor issue must be talked about again. ESWC announced that their rules would have backdoor allowed on the outside towers, but not in the base - which is a mix between the International rules, and the Asian rules.

DarkFire: I have no real preference between backdooring and not backdooring. Both create new and unique strategies. Before you decide to make the rules, you need to look at the key facts. The MYM tournaments have been strictly no backdoor - which were first created by the Europeans. Americans played with full backdoor, and once they moved to IHCS, they were actually forced into allowing backdooring.

Slahser: I have always played with backdooring banned, so I have really know idea how much it changes the game if it is allowed. Though I do think it is something the European scene should at least discuss.

Rwar: I fear playing with BD allowed because I lack experience with it. I'm not sure it would bring something more interesting, especially for the spectators. Were CAL seasons more interesting than what we see now? I doubt it.

From what I know, you can abuse backdooring to make it something really unfair, so if the community wanna run tournaments with BD, we need to restrict its use, like allowing only grouped team backdoor, or to adapt the map, like giving the towers some regeneration back.

DOTA: Rwar and Slahser on Current Issues

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