For
those that follow competitive video gaming, you may know that this past week
(specifically, from the 2nd of August to the 11th of
August, with the main event of the tournament running from August 7-11), Valve
ran what was called The International 3, the largest Dota 2 tournament to date,
with the largest prize pool for a single competitive gaming event, a grand
total of $2,874,407 split across the top eight teams, with first place winning
a grand total of $1,437,204. The winners themselves, a Swedish team, Alliance,
beat Ukraine team Na’Vi in the grand finals, in a very tense and close set that
ended up in 3-2.
For those that may know me or may have read my introduction
on Zero Second Cooldown, you may know that I’m a huge fighting game fan and
lover of the Fighting Game Community. Ever since I got involved in the FGC with
Marvel vs. Capcom 3’s release in 2011, I’ve only missed viewing one major
tournament to date (CEO 2013, to be specific), and have attended a number of
tournament (primarily weekly tournaments, as well as Evolution 2013), so as a
viewer, I’m very close to the Fighting Game Community. Spending the large
majority of a weekend watching a video game tournament is not a new experience
to me in the slightest, so, now that I’ve gotten into Dota 2 a bit, I decided
to take the plunge and spend parts of last week watching different matches
leading up to the Grand Finals of The International 3, as well as the latter
half of Loser’s Finals and Grand Finals itself.
In all, I’ve been rather vehement about not getting into
eSports in the past. I’ve done my best to stand by fighting games, for better
or worse, and to try and show my dedication for the games and the community and
scene that I love. But in recent times, it’s changed, and with Brad Shoemaker
of Giant Bomb’s newfound love of Dota 2, I’ve done my part in growing up and
trying the game out, which I found out that I actually quite like. So while I
still do not consider myself eSports (due to finding the term rather dumb,
really), I do like to consider, or at the least hope, that I’ve become more
open-minded in the world of competitive video gaming.
Onto the actual event itself, I thought, in essence, it was
great, and if something like this is a look at what the future of competitive
gaming of any and all genres of video games, I am all for it. To me, the term “eSports”
is something that comes off as too sterile, too serious, and void of any real
heart, soul, or personality. While I did expect something like this to some
extent with The International 3, I was thrilled to find out that I was
completely off-base with my prediction. At many fighting game tournaments,
crowd shots will frequently have people holding up all sorts of signs, these
crowd monsters having signs of salt shakers and “BIG FAT PHONY” to wave when
someone loses their match awfully, and at The International 3, it warned my
heart to see Kappa faces and all sorts of signs that, while I may not have
gotten the joke or the reference, I still thought was great to see how this
community had such life to it compared to stories I’ve heard.
The matches, with the exception of the longest match in
competitive Dota 2 history (which ended up finishing at 98 minutes 58 seconds),
were all great, I thought. Having only played Dota 2 at a medium to low level,
and generally with Limited Heroes, so a lot of the tactics used (such as
jungling, which I’ve only said to a League of Legends playing friend as a joke
to poke fun at MOBAs and eSports) and the large majority of the heroes used at
The International 3 (“Chen? Clockwerk? Timbersaw?” were my frequent reactions
during the earlier parts of the tournament) were completely unknown to me.
While, I feel, that the commentators didn’t do the best job explaining certain
intricacies or terms (for example, I ended up asking friends what a ‘deny’ was
after The International 3), the commentary was still strong, fresh, and
vibrant. While, at least in my opinion, it didn’t quite reach a level of
something like Yipes’s commentary for Marvel vs. Capcom 3, I definitely got
excited when those hype, intense moments started happening in the game.
Alongside that, the intricacies of how the drafting worked
for picking heroes and banning heroes was incredibly interesting to me. From a
pure mindgames standpoint of a big hero being banned, and then the other team
immediately picking another hero that wasn’t caught, crazy picks being made
(from what I noticed, Venomancer was one of those big picks towards the end of
the tournament) it was all interesting and, though not quite the same, reminded
me of how Super Smash Bros. Melee high level play bans all but a number of
stages, and from a few stages, those stages are shaved down into a final stage
to play on. To me, it adds another level of depth that I didn’t quite know
about, but it makes me really think more about the intricacies of Dota 2.
Even some of the high level tactics was great. The “Fountain
Pull” trick in particular was great. Essentially having a character from the
opposing team pulled out of a fight by using a tricky to pull off, high level
tactic, is something that I love as a fighting game fan, despite not knowing
all of the finer details behind it from a Dota 2 standpoint. And the thing that
I loved even more was the divide from it: the people who didn’t want that
particular technique allowed, and the group of people that are all for it and
the knowledge that Valve was cool with it if it could be pulled off made me
even more hype. Fighting games have been known for all sorts of techniques that
aren’t necessarily intended, but are left to be used, like infinites in Marvel
vs. Capcom 2, the DHC Glitch in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (which was patched out in
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3), and TAC infinites in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom
3, and while I’ve generally believed (again, a fault of my own) that eSports is
not one to allow these unintended techniques and strategies to be done, knowing
how great Valve has been about it is heartwarming.
The Grand Finals themselves were what really got me hooked.
While the other matches I had watched beforehand were great, there’s nothing
quite like seeing the best two teams duke it out to show the world who is the
very best. Similarly to how I was kept on the edge of my seat during the Grand
Finals of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at Evolution 2013 this year, Dota 2 did
the exact same for me. The entire set was tense, a back-and-forth between
Alliance and Na’Vi. Despite not having the most knowledge of the game, I was
able to easily feed off the hype from the commentators and the crowd, and knew
just enough about Dota 2 to be able to follow the game and get sucked into the
vortex of sheer excitement. The entire set culminating into a base rush from
Alliance after Na’Vi tries to go after Roshan was easily one of the most
exciting things I’ve seen in a competitive video game, ever, bar none.
Despite my general lack of knowledge about eSports, MOBAs,
and Dota 2, I still thoroughly enjoyed what I watched of The International 3.
The sheer love that this community has for their game, the passion and
personality they show from their spectators to their commentators, all the way
to the game itself. Combofiend’s “BIONIC ARM!” set against Marn back at Final
Round 14 was the moment that got me hooked into fighting games, got me to buy a
fightstick, and essentially got me to where I am with the community today.
While I probably won’t dedicate nearly as much time to Dota 2 as I do to
fighting games, I have no doubt in my mind that, thanks to The International 3,
I’ll definitely be trying out Dota 2 some more and definitely will watch some
Dota 2 tournaments in the future.
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