After several hiccups at Shanghai, we look at what we want to see from Dota’s biggest tournaments.It’s always disappointing when ‘off-field’ incidents overshadow a big event and, unfortunately for the Dotacommunity, the Shanghai Major has been plagued by a series of occurrences that have detracted from the fantastic Dota that’s going on. And the Dota has been brilliant so far: we’ve had early upsets, with MVP Phoenix storming their way past Secret to win Group A; there’s been a wide range of heroes picked and strategies executed, with early Nature’s Prophet pushes as well as late-game Spectre victories both on display; there are so many strong teams now, with the resurgence of Alliance and the recent success of EHOME, that this feels like one of the most closely contested tournaments we’ve ever seen. But sadly, despite all this, the headlines are being made by what’s gone on behind the scenes.Tensions were first raised when, upon arrival, the players discovered that they would be playing on 60Hz, rather than the 144Hz monitors they had expected, but this was quickly resolved when Valve stepped in. Unfortunately, though, it turned out to be a sign of things to come and since day one the drama has continued, with lengthy delays, streams regularly going offline, analysts struggling with broken mics, and even the departure of the tournament’s host, James ‘2GD Harding’, and an ensuing outcry from his fans. Hopefully everything will be sorted out by the time the main event begins, but let’s explore what we hope we’ll get at future Majors.
The focus on the Dota
Above all else, at the Manila Major we don’t want to see a repeat of all the drama surrounding the Shanghai Major. The succession of speculative Reddit threads and controversial social media statements that has occupied the past few days is becoming far too familiar and, quite frankly, boring. Did you hear about FNG’s epic aegis snatch in VP’s game against EG? Probably not, because everyone was too busy providing their perspective on what constitutes an offensive joke. What about Fear’s four-man Black Hole when Evil Geniuses took down Complexity?The truth is that a large part of all the controversy arises from the fact that Dota and other eSports have been so successful over the past few years, and the community hasn’t fully adapted to the increased scrutiny and expectations that comes with this success. While in the past eSports tournaments were small, niche events and could get away with having a more casual, laidback attitude towards how things were conducted, and some fans might even miss ‘the good old days’, as we become accustomed to more professionally organised events with huge global coverage, small incidents can easily be blown into massive media stories. You can expect Valve to take every precaution to prevent these sorts of incidents in the future.
A top-notch panel
We all have our favourite casters and analysts and although some personalities can be too much for some people it’s important to find the right balance between analysis and entertainment. One of our favourite personalities is Paul “ReDeYe” Chaloner, the host of TI 5, and we hope we’ll be seeing him at a Major in the near future. Whilst it’s understandable that Valve might want to vary the hosts a little, after all there are four Majors per year, ReDeYe has an upbeat, professional attitude whilst also bringing enough banter to keep Twitch chat happy, so he’ll always be a great choice.One of the things we have liked about the Shanghai Major is that we’ve had a chance to see some of the pros sitting in on the panel and that’s absolutely fantastic for viewers so we hope it will continue in the future. The players can often provide some unique insights, especially if they’ve been playing scrims against the teams they’re watching, and it’s brilliant to hear their opinions on certain heroes or drafts. We’d also like to see more women on what is frequently quite a male-dominated panel, so we’re sure to be seeing Jorien ‘Sheever’ van der Heijden at every Valve event.
Fewer technical issues
Let’s be honest, we’re never going to see pauses and delays entirely eradicated from events: PCs will crash, players will need to change hotkeys, the unexpected will happen. But the number of technical issues at Shanghai so far has been outstanding, and often without explanation. Streams going offline during the pivotal moments of several matches is particularly frustrating for spectators, who do not want to miss the key team fight in a series they might have invested hours into watching. While European viewers might enjoy the fact that the delays have allowed them to watch more games, the downtime is especially tough for the analysists, who can end up working extremely long days.One thing we won’t be seeing so much of going forwards, are the bizarre camera errors we’ve be constantly seeing over the past few days. From replays blocking big team fights, to the cameras lingering on analysts who aren’t even speaking, production problems have led to Valve firing KeyTV, the production company, and they’ll be more judicious about who they hire in the future.
Keep the pros happy
The players often get ridiculed whenever they complain about conditions at tournaments, as if because they’re professional gamers they should be ecstatically happy all the time, but in reality they’re under a huge amount of pressure so their requests should always be taken seriously. You wouldn’t expect a professional footballer to turn up to a match only to be told at short-notice that they’ll be playing on AstroTurf, so it really wasn’t unfair for the players to be so upset about being given inferior monitors when they arrived in Shanghai, and thankfully Valve did resolve the situation quickly.With millions of dollars on the line, Dota has become an intensely competitive eSport and we want to see the top players free from distractions so they can focus on their play. Hopefully the drama during the opening stages of Shanghai hasn’t affected the players themselves too much and they can all feel comfortable going into the main event.
Another fantastic compendium
One of the highlights of this season for Dota 2 fans has been the fantastic Winter Battle Pass, with the compendium attached, and we hope we get a similar deal next time round. Other than the occasional game in which someone throws away a win aggressively trying to ensnare 40 enemy heroes as Ember Spirit, there really are no downsides to the Battle Pass. With plenty of distinctive quests, new treasures, compendium pages and seasonal terrain, you get excellent value for a small price.The new Path system, with challenge trees specific to the different roles within the game, is definitely a feature Valve must keep in the future, since it encourages players to put in some decent support performances, as well as rewarding all the carry players out there. Similarly, the tipping system is another smart device to actually boost team cooperation because the more friendly, selfless players in Dota are most likely to receive tokens from their team-mates. We expect similar tournament passes for future Majors and hopefully they’ll be just as successful.
Dota 2 hacks 