Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

[sportsdude]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

I watched way more of TI3 than I thought I was going to. I got hooked. I watched it pretty much all day Saturday and Sunday, minus a few hours I spent playing a compendium match, and a little SC2, so I could get a yellow smeevil.

All around a fantastic tournament. The grand final was great, I had a lot of fun watching the other teams as like like Orange, TongFu, DK, Team Liquid. The only thing I was disappointed about what the Navi and Alliance stuck to similar heroes in the grand final. Of course, with all the money on the line it's hard to go away from your best.

I for sure am going to keep playing this game, and hopefully once I get a little better we can run some OS five-man teams.

[cake612]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

I also watched basically non-stop all weekend. It's crazy how no matter how long a game has been going or who is ahead by how much, one team fight changes everything. Saw it several times where I thought a match was pretty much over and then the losing team takes the next team fight, takes a tower or two and all of a sudden it's a new game. I even turned off a match a couple times and would do something else for a bit only to see the losing team had won.

I'd love to see a couple more American teams next year, seeing the reaction Liquid got after winning their lower bracket match was awesome. Alliance dominated start to finish except for the 2 games in the Finals and will be a force for as long as they stay together. I was pulling for Na'Vi but I slowly came around on Alliance considering I knew nothing about them when the tourney started. Their kind of a funny team, a bunch of skinny nordic looking dudes and then Admiral Bulldog, who just dominates with Nature's Prophet and kind of looks like Kevin Heffernan.

Also just wanted to say great job by Valve to get Kaci to do the interviews. Makes such a huge difference having a real TV personality even if she didn't know anything about Dota, it's just about being comfortable on TV and getting interviewees to open up a little bit. Some of the interviews were pretty great. My favorite moment is probably the chinese player just saying "good" to all her questions then saying he's had diarrhea everyday.

I thought the "studio desk" was horrible. A bunch of terrible inside jokes and awkward pauses. No matter how bad a local sports station is, it's miles better than some of the stuff they put out. Just shows there's a huge difference between streaming matches online and some youtube shows and an actual live event where your on camera for hours in person with other people. I'm not saying it's easy, just watch the NFL draft and they have plenty of terrible exchanges but at least you can sort of forgive them since the really noticeable ones are pretty rare. They had multiple noticeable ones every segment.

Part of me thinks the only way to fix this is Valve needs to put on a couple smaller events that still have the between game studio desk and have the crew work together a couple times at least. Currently it feels like a bunch of Dota nerds who troll each other in ingame chat but have never actually hung out.

I feel like that's sort of the last step to really make this a mainstream event. The stream quality, interviews and pretaped segments were generally great. The pre and post game analysis need a complete overhaul. Personally I think they just need a real host. Someone who has experience with sports studio shows like this and can just reel the other guys in when their being ridiculous and mostly unfunny unless you've played 1000 hours of dota and watch tons of pro matches. Also do not have Bruno on if he's going to dress like an idiot. I know it's a video game tournament and they should have fun with it but at the same time, as soon as you see him your like "oh, yeah this is a video game tournament."

Overall though I don't want sound negative. Valve did an incredible job and is clearly doing everything they can to make this a mainstream event and I think their making all the right decisions. I'd love to see another smaller tournament or two put on by Valve. My dream though is they make a real league like any other pro sport that runs several months ending with the International crowning the champ for the year.

[LingeringRegime]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

^ Totally agree with the Desk crew. There were so many cringeworthy moments. And what was the deal with the guy on the far left with all of his crazy color combinations each segment? He seemed to be forcing that way too hard.

I will say that overall I was impressed with the play by play and color commentary. That was the first time I have watched a DOTA 2 event and the action at times was just a big sensory overload. Those guys in the booth earned my respect trying to break all the action down for the viewers.

They should try to get Gus Johnson in the booth sometime. That would be something to hear!

[bghost]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

agreed, they need a host to bring it together.

[MachoMyers]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

On the road around Portugal so haven't played in two weeks. Serious withdrawals! Back to reality next week and getting absolutely stomped, can't wait!

[sportsdude]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

My first game that I truly carried.

[702]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

Bumping a dead thread to point out dota 2 going to have the largest esports championship in history. Prize pool over $10 million and espn going to carry it on espn3 and I believe a preview show on espn2 I saw somewhere? pretty neat.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/gaming/2014/07/17/espn-dota/12792079/

[ubernoob]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

The Final will be broadcast live on ESPN2. It will also have a pre-show before it, but I'm not 100% sure if that will be on ESPN2 or ESPN3.

[Sandman42]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

The Final will be broadcast live on ESPN2. It will also have a pre-show before it, but I'm not 100% sure if that will be on ESPN2 or ESPN3.

Other way around. The Final is on ESPN3. The preshow for the final is on ESPN2 at 11:30 PM.

[R1zzo23]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

I turned this on for a few minutes. I play a lot of League of Legends but could never get into DOTA. It was just so unforgiving at the start and I never had anyone really explain to me the intricacies of the game. LoL is my bread and butter but this game, if I had time to fully understand it, would be nuts to play.

[ubernoob]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

Other way around. The Final is on ESPN3. The preshow for the final is on ESPN2 at 11:30 PM.

You sure it's not on ESPN2 as well?

What's more, prior to ESPN 2's broadcast of the final match late Sunday evening, the network will host a preview show with expert analysis and even an interview with Dota 2-developer Valve's Gabe Newell.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/07/18/espn-will-broadcast-a-10-million-gaming-tournament-this-weekend/?ncid=rss_truncated&a_dgi=aolshare_twitter

[MizzouBravesFan]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

So I'm intrigued by DOTA and MOBAs in general...is the best route just to go straight into DOTA and pay my dues and learn or baby step with others and then make the transition?

I just don't know how playing other MOBAs will benefit me if I'm planning on playing DOTA mostly considering they're all pretty different...right?

[sportsdude]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

So I'm intrigued by DOTA and MOBAs in general...is the best route just to go straight into DOTA and pay my dues and learn or baby step with others and then make the transition?

I just don't know how playing other MOBAs will benefit me if I'm planning on playing DOTA mostly considering they're all pretty different...right?

If you want to play DOTA, then do it. You don't need to learn to play other MOBAs before DOTA, that will just give you bad habits. Yes, the various MOBAs out there are very different even if they appear similar from a distance.

Yes, DOTA is hard to learn. There's a tutorial, there's bot games of all kinds of difficulty, there's the library where you can read about every hero, ability, and item. There's also some terrific guides out there, specifically Purge's Welcome to DOTA: You Suck guide found here: http://www.purgegamers.com/welcome-to-dota-you-suck

Learning DOTA is a process, there is no moment where things click and all of a sudden you're getting rampages left and right. Expect slow progress. Don't be discouraged by bad games, learn from them. You can go back and watch any game you've ever played to see where your mistakes where, and how to avoid them in the next game. Earlier in this thread I posted a picture of me carrying a game as Timbersaw, saying it was the first game in which I carried. That was my 41st game, not including bot games. I am not trying to say this to dissuade you, the learning process can be a lot of fun, and should be. Play with friends and it will be even better.

[ubernoob]

Re: Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

Vici just ****ing dominated game 1 there. Wow.

[LingeringRegime]

Defense of the Ancients 2 (PC/Mac)

New bee was trolling everyone.

My money was on the Chinese team.


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