DOTA2

[luckton]

Soooo....how can an interested individual get in to playing this without having to wait on Steam to 'maybe' invite them from the survey list?

I'm not sure, but the info on the store page leads me to believe you can just straight up buy access now, can you not?

Ugh...$30?  I'll wait.  MoP is coming out soon, and my money's on that.

[Megrim]

Aaaaaand we're off; International 2 broadcasting is up. Press the "Coverage" button for a list of streams.

[Fordel]

The little pennants you can buy to support your favorite team are genius by valve. If the team whose pennant you are equipping does something noteworthy in game, you can get a little prize, like a courier or item or whatever. It shows how many people are watching with a pennant, Mousesports had like 12,000 at one point. 

Apparently the teams get a cut of each pennant sale too, though I have no idea how much.

[Rasix]

Any thing good come out of these chests that I've been getting?  Does someone want one?

[Fordel]

Each chest has a chance for an item for the specific hero the chest represents, and the possibility of bonus items... but you need to buy a key to unlock them.


I don't think there is any way to know what the chest will give you though. Maybe something awesome, maybe not. 

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Apparently the teams get a cut of each pennant sale too, though I have no idea how much.

I would hope most of it, since it's basically their team's merchandise. My automatic assumption was that Valve was taking a relatively small cut, as opposed to the other way around -- it would be disappointing to hear otherwise.

Overall though I have to say, the e-sports and community tech on display in DOTA -- especially with the free access to the International -- is really impressive. I have no idea how it compares to other major e-sports games like SC2, etc. but compared to LoL, it's like night and day.

[Fordel]

The Dota spectator client and all the little team bonuses widgets are well ahead of SC2 at this point. Valve is really putting resources into the competitive/e-sports side of things while Blizzard just kinda assumed SC2 would repeat SC1 with minimal interaction on their part.


The SC scene is more established though, and has a better handle on how to put on a production for the most part.



Though we'll see how it goes once the international proper starts up with live crowds and everyone being in the venue and all that.

[Malakili]

Blizzard has their architecture working against them.  All playrs AND observers must be synced up, so they cant do a random observer thing like dota because if anyone lags, the game stops.  It would probably help them with getting more people into esports if they could just pop on and watch a random game between grand masters, but it seems impossible given the way it currently works.

[Fordel]

Blizzard can't even provide LAN play or resume after a DC yet. Every single major tourney has had at least ONE series put into question because a 30 minute game had to be replayed because Bnet farted or a PC crashed and there was no way to recover where they left off.

The caster tools started out strong, but they haven't supported it at all from that initial blip. Think of how useful the Dota2 whiteboard drawing casters can do would be in a SC2 match.



They just got left behind.


LGD is still undefeated in the prelims it seems. CLG lost a pair though. It's all China so far, except for CLG.

[Malakili]

I agree.  At least resume from replay is coming in Heart of the Swarm, which will help to avoid the major tournament problems.  But things like a whiteboard would be excellent for sure.   

[Rasix]

Heh, LoL is holding their North American Regionals for Season 2 during The International 2.  Both are being held in Seattle as well.  THIS IS ODD.  I imagine both will do rather well as the games seem to have their own die hard audiences that don't mix very well. 

Not that it matters, I'll be on vacation so I won't be able to watch either.  At best, I'll get to watch replays of events I already know the outcome of.

Now that GW2 is out, I tend to only get a game in a night.  My Tidehunter is getting pretty solid, although my skill rating for him is apparently bad (I have no idea what is better, higher or lower number).  My K/D/A averages are probably pretty solid (if I could see them) and I'm 4/1 Win/loss.   The loss is probably from a game with an early disconnection that I left once it was safe to.  I tend to forgo building a blink dagger, since doing a blink ult would be wasted on people with no idea on how to follow up or team fight.  Might help with chasing, however.  I somewhat have to carry with him, since most of the carries on my team (that insta-locked) can't farm or team fight worth shit.  I got an Usra in a game last night and I made him look like a god.  Anyone you hit with a gush is going to die and after a ravage, he just could clean up with ease.

[cmlancas]

Tide is a pretty sicknasty dude.  That ult is  .

Remember that your proficiency is compared to others near your skill level.  This doesn't mean your Tide is bad--it could just be others' are better.

We still haven't played together yet...hit me up sometime!

[Rasix]

Heh, my last 4 Tidehunter matches: 7/4/17, 9/0/9, 9/4/17, 7/3/20.  I find it hard to believe that nooblers are doing better than that, but perhaps they are.   Might be like Ursa, Naga, Pudge, or Rikki where everyone seems to end up with ridiculous k/d/a in this bracket.
 
Ohh god, the broodmother in my last game had 26 last hits in a 50 minute game.  And was only involved in 8 kills. Sniper was near invisible as well. It was just me and Ursa with a touch of Outworld Destroyer.  Heh.

We still haven't played together yet...hit me up sometime!

You're EST right?  I typically don't play until 9-10 PST. 

[Ingmar]

Maybe it factors other stuff like gold and xp/min too - although with those numbers I'd think those would be high as well.

[Fordel]

The LoL tourney is at PAX, is it not?

[Rasix]

Yes, it is.  

Since I've only got time for one MOBA in my life at a time, I haven't been following competitive LoL as closely as I usually do.   TSM will probably take it.  Although CLG, Curse, or Dig are solid as well.  CLG will likely come out of their bracket to face TSM.  TD is an interesting dark horse pick as they've won some stuff, but they tend to run very traditional comps, which might not play out so well in a LAN setting.

The one bad thing about the competitive LOL scene is that you can end up with really passive play, especially out of the North American teams.  Europe and Korea (especially Korea, holy shit) are a lot different.  Season 2 finals could be a lot of fun due to this, but to be honest, I expect this tournament to be a bit dull.

[Fordel]

Small bit of news:

The Team Liquid for Dota2 is going to be Team Liquid http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=364639




The International proper starts tomorrow as well: http://blog.dota2.com/2012/08/main-event-day-1-schedule-posted/

The EG vs. iG game is either going to be REALLY good, or REALLY bad. Depends which EG shows up.

I would be very surprised if Navi doesn't beat DK. Depends how drunk Navi gets.

I have no idea who will win in Col vs Zenith.

LGD is going to roll Orange.


I'm going to be very sad if mTw doesn't make it out losers.

The rest of losers bracket is entirely dependent on which version of the team shows up. The good one or the lose in 15 mins one. Mouz, M5 and Darer are all early momentum teams, if they get a bad start, they lose, the end.

[cmlancas]

Bhodi, megrim, and I have been playing fairly consistently over the past couple weeks, so if you still haven't tried Dota2, now's a good time.

Also, yes, you can play this game on a trackpad.  That is all.   

[eldaec]

The bots really are quite a lot better at dota than bottom tier players.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

I would be very surprised if Navi doesn't beat DK. Depends how drunk Navi gets.

If anyone is wondering which of today's replays to catch up on, this would be my recommended series. Lots of good games in general, though, from what I saw -- though it could just be the additional tension of non-group-stage matches.

[Megrim]

Na`Vi DK game 3 had me in tears. I was standing up on my seat, practically screaming at the monitor.

[Malakili]

Na'vi played really well, especially considering they basically spotted DK 2 kills.

[Fordel]

The Chinese teams are just so damn strong overall though.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

The second Navi vs. iG game just blew my mind.

[Fordel]

Navi is pretty good at this dota thing. 

[Malakili]

The second Navi vs. iG game just blew my mind.

The entire series was pretty much non stop awesome.

[Llyse]

Amazing Series, Amazing Event, makes me believe in a future for Professional gaming again after the collapse of Broodwar in Korea

[bhodi]

This.. this is a good website.

https://dotabuff.com/players/3850239


See which friends are draggin' you down! :)

[Malakili]

After watching the International all weekend I eagarly sat down to play a game today and basically got crushed trying to emulate even the basic stuff the pros do.  All that teamwork looks so cool and fun on stream, but my reality was more like people barely being able to group up together in the same place, let alone follow up on my blink/ravage initiations. Yay pubbing.  

[Llyse]

After watching the International all weekend I eagarly sat down to play a game today and basically got crushed trying to emulate even the basic stuff the pros do.  All that teamwork looks so cool and fun on stream, but my reality was more like people barely being able to group up together in the same place, let alone follow up on my blink/ravage initiations. Yay pubbing.  

Yep, saw my close friends play last night with 1 random enigma. Enigma farmed a bkb from neutrals to do Blackhole but they had a Beastmaster and Tidehunter on their team to counter that unless he had perfect positioning... He didn't.  

Good to see that Megr1m's crew aren't bringing you down TOO much Bhodi (Buy more Battlefuries)  

[Thrawn]

This.. this is a good website.

https://dotabuff.com/players/3850239


See which friends are draggin' you down! :)

Never playing with you again.  

I'll happily brag on my 76% Rubick win rate though, easily my favorite hero to play.  Interesting site to browse, my game with the most ever deaths (17) we won.  My game with the most ever kills (23) we lost.

[Fordel]

After watching the International all weekend I eagarly sat down to play a game today and basically got crushed trying to emulate even the basic stuff the pros do.  All that teamwork looks so cool and fun on stream, but my reality was more like people barely being able to group up together in the same place, let alone follow up on my blink/ravage initiations. Yay pubbing.  

Did you tell them that you were going to Blink and Ravage? 


Like easily the second most common issue pubs have (first being shitty at farming overall), is people assume everyone can read their fucking minds.

[Malakili]

After the first failure yes.  In fact, we had a heavy AoE team, so I kept explaining that we needed to chain our ultis together because we couldn't compete in the right clicking game.  But we just failed time and time again to do it.   Plus, you do need to have SOME awareness of what your team mates are likely to do.  Obviously there will be some miscommunications in pubs, but it isn't that hard to watch people and get a quick idea of how they are playing and act accordingly.  I'm not expecting perfect communication, but if you pick a stun heavy AoE team, you should probably understand what that means in terms of what you need to do to win.  Way too many people want to play every team comp the exact same way.

[Lastwolf]

I find that group setup isn't really thought about heavily, I often see two junglers, junglers in lane, no support heroes, no tanks, no heavy disables and poor team co-ordination.

I don't help, I tend to random so I can learn or relearn as many new heroes as I can on the way up (although the mechanics are basically the same as dota 1, I last played a /j allstars game some years ago). I've had my fair share of shocking games as a result.

I wonder what the match making system is like because I found in LoL the higher you leveled up the more competent the teams naturally became and we started having junglers etc.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Interesting site to browse, my game with the most ever deaths (17) we won.  My game with the most ever kills (23) we lost.

Yeah, so nice to be reminded of my 27 kill game with Gyrocopter that I lost... and my 35 assist game with Gyrocopter (a different game in which I turtled up a rapier) that I also lost. Apparently Gyrocopter is my hero of choice for extreme stat results/general failure to carry hard enough.

(Edit: Also pretty clear that watching the International has made me play worse -- on an impressive 4-17 run over the last three days.)