| Title | Dota 2 championships end with winners getting an engraved hubcap |
| Author | Nick Diamon |
| Posted in | Games |
| When | August 12, 2013 |
Valve's The International Dota 2 Championship ended on Sunday night with Alliance beating Na'Vi in a 5-game match-up to take the winner's spot. There's a video of the winning match, if you want to set aside an hour to watch it..
Read the full articleI have about an hour of DOTA2 under my belt - thus I know what most of the hotkeys do, but little beyond that. Despite knowing next to nothing, I thoroughly enjoyed watching several hours of The International 3 over the past couple of days.
The coverage was impressively professional, from the commentators, to the analysts, the side line reporters (Kaci Aitchison was outstanding - I wish the NFL sideline reporters could be this intelligent).
It is tricky to cater to all viewing audiences, and while I didn't understand 75% of what was being said, when I started watching I didn't understand 90% of what was being said. I think the commentators took the right approach - cater to the informed viewer, and the interested viewer will pick things up as they goes on.
Win four championships to get a complete set of sweet rims.
This was a great way to spend a weekend. I've never been much into e-sports, but as an enthusiastic DOTA 2 player i figured I'd check it out. The last match was so incredible! Honestly, Valve may have outdone themselves on this one. The coverage was simply outstanding. Finally, an ESPN for video game enthusiasts!
I agree. Although whenever I tried to watch it I seemed to just see still images of the teams about to play for 10s of minutes at a time.
Still, I have never been a sports nut. I can't get into this fantasy football office pool stuff. I sorta care around the holidays for the nostalgia of watching sports with the family. However, I do enjoy watching a good competitive video game tournament and hope that someday demographics will age enough that watching it won't feel like hiding in a closet with an AM radio trying to secretly tune in a pirate broadcast of British rock. I guess I am hoping for more acceptability, popular recognition that it is a thing, and production from the growing e-sport events.
Yeah, a lot of my friends were watching the PGA event this weekend, and while I enjoy watching golf, I didn't go out with them because my wife and I were so into watching this tournament. Of course I didn't tell them that I didn't join them for that reason.
I have always been really into the NFL, but honestly I could see giving that up to watch an e-sports tournament if the production and competition is good enough. It's a lot of fun to watch someone do something you can do at a higher level. I can throw a ball and catch and run, but when I play football I see how terrible I am. When I play DOTA I feel like I can't get to a professional level, but I can see matches going better, and when I watch DOTA I can understand the meta-game and the mechanics in a way that I haven't ever really cracked for a professional sport.
This weekend had the added bonus of getting my wife really interested in DOTA 2 which is great!
Glad to see other people have been enjoying the tournament (especially
viewers like sid - I really liked the commentary, but was wondering if
the abbreviated speech patterns would make any sense to people who
haven't played for a while). The whole grand final 5-set really couldn't have been more dramatic (and I was glad to see a new team take the title). In terms of e-sports, I think / hope the significant variability among heroes and great importance of tight team-play in dota can make it a strong contender in popularizing the field (cheers Rob + knell).
I have never played DOTA 2 (although I have watched bits and pieces of pro DOTA 2 over the years) and I found myself following the games quite well. Where I was most confused was what the items did, and the nuances of the team battles went completely over my head. That, however, did not stop me from thoroughly enjoying the games I did watch.
Cool "Ghost in the Shell" avatar. I have a T-shirt with that Laughing Man logo. I wish they'd make a modern video game worthy of that anime.