shostakovich Profile Joined August 2011 Brazil 542 Posts Last Edited: 2013-11-12 00:47:14 #1

You already know that



The league dipped their toes into Dota via the





Photo by Matt Owens.

Here's what Adam had to say about





Adam, you’ve been involved with esports for quite a while, but this is the first time MLG is getting deep into Dota. So, before we get into it, tell us, who is Adam Apicella?



I am the EVP of MLG Properties, which means I handle a little bit of everything MLG related whether it be live event execution, digital licensing, operational budgeting, and lately directly managing the Dota 2 product. I have been with MLG since November of 2003 (Columbus weekend will be my 10th year!) and as nearly everyone here has, I passed on other opportunities because I believed in the vision that Sundance and Mike built this company on.





Do you remember when you heard about Dota for the first time? What was your first impression at that time and what is your impression now?



I first heard about Dota while playing WoW. MLG staff (full timers, referees, pro players etc.) have always created guilds for every WoW expansion and played until boredom set in. Usually the core was folks like myself, Ryan Moore, JP, Ryan Danford (Final Boss’ Saiyan), CR (Detach), etc. and they would always talk about Dota.



Flash forward to today and my first experience with Dota 2 was watching TI3. I was very impressed by the production, the talent level of casters, the games, and how recognizable the players/teams were to the fans. Overall it was very exciting and for not having watched prior, very intriguing.





When did MLG start to make plans for Dota 2?



I know many people don’t agree with this, but we’re pretty strict in our policy of waiting until a game is officially released before we consider it for official Pro Circuit status. Dota 2 was ‘officially released’ in July and after we saw TI3 we knew we had to do something with the game.





What tournaments or leagues inspired you when you set out to put together MLG Dota 2? Excluding TI3, which tournament has been your favourite?



We did not really look to other leagues to help shape our Dota 2 product, we reached out directly to the community, asked a lot of questions, and tried to dynamically shape our product based on feedback. We knew there were great studios out there like Beyond the Summit, Join Dota, etc. and we knew that at a baseline that working with an established partner was the best course of action.



I think in terms of events, when we saw the recent





You mentioned somewhere that MLG underestimated the entire process of making the MLG bundle. Can you tell us about the challenges you faced in getting the bundle done?



The in game item creation process is pretty difficult. I think if you look at the initial works of today’s top artists you’ll see a pretty noticeable improvement in their work from then to now. We made the mistake of attempting to cram months of learning on the job into a very short execution timeline for Columbus. At the end of the day, we were not ready to roll out our home grown products for this event. With Valve’s help we got in contact with the best artists in the workshop to create the current bundle.



We still plan to roll out the product array we have been working on, but we did not want to release something the community would not be happy with. We’re going to take our time and make sure our product offering is polished before we release. The bottom line is the workshop requires not only artistic talent and knowledge of 3D animation, but you need to understand the canvas you’re painting on.





The The MLG bundle comes with this courier, and more!



What were your expectations about the bundle? At the time I’m writing this, the prizepool has doubled.



We had zero expectations because we have no data to leverage. Our NA Online Ticket sold X and we did the math so we knew TI3 sold Y, so we assumed our bundle would sell between 2,000 units and 600,000!



In all seriousness, we are completely blown away by the reaction of the community. It has been 4 days and we have raised over $51,000 already, money that will directly go to the teams/players competing at MLG. We have time before Columbus ends so I hope that number goes even higher!



Also, just to point it out, every team that competes will share in the prize purse. The current prize structure is: 1st 50%, 2nd 20%, 3rd/4th 10%, 3rd/4th 10%, 5th-9th 2%. We feel that this prize structure still makes winning the event very important, but allows teams competing to ensure they don’t lose money by attending.





Does this response from the community change the plans already laid for the MLG Dota 2 League and the event at MLG Anaheim?



We are going to continue to adapt our plans based on feedback from the Dota 2 fanbase. Our priority is to develop a large audience for the game in the US. Whatever the best way to do that is, we will pursue it. We are already discussing tweaks to our announced 2014 format, but the mission is still there: build something large and sustainable in North America that will culminate at the MLG Championship in Anaheim, CA from June 20-22, 2014.





Why did MLG decide to develop their own vídeo player instead of using an existing streaming service like Twitch?



Actually, this isn’t the first time we have used our own player. For past Championship events, we utilized our own streaming platform and have been refining the player over the years. The MLG player is superior in quality to anything else on the market already and we will continue to improve it globally. Our objective was to create a premium viewing experience for our fans. We think Twitch is great at allowing thousands of gamers to create and stream user generated gaming content, but we needed a solution for our premium content. We think both the MLG.TV player and Twitch will help the overall eSports ecosystem develop. We’ll be releasing more information next week about the MLG player, so stay tuned for more details.





I asked Thiago Vidotto on a past interview if the thought that teams and organizations were exploring the opportunities that the Dota 2 Workshop offers for earning money, and he told me that the Workshop is probably not rentable enough for them, that it's more useful for advertising and giving something back to the fans. How are you guys approaching the Dota 2 Workshop?



I’ll answer this the same way I answer the ‘why do you care so much about ad block’ comment. There is no magic revenue bullet in eSports. Whether it be live event ticket sales, advertising, sponsorship, or digital licensing like the Dota 2 workshop, every penny counts in terms of viable revenue streams. I don’t think the Dota 2 workshop will ever be a massive revenue line for MLG but I do think it is another stream flowing into a river.





Who is the best and worst Dota 2 player on the MLG team?



Worst is definitely Mike Sepso. He is not great at PC games and he even stinks at console games. The best is probably Kasey Kramer or Ben Balbona. Ben is probably better because he secretly plays at work and thinks the rest of us don’t know.





Thank you for this interview. Do you have any last words or shoutouts?



I would like to give a big thank you to Valve for all of the help and advice as we have built towards MLG Columbus. I would also like to thank Thiago, Danidem, and Moerbbb for working with us on the bundle. Lastly I would like to thank all of the community members who I have bothered endlessly with questions about what we should do.



Before this concludes I would like to answer one question that I get a lot:



How do I best support MLG and thank them for all of the work that has been put into Columbus?



Outside of You already know that MLG's Columbus bundle has already raised $50,000+ as of this writing , doubling the event's prize pool. This is obviously great news for the North American scene, and for Dota worldwide by extension! Team Liquid caught up with Adam Apicella , Executive Vice President of MLG Properties, and the man in charge of everything Dota at the company.The league dipped their toes into Dota via the MLG Fall Invitational , pictured below, and are now ready to dive right into the deep end.Here's what Adam had to say about MLG Columbus , the biggest North American Dota 2 event of the season so far.I am the EVP of MLG Properties, which means I handle a little bit of everything MLG related whether it be live event execution, digital licensing, operational budgeting, and lately directly managing the Dota 2 product. I have been with MLG since November of 2003 (Columbus weekend will be my 10th year!) and as nearly everyone here has, I passed on other opportunities because I believed in the vision that Sundance and Mike built this company on.I first heard about Dota while playing WoW. MLG staff (full timers, referees, pro players etc.) have always created guilds for every WoW expansion and played until boredom set in. Usually the core was folks like myself, Ryan Moore, JP, Ryan Danford (Final Boss’ Saiyan), CR (Detach), etc. and they would always talk about Dota.Flash forward to today and my first experience with Dota 2 was watching TI3. I was very impressed by the production, the talent level of casters, the games, and how recognizable the players/teams were to the fans. Overall it was very exciting and for not having watched prior, very intriguing.I know many people don’t agree with this, but we’re pretty strict in our policy of waiting until a game is officially released before we consider it for official Pro Circuit status. Dota 2 was ‘officially released’ in July and after we saw TI3 we knew we had to do something with the game.We did not really look to other leagues to help shape our Dota 2 product, we reached out directly to the community, asked a lot of questions, and tried to dynamically shape our product based on feedback. We knew there were great studios out there like Beyond the Summit, Join Dota, etc. and we knew that at a baseline that working with an established partner was the best course of action.I think in terms of events, when we saw the recent Starladder finals it was validation that we were onto something in terms of direction. The event was smaller than MLG typically operates, but the fans in attendance were going insane and viewership was through the roof.The in game item creation process is pretty difficult. I think if you look at the initial works of today’s top artists you’ll see a pretty noticeable improvement in their work from then to now. We made the mistake of attempting to cram months of learning on the job into a very short execution timeline for Columbus. At the end of the day, we were not ready to roll out our home grown products for this event. With Valve’s help we got in contact with the best artists in the workshop to create the current bundle.We still plan to roll out the product array we have been working on, but we did not want to release something the community would not be happy with. We’re going to take our time and make sure our product offering is polished before we release. The bottom line is the workshop requires not only artistic talent and knowledge of 3D animation, but you need to understand the canvas you’re painting on.We had zero expectations because we have no data to leverage. Our NA Online Ticket sold X and we did the math so we knew TI3 sold Y, so we assumed our bundle would sell between 2,000 units and 600,000!In all seriousness, we are completely blown away by the reaction of the community. It has been 4 days and we have raised over $51,000 already, money that will directly go to the teams/players competing at MLG. We have time before Columbus ends so I hope that number goes even higher!Also, just to point it out, every team that competes will share in the prize purse. The current prize structure is: 1st 50%, 2nd 20%, 3rd/4th 10%, 3rd/4th 10%, 5th-9th 2%. We feel that this prize structure still makes winning the event very important, but allows teams competing to ensure they don’t lose money by attending.We are going to continue to adapt our plans based on feedback from the Dota 2 fanbase. Our priority is to develop a large audience for the game in the US. Whatever the best way to do that is, we will pursue it. We are already discussing tweaks to our announced 2014 format, but the mission is still there: build something large and sustainable in North America that will culminate at the MLG Championship in Anaheim, CA from June 20-22, 2014.Actually, this isn’t the first time we have used our own player. For past Championship events, we utilized our own streaming platform and have been refining the player over the years. The MLG player is superior in quality to anything else on the market already and we will continue to improve it globally. Our objective was to create a premium viewing experience for our fans. We think Twitch is great at allowing thousands of gamers to create and stream user generated gaming content, but we needed a solution for our premium content. We think both the MLG.TV player and Twitch will help the overall eSports ecosystem develop. We’ll be releasing more information next week about the MLG player, so stay tuned for more details.I’ll answer this the same way I answer the ‘why do you care so much about ad block’ comment. There is no magic revenue bullet in eSports. Whether it be live event ticket sales, advertising, sponsorship, or digital licensing like the Dota 2 workshop, every penny counts in terms of viable revenue streams. I don’t think the Dota 2 workshop will ever be a massive revenue line for MLG but I do think it is another stream flowing into a river.Worst is definitely Mike Sepso. He is not great at PC games and he even stinks at console games. The best is probably Kasey Kramer or Ben Balbona. Ben is probably better because he secretly plays at work and thinks the rest of us don’t know.I would like to give a big thank you to Valve for all of the help and advice as we have built towards MLG Columbus. I would also like to thank Thiago, Danidem, and Moerbbb for working with us on the bundle. Lastly I would like to thank all of the community members who I have bothered endlessly with questions about what we should do.Before this concludes I would like to answer one question that I get a lot:Outside of buying our bundle , the best thing you can do to support MLG’s Dota2 efforts is to watch our streams on MLG.tv . I know many of you will take advantage of the free in game client viewing but I ask that you consider watching both. We will have interviews, segments, crowd shots, etc. all available in 1080p to keep you entertained. Watching our stream on our player (even dual boxing with in game viewing) is the absolute best show of support for MLG from 11/22-11/24!