On July 3rd, 2017 Valve made a big announcement regarding the esports calendar for Dota 2. Just a few weeks before The International 2017, Valve made an announcement which would change the face of Dota 2 esports as it is.. Dota 2 is one of the biggest games under the Valve kitty, one which has repeatedly garnered support from the very top over at Valve. Gaben’s appearance at The International is something that has not been seen in any of the CS GO majors till now.

Over the past year Dota 2 has seen a steady decline in the number of third party events. With the International encompassing all other investment in the esports scene, there were several apprehensions about the growth and the stability of the scene apart from the International. The community had also started rallying behind such a notion and much of the blame was laid with Valve and the team handling Dota 2 esports.

Is Dota 2 Dying?

Dota 2 is a dead game

This became a meme especially when one of the most well known personalities in the scene, Tobi Wan voiced his opinion on the matter.Tobi Wan has been a community figure involved with Dota 2 since a long time.. When he made a statement regarding the declining status of the Dota 2 esports system, the community lapped up the discussion & the various pros and cons of the system.

Every game will have several problems associated with it. Dota 2 is no exception, but there are certain problems which started getting a bit out of hand. Some of the Problems:

Dota 2 has not seen increasing player count since quite sometime

Lack of interest from third party event organisers

Lack of money in the esport scene apart from The International.

Player Count

The player count for the MOBA game has been stabilising for sometime now. The huge growth that the game witnessed in it’s earliest days has definitely worn off and we are seeing a plateauing player growth.The initial announcement of Dota 2 resulted in Valve servers crashing. It was a marquee event which basically led Valve to believe that they had something big on their hands. There are many reasons for a plateauing player base. With the game being as mature as Dota 2 and with similar spin-offs such as HoN, LoL being able to garner their fair share of loyal fans, Dota 2 has probably reached a limit.

This being said, Dota 2 still boasts of one of the biggest player bases in the esports scene and definitely one of the most recognizable titles. With the International serving as an annual advertisement for the game, we see Dota 2 constantly making the headlines for the biggest esports title in the industry.

There are several reasons for this behaviour of the Graphs. There are two phases in the graph which show either a flattening graph or a steady decline. The first dip which happens around December 15 might just be a lot of new players leaving the game. The next dip however is probably directly related to the release of a new patch (Dota 2 7.00). This patch was extremely controversial and not liked by everyone in the community. Bringing about fundamental changes to the map layout which included features such as changing the Roshan Pit location this patch had a very high number of opposition.

Vanishing tournaments

Dota 2 teams had a stability problem. With the entire scene being based around the International, we had seen teams growing increasingly unstable with their rosters. The frequency of the roster changes made it impossible for fans to keep a connect with their favorite teams and players.

This was also bad news for the organisations which basically had little control over how to engage and interact with their fans. The lack of a stable roster meant that most of the time and energy for the organisation was spent in and around ensuring roster stability ( a futile attempt at that ).

Valve attempted to stop the blood-loss via enacting roster lock periods, player transfer windows etc for the Majors. But there was always a time before The International when teams would undergo massive changes to their rosters.

With the major money into Dota 2 coming in the form of The International, most of the tournament organisers did not want to invest in the scene. We were seeing a declining number of tournaments over the years and it was a sign of worry for many. A declining esports scene spells the doom for the industry as a whole especially when concerned with a big game such as Dota 2.

Lack of Money

Lack of tournaments directly relates to lack of money. The International overshadowed the entire esports scene to a great extent, but it did more harm than good for Dota 2 itself. The huge prize pools meant that the other tournaments could not gain recognition and awareness in the scene.

The focus of each and every organisation has always been getting an invite to The International. This invite not only grants them a level of prestige unforeseen in esports, but it also ensures a financial viability for the players and the organisation. Even if a team does not win the tournament, they are still much better off than not qualifying at all.

It’s really surprising to say that Dota 2 lacks money, but it’s true. The entire system of the tournament structure is based on third party event organisers wanting to become Number 1. The desire to become one of the best event organisers basically comes down to having a reward at the end of the tunnel. The reward in esports industry is the Major system ( in CS GO). However Dota 2 basically did not have such an incentive mainly because all the Majors and big events were the sole dominion of Valve.

The Initial announcement

Link to the Initial Announcement

The initial announcement was made on July 3rd, a few weeks before the big ticket International Event. This announcement set the ground rolling for what is promising to be a really exciting year for Dota 2 overall. Dota 2 has suffered from several problems over the course of the past years. We have already outlined some of these problems, but there have also been several that have not been detailed in this article.

This announcement by Valve definitely comes after several consultations with professional players and personalities involved in the scene. The early announcement was a way to warn the organisations about the impending changes to the scene. With Roster changes and instability being a part of the scene post The International, Valve did not want to catch anyone unawares.

This is not the first time that a game developer would want to organise the esports calendar for their title. We have seen similar ventures being undertaken by Riot & Blizzard with their titles. Riot have had a structured league for LoL for a few years now. Blizzard’s recent adventure and failings with the Overwatch League are very well documented on esports-betting-tips.

Lack of a proper structure in various esports titles basically meant that any potential investor non-endemic to esports was afraid to enter such a market. It was rightfully deemed as the “wild west”. This is the same structure of events that almost every Game Developer is looking to avoid. We have seen the amazing forecasts of esports growing at a phenomenal pace. But without any guidelines and structure around the professional scene it is simply not possible.

The Updated Event list

Valve have revealed the initial list of tournaments for the upcoming season. The list includes some well known event organisers such as Starladder, PGL, Perfect World, ESL, EPICENTER. With the events being distributed across EU, CIS , NA and SEA this pro circuit is rightfully a global circuit.

In the past we had seen the professional matches come to a halt around The International. This is not unprecedented simply cause of the amount of attention and prize share that The International commands. Each successive year has seen The International reaching new records in terms of prize pools. While this should be good news for Dota 2, it really is a double edged sword. The grand event engulfs news about all other Dota 2 events, leaving no scope for improvement for the third party events. Naturally this led to a steady decline in the number of Dota 2 events.

The full list of Dota 2 Majors and Minors for the upcoming season can be found on Dota 2.com

Events can still register themselves as a Major / Minor event. These events will have their prize pools matched by Valve in what is a significant direct investment in the future of third party event organisers in Dota 2. This also means an end to the Valve sponsored Dota 2 events. It’s a stark contrast to the CS GO pro circuit, but Valve have always wanted to experiment across their games with different financial methods.

Further details about the event can be found on the Dota 2 webpage including the event registration links.

What is the new system?

Under the new system the entire esports calendar has been overhauled. Instead of hosting a couple of Valve organised Majors in the year, Valve will directly support the third party events. These tournaments will have a direct impact on a team’s chances to make it to The International. Valve have created two tiers of tournaments : The Minors and The Majors. These tiers are decided based on the prize pool of the tournament.

Additionally Valve will match the prize pool of these tournaments. Taking an example of the next upcoming event in Dota 2, Starladder which will be held in Ukraine from October 11-15. The Starladder SL Invitational 3 will have a prize pool of $300,000. This includes $150,000 put up by Starladder and $150,000 matched by Valve

This investment by Valve essentially means that the tournament organisers can use their resources into investing in different aspects of the event. They will be more focussed on the creative aspect of the tournaments and in bringing about new additions to the stream to make it more entertaining.

There are other advantages of the new system as well. They provide for a very stable circuit along with bringing in more investments into the scene.

Some salient features of the new system include :

Points to be calculated for the top three players of each team

Fixed Schedule

Automated & Performance based invite system for The International.

Points Calculation System

The points for the various tournaments throughout the year will be calculated only from the top three points earning players in the team. This ensures that the organisations will give a fair chance to new and upcoming players in the season. With Dota 2 becoming more and more popular, it is natural to assume that we will see more talent which were previously unknown. Sumail is one such example of a player who has made it big, despite not being as well known previously. He is also extremely young ( He is only 16 years old when he won’t he TI).

This decision to only have the top three account for a team’s chances to get an invite is very smart. It provides a good balance between the tem’s stability as well as giving new players a decent chance to make it to The International. Obviously it does remain open to criticism and potentially changes if there is something broken.

Fixed Schedule

One of the biggest features of this change is that the players and organisations will be aware of a fixed schedule for the upcoming season. These changes effectively mean that the players will be able to plan their entire year, their breaks, their visas into other countries accordingly.

This is something that even the professionals in CS GO are envious of. JW, one of the biggest stars in CS GO also wishes CS GO would have a fixed calendar like Dota 2. The lack of clarity in the CS GO esports calendar means that the players have to be ready to drop a potential tournament when a bigger title comes along.

With the DotA schedule i tweeted out saying i was jelly, i wasnt really jelly about the amount, but knowing when an event will happend — Jesper Wecksell (@jwCSGO) August 1, 2017

Automated Invites for The International

Gaining entry into The International is the biggest objective for every organisation in Dota 2. This ensures that they remain financially viable as well as a name to reckon with in The Dota 2 scene. The International is a big advertisement to the external world and the visibility that a team gains from such a participation goes a long way.

The new system ensures the elimination of any potential bias from the system. Teams will be invited based on their year round performance. This ensures a level playing field for all teams. Even if a team is not as well known or consists of players who are not well liked in the scene, they can be invited to The International based on their performance in the various events leading up to the International.

Valve’s Outlook

Valve is not an organisation which is well known for their event management capabilities. They are foremost a game publisher and distribution company. The organisations started off in ( YEAR) and made a name for itself as a distributor. With several titles coming onto the platform, we saw an increasing player count for the various games. Soon Valve also started publishing games and hit the jackpot with several titles such as Counter Strike, Half Life, Dota 2, TF2 etc. These games have all been fan favorites and have seen immense player growth.

The introduction of skins and the effect that it had on the Valve economy is something that cannot be ignored in this article.Skins are cosmetic items which essentially make your character’s) look good on screen. In some games they might also add an advantage to your character providing you with an advantage.

However the biggest impact that skins and the entire economy saw was with the introduction of the Free to PLay game Dota 2. With Dota 2, Valve introduced skins which were sold on the official client. It provided for an additional source of income. This allowed Dota 2 to become free and hence add a huge player growth. The original Warcraft mod was already very popular. WIth the introduction of Dota 2, which essentially freed the developers from the clutches of the outdated Warcraft engine, Valve struck jackpot.

Valve do have the experience of hosting and organising (in part) The International. However even in this case we have seen them partnering with third party event organisers such as PGL. Bringing in the experts from PGL definitely adds a professionalism to the event. It also helps in keeping Valve in touch with what the community wants.

Growth

We have already seen several organisations enter the Dota 2 scene. Immortals is one of the best examples of an organisation who wished to stay away from the scene initially. The focus on a structured calendar means that these event organisers can plan their way accordingly.

Related links;

Find livescore and results for all DOTA 2 tournaments here

Find all DOTA 2 match and predictions here