Chinese Dota: What Happened?



Fans cheering for EHOME at the Shanghai Major

Tactical defeat at Shanghai

Looking at the failure of the Chinese teams at the Shanghai Major from a tactical standpoint, it was evident that they had a much smaller hero pool and a lack of understanding of the current patch. As a result they had to expend their bans on respect bans such as Puppey’s Enigma and Chen or Jerax’s Earth Spirit. CDEC Gaming faced the same problem during the TI5 Grand Finals when they had to ban out Team Evil Geniuses’s Techies because they’ve had no experience playing against it. In the past few years, China has been lacking innovation in their drafts. Even after Alliance almost single handedly won TI3 with Io, Chinese teams did not acknowledge the strength of Io until long after TI3 ended, which resulted in a similar conundrum where their drafts were extremely limited. From TI5 onwards Chinese teams have mostly been replicating meta picks which western teams have created. Such as favoring Outworld Devourer after 6.86. EHOME was an exception as they were able to develop their own style of play revolving around Old Eleven’s limited but powerful hero pool. As a result the Chinese meta heroes have always been one tournament behind the western teams. Moreover, the hero pool of Chinese teams is also incredibly limited. Chinese teams were extremely insistent on heroes such as Morphling which didn’t work out most of the time due to its passive nature in the early game. Similarly at the Shanghai Major, none of the Chinese teams had a decent grasp on Enchantress ( Chuan being the exception) and Beastmaster, which were two of the most dominant heroes at the major. Western teams were able to impose a huge threat with these heroes because Chinese teams did not how to deal with them and at the same time they didn’t know how to play it themselves.

Streaming

In recent years streaming has taken off all over the world. Twitch has become one of the most visited sites on the internet in the matter of merely a few years. In China however Twitch is close to inaccessible because of lag issues and language barrier. Consequently platforms like DouyuTV, ZhanqiTV, and HuomaoTV began to emerge as alternatives for Chinese audiences that craved top tier gameplay of their beloved games such as Dota 2, Hearthstone, and League of Legends. However, the operating system of Douyu and Twitch are distinctively different. In Twitch, broadcasters are encouraged to stream and their income depends on their dedication and consistency. In games such as Hearthstone, professional players often make a living off donations and subscribers on Twitch. On the other hand, profesional Dota 2 players on Twitch treat their streaming income as an additional portion of their career winnings since donations and subscribers are uncommon in Dota streams. However, the situation is distinctively different in the Chinese streaming culture. Douyu and other platforms offer popular or retired players yearly contracts with astronomical figures. Just to list some examples, last year in one of his long Weibos, YaphetS who was once known as the best Shadowfiend Player in the world talked about his contract with Douyu in 2014, and the contract fee was seven figures (Source: http://weibo.com/p/1001603901298377405549?mod=zwenzhang). Also, in the recent confrontation between Sylar and Ruru, Ruru said that Zhanqi offered Sylar 800,000RMB (~122,896USD) as a yearly streaming contract. Keep in mind that on top of these contract earnings, donations are also offered generously by Chinese viewers. For foreign readers that do not have a concept on the living standards in China, 800,000RMB as a yearly salary is enough for a single man to live fruitfully in a decent-sized apartment in an average city in China. In other words, with the turbulent introduction of streaming platforms, top tier Chinese professional Dota players are now given the option to earn the big bucks in the ever-growing streaming industry. Compared with the unstable earnings in the competitive scene, where a player has to be top tier in order to win international tournaments in order to secure a sizable income, streaming on platforms such as Douyu becomes a financial safe haven.



YYF’s stream page; the 313.45t stands for the Douyu currency in donations YYF has received since he started streaming, which is 313,450RMB (~48,112 USD)

Now that we’ve established the financial motive for professional players to stream, it's also necessary to examine the issue from the organization’s standpoint. As mentioned in Ruru’s response to Sylar’s Weibo, streaming platforms also sponsor the organization because they need the public exposure of popular players on their website. As a business exchange organizations often do not hinder the player’s focus on their streaming career because they value the partnership between themselves and the streaming platforms. While organizations do value tournament victories to have a broader exposure for their brand, streaming essentially achieves a similar result because of the large amount of viewer base.

Some readers may think, streaming is just a way for players to play pubs and practice their mechanical skills, why would this affect the dedication of players to the game? This is because the most important aspect of streaming is to attract viewers. Although there are many streamers such as Maybe, Kaka, and Cty that focus on perfecting their individual plays, there are also streamers that party queue with girl streamers in order to have an entertaining stream. Moreover, the focus on streaming means that players have less time to scrim, watch replays of tournaments, and develop new strategies. Quoting Sylar in his recent Weibo post confronting Ruru about his contract signing fee, “take a look at my professional attitude compared with MMY’s. Ask anyone who has been a teammate with me, would I really start all of this because of money? When I played for LGD I watched replays and studied games while MMY streams and hangs out with girls. Sure, we’re worth the same price.”



Sylar's Weibo explaining his discontent towards his contract fee

Lastly, streaming is a viable option for players to continue their gaming career after they retire. Many players from the oldest era of Dota have now retired. Most of them have found a successful continuation of their career in areas such as casting and coaching. But the most lucrative option is still streaming. If the current popular professional players can secure a solid viewership, streaming can always be a backup plan for these players after retirement. As a matter of fact, the most popular Dota 2 streamers in China are all retired players such as YYF, Zhou, LongDD, and even Xiao8.

All the aforementioned motives of streaming are all contributing reasons to the lack of practice and dedication in the professional scene of China. Because of a different culture and operating system, achieving top results in tournaments is not the only option to make a living in eSports anymore. Rather building a high and dedicated viewer count becomes the priority for most players and streamers.

Unhealthy Player Distribution

Chinese gaming organizations have the tendency to be extremely conservative when shaping their roster. Before TI5, we’ve seen at most three breakout players in the eastern scene. Even though players such as Cty, Maybe and Zyf (Yang) began to display their potential in tournaments, they’ve actually been playing in the professional scene for almost three years already. Being one of the most competitive regions in ranked matchmaking, China does not lack new talents. Rather, they lack the opportunity to break into the top tier teams because the veteran players are more trustworthy to organizations. As a result, top tier Chinese ranked players are stuck between a rock and a hard place eagerly wanting to prove their skills but lack means to do so.

However, the success of CDEC Gaming at TI5 introduced a new perspective to organizations. Quoting one of LaNm’s Weibos after CDEC’s placement at TI5, “TI5 is a milestone for Chinese Dota. The success of CDEC will bust the myth of young blood failing to succeed without the guidance of veterans. The professional scene led by new players will bring forth the new era of dominance of Chinese Dota in the near future, let's go CDEC!” After TI5, Chinese teams began to form youth squads such as Newbee Young, Vici Gaming Potential, iG Vitality, and many more in attempt to replicate the success of CDEC. While all these promises sounded satisfying on paper, the effort of the organizations towards these teams are limited. Most of these teams remained unnoticed by viewers and were not invited to many tournaments. The last recorded match for Newbee Young was two months ago at the MDL qualifiers. As a result these players have to resort to scrims and pubs to practice.



rOtK took the blame from Chinese Dota fans for LGD’s crushing elimination

Other than the hardship of new players, another fundamental problem is the oversaturation of veterans. As mentioned earlier, Chinese organizations are often stubborn and insistent on using older players rather than giving new players an opportunity in the top tier competition. As a result some veterans lose incentives to compete because they recognize their invaluable position in the roster and their past achievements provided them with a reason for their laziness. Around the time of TI5, players like Mu and Hao often played custom maps with other streamers for over 12 hours in one sitting, which eventually became a meme in on Reddit. What Reddit probably didn’t know was that the owner of Newbee offered to pay custom map workshops or developers money to develop fresh and engaging RPG maps for the players.



Weibo from Newbee’s owner

Facing the problem of an uneven age distribution in the population of professional Dota players in China additional to the questionable decisions of organizations and team owners, the sharp decline in the level of Chinese Dota seemed imminent.

What’s the future of Chinese Dota?

With the enormous reshuffle before the Spring Major roster lock, it is evident that Chinese teams have begun to embrace new players in their rosters. Rumors are that Newbee will go through a complete restructuring blending new players and veterans in the main team and Newbee Young. It is crucial that new players are given the opportunity to compete at a higher level in order to polish their decision making and build up their experience at LAN events. Vici Gaming is also rumored to include two new players in their primary roster - a relatively unknown player called Snake and _Victoria from CDEC.A. If the above rumors are true then Chinese organizations have begun to recognize the importance of fresh blood in the scene and have taken a step in the right direction.

If Chinese teams can take the time to craft new strategies and expand their hero pool through practice, the gap between them and the western teams will shrink inevitably. Most importantly however is the continuous ignition of passion and competitiveness within the players. If the players cannot put a significant emphasis on self-improvement, the level of Chinese Dota will sink indefinitely.