Battle Cups allow casual players to enjoy the coordinated and “pro” gameplay that usually they can only spectate. This is how Dota should be played.

The weekly Battle Cups are one of the coolest features Valve has ever introduced to promote the competitiveness of the game.

Years ago, we assumed that ranked matchmaking would have brought toxic-free games, with teams trying their best to achieve victory - all our predictions failed.

Ranked matchmaking is a solo contest

Ranked games failed to deliver a strategic environment. The party-queue has always been a trivial element, often unbalanced and overshadowed by the solo-queue.

The latter is literally a solo competition in which the strongest players must prove their worth. To reach a better rank they must carry a team that 50% of the times will try to drag them down.

The new ranked seasons have not altered this tendency. Overall, the new system has many pros, and it is indeed a positive addition to the game, but the MMR distribution for most of the community remained the same.

In my opinion, the medals are purely an attempt to reduce the toxicity of the community by partially disguising the numeric MMR.

Battle Cups - Strategy in pubs

Dota has been created and optimized as a team game. Thanks to Battle Cups, even Heralds and Guardians (let’s use the new trench terms) can experience the real Dota, playing in a team with an actual captain and a game strategy to follow.

They thought that pubs were a world monopolized by reports, toxicity, leavers, griefers, and harassment, but finally have been able to see a ray of hope.

Playing with a strategy in mind and an organized team is something that standard pub games will very rarely offer.