The South American Region: No Man's Land March 5th, 2017 19:59 GMT Text by uberxD Graphics by Nixer fútbol section since, after all, it is ‘el deporte rey’ in these lands. At least in this section, I can see some familiar faces enjoying success in some of the most important competitions across the globe; like Messi, Dani Alves, and Sánchez. The parallel of this situation in Dota is to browse Reddit and be constantly reminded that South America is cancerous and that it is full of the kind of players that behave completely different from the ones that communicate in the same language as the OP. Then, after glancing through the esports scene, which is dominated by blue colors (ed. note: League of Legends is often referred to as “Blue Dota,” due to the colors of the logo), I got the impression that, while many of the problems of South American Dota can be attributed to the lack of professionalism, there are several cultural subjects that diminishes the progress of a region that is full of potential.



For the players in North America, South America is usually only thought of as the cause to terrible experiences in their pub matches. The language barrier is by far the most relevant and common issue that players from both sides have to face, but the cultural differences between the regions is a subject that is commonly understated. These cultural differences reside in two key factors: the infrastructure and the demographics of a region that has a long track record of missed opportunities in almost every aspect of its history. Before getting into Dota specifics, let’s try to find out the root cause for this ‘esports underdevelopment’; or at least this underdevelopment for South American Dota.

Developing Countries A common way to classify South American countries is to call them “developing countries.” Although this classification is already outdated according to the World Bank, it is still a great way to summarize the situation of South America in general terms, including esports. Playing videogames for a living in a continent with almost 3 times less GDP per capita than their neighbors is quite a challenge for professionals, and logically, is no less of a trouble for people playing as a hobby.



South America began using neoliberal economic policies late into the 21st century after multiple military coups across the region. This quickly helped local economies grow based on the export of commodities such as soybeans, iron ore, and copper. But the East-Asian financial crisis drastically slowed the economic development in the region; this, in turn, delayed the public and private investment aimed to improve internet access (not only because of the infrastructure, but also because of the high prices). Due to these issues, the access to broadband – which is a basic necessity for the development of a competitive gaming scene – was delayed compared to regions like EU or NA.



This slow economic development and its impact on the GDP per capita led to the proliferation of internet cafés in Peru, the Mecca of South American Dota. In a country with internet penetration rates lower than 40%, which varies drastically across rural and urban regions, the internet cafés or ‘cabinas’ (booths) are a very helpful way to grant internet access to the population. Internet penetration is exactly that, a measure of the percentage of the population that has at least minimal access to the internet; either by satellite, which is laggy and expensive, or mobile, which is also unusable for proper gaming. This is where the LAN centers come into play.

La Cabina The first public ‘cabina’ was installed by the Peruvian Scientific Network in Lima in 1994 and had a total of 40 computers (20 PCs and 20 Macintoshes). It was conceived as a model of community access to the Internet that allowed anyone to browse the internet for 15 to 20 minutes after a small training class. With this, the propagation of the cabinas close to schools and colleges allowed the students to play the videogames their families couldn’t afford for them, due to both a lack of a proper computer and a lack of internet access.



With the growing numbers of cabinas, the gaming community began to blossom around them. In the very beginning, the cabinas were not meant to have online games, instead, Peruvian kids attended these new LAN centers to actually play in a LAN environment. They played games like StarCraft: Brood War, Red Alert, Need For Speed, and FIFA and competed against other kids at the LAN center. Right after this small window of success, a 2D turn-based shooter known as Gunbound almost destroyed the LAN center business due to its low hardware requirements. The less strenuous requirements meant that many kids played that game at home with a dial-up connection, instead of at the LAN center.



Luckily, the ‘old school’ players started to shift their focus to a game called DotA AllStars. This game got the attention of many players coming to these LAN centers, giving birth to the local DotA competitions. As the game became incredibly popular, a competitive circuit involving teams from different LAN centers began to develop; this can be considered the very first competitive structure of Peruvian Dota. LAN centers would later serve as sponsors for these talented squads, offering little more than free access to their machines and, if you were lucky, accommodation for some players. For example, the old EEDL league, featured team “Laboratorio” (better known as LaB), in a



Nowadays, is not uncommon to read a Peruvian newspaper or tune into the local TV news to see reports about kids leaving their schools to play Dota or other games at LAN centers, stealing money from their parents or using their limited allowance to play with the hope of getting that rampage which will grant them an additional free hour. These kids and teenagers have their own local idols that are that close to the dream: playing Dota for a living. A dream that they make their own, ignoring the enormous struggle and risks it demands.

Regional Rivalries Another issue that the South American competitive scene has to confront is the geography of the region, which makes the logistics very expensive, tremendously onerous burden. This is due to the longest continental mountain range in the world, the Andes, that separates east and west, forcing travelers to pick expensive flights instead of cheaper trains or buses for swift trips across the region.



To battle all these issues, collaboration between teams, players, and scenes should be the answer. But South America has a long history of rivalries between neighboring nations, which left the region with an intense competitive grudge. This grudge is very difficult to overcome, even for newer generations, and is especially strong in football (or soccer, for you Americans).



This rivalry is present in the esport scene in a very subtle way. Although some teams may have players from different countries, such a stack composition is very abnormal. Different from the multinational EU and NA stacks, teams in South America tend to have 5 players from the same country, given the important cultural differences and the enmity between neighbors. Don’t be fooled: a Chilean, Argentinean, Colombian or Brazilian player probably thinks of Peruvians the same way a North American player does. And it’s not something reserved for Peruvian players: the Dunning-Kruger effect is in full force for South American pub players of all nationalities. All of these factors leave the professional Dota players with little choice but to play with other high skilled countrymen.



While the South American Dota scene is growing steadily, it’s still eclipsed by the monolith that League of Legends has become. This game has such a strong presence in most of the continent that the common man on the streets will believe that LoL is esports; that everything else came after it; and that this ‘new professional player’s phenomenon’ has its origins in League of Legends. You can’t blame them when there’s advertising of ‘Copa Latinoamérica’ at the bus stops and the tournaments fills medium-sized venues. This is not coincidental as there are, of course, several factors that propels Riot's flagship on the region. The company has two offices in the region, one in São Paulo and one in Santiago, but the biggest reason might simply be the hardware requirements. While Dota requires a somewhat high-end gaming machine, LoL runs on anything with a CPU. Non-hardcore PC gamers can enjoy this game with the laptops they use at college, using their free time to play some matches with the friends that introduced them to the game. For a gamer who comes from a more disadvantageous financial background, LoL vs. Dota isn't a question about preference, but rather one of startup cost.



Despite that, the fractured competitive community of Dota 2 has survived these disadvantages based on some small glimpses of hope: the old Artyk/Revenge/Not Today squad that could take some matches off of the TI3-era Na`Vi and Alliance; and the Unknown.xiu team at the Frankfurt Major, who sent Newbee home in last place. On the other hand, some of the top talents in the scene are banned from Valve events; but, they can still participate in other tournaments, keeping them relevant at a local level. If Dendi, jokingly,



The South American region might be the weakest, but ignoring its potential is a mistake that we’ve previously made with SEA and NA: two regions that were nurtured by having their own qualifiers, even when they were a joke compared to most of the European and Chinese teams. There’s no lack of talent in South America, either, but there is a need for more professionalism and perseverance, especially the latter.



It’s hard to ask for perseverance from a population of players that are used to living with a very short-term vision. Tournament winnings are the main income for teams in this region, which is usually the norm in every underdeveloped scene. There are some sponsors, but it can take a whole year to close a very limited deal with a recognizable brand. The issue is, as always, that this short-term vision clashes with the usual long-term vision that companies have for these kind of sponsorships; a team needs time to grow, but bills only wait for a few weeks.



Valve's way of business is very particular, and the way they have decided to invest into this scene is by granting it with a dedicated qualifier for the Majors. This decision may look controversial; the discussion over it has already been had, there’s nothing new to add to it. With the recent events regarding Infamous and Not Today’s roster swaps, it is hard to focus on what’s actually important: the players and the teams.

A Brighter Future There’s no doubt that the strongest team coming to the South American qualifiers is the new Not Today team that features Kingteka, Leostyle, Kotaro, Stinger, and Masoku. This squad has some of the most talented players of the region, mixed with the experience of Kotaro, who played with Unknown.xiu at Frankfurt, and Masoku, one of the veterans of the Peruvian scene. The roster swap relegated them to the South American Open Qualifiers, which will force this squad to take their run seriously, since a small slip can mean the end of yet another dream.



With SmAsH, iwo, mstco, and VanN out of the qualifiers due to the match fixing ban, the level of competition is certainly affected. Nonetheless, other regions can take this opportunity to improve their chances of punching the precious ticket to Kiev. This is the case for the Brazilian team SG e-sports. Brazil is probably the country with the most esports development in the region, due to their good infrastructure and the considerable market size of 206 million inhabitants. Even Ronaldo is investing in esports!



SG e-sports has a decent shot at taking the qualifier. This team had a very respectable run at WESG, where they grabbed the 2nd place of their group against teams like Cloud9 and Fantastic Five, before Alliance eliminated them in the quarterfinals. That experience will help hFn, c4t, Tavo, Kingrd, and 4dr in the coming matches; the talent is already there.



Other countries with teams participating the WESG LAN finals are Ecuador, with Team One, and Argentina, with Vultur. Team One participated in WESG but failed to grab a single point in the group phase; hopefully Songz, Grab, blind12, Peaceofmind, and angel learned many important lessons that they can apply for this qualifier. Similarly, Vultur didn’t achieve much in this LAN; they were probably affected by their constant roster swaps before the LAN in China. The current roster doesn’t have Papita (perhaps the best-known Argentinian player), who will be on a team in Peru. It is now up to Algodochin, Dulcemania, Wij, Teckla8, and ElvisCochuelo to represent their nation in the coming brawl.



No matter which team emerges victorious and earns the ticket to Kiev, there’s no doubt that it will not only face the finest and strongest competition in the Dota scene, but also have to confront the skepticism of an entire community.



Special thanks to Andree “Ndree” Santillan of GamerStudio and Joe “Jo” Ccasani of Infamous.



If I choose to watch the news, I usually end up skipping the police, political and business sections to end up just watching the sport section; or, thesection since, after all, it is ‘el deporte rey’ in these lands. At least in this section, I can see some familiar faces enjoying success in some of the most important competitions across the globe; like Messi, Dani Alves, and Sánchez. The parallel of this situation in Dota is to browse Reddit and be constantly reminded that South America is cancerous and that it is full of the kind of players that behave completely different from the ones that communicate in the same language as the OP. Then, after glancing through the esports scene, which is dominated by blue colors (), I got the impression that, while many of the problems of South American Dota can be attributed to the lack of professionalism, there are several cultural subjects that diminishes the progress of a region that is full of potential.For the players in North America, South America is usually only thought of as the cause to terrible experiences in their pub matches. The language barrier is by far the most relevant and common issue that players from both sides have to face, but the cultural differences between the regions is a subject that is commonly understated. These cultural differences reside in two key factors: the infrastructure and the demographics of a region that has a long track record of missed opportunities in almost every aspect of its history. Before getting into Dota specifics, let’s try to find out the root cause for this ‘esports underdevelopment’; or at least this underdevelopment for South American Dota.A common way to classify South American countries is to call them “developing countries.” Although this classification is already outdated according to the World Bank, it is still a great way to summarize the situation of South America in general terms, including esports. Playing videogames for a living in a continent with almost 3 times less GDP per capita than their neighbors is quite a challenge for professionals, and logically, is no less of a trouble for people playing as a hobby.South America began using neoliberal economic policies late into the 21st century after multiple military coups across the region. This quickly helped local economies grow based on the export of commodities such as soybeans, iron ore, and copper. But the East-Asian financial crisis drastically slowed the economic development in the region; this, in turn, delayed the public and private investment aimed to improve internet access (not only because of the infrastructure, but also because of the high prices). Due to these issues, the access to broadband – which is a basic necessity for the development of a competitive gaming scene – was delayed compared to regions like EU or NA.This slow economic development and its impact on the GDP per capita led to the proliferation of internet cafés in Peru, the Mecca of South American Dota. In a country with internet penetration rates lower than 40%, which varies drastically across rural and urban regions, the internet cafés or ‘cabinas’ (booths) are a very helpful way to grant internet access to the population. Internet penetration is exactly that, a measure of the percentage of the population that has at least minimal access to the internet; either by satellite, which is laggy and expensive, or mobile, which is also unusable for proper gaming. This is where the LAN centers come into play.The first public ‘cabina’ was installed by the Peruvian Scientific Network in Lima in 1994 and had a total of 40 computers (20 PCs and 20 Macintoshes). It was conceived as a model of community access to the Internet that allowed anyone to browse the internet for 15 to 20 minutes after a small training class. With this, the propagation of the cabinas close to schools and colleges allowed the students to play the videogames their families couldn’t afford for them, due to both a lack of a proper computer and a lack of internet access.With the growing numbers of cabinas, the gaming community began to blossom around them. In the very beginning, the cabinas were not meant to have online games, instead, Peruvian kids attended these new LAN centers to actually play in a LAN environment. They played games like StarCraft: Brood War, Red Alert, Need For Speed, and FIFA and competed against other kids at the LAN center. Right after this small window of success, a 2D turn-based shooter known as Gunbound almost destroyed the LAN center business due to its low hardware requirements. The less strenuous requirements meant that many kids played that game at home with a dial-up connection, instead of at the LAN center.Luckily, the ‘old school’ players started to shift their focus to a game called DotA AllStars. This game got the attention of many players coming to these LAN centers, giving birth to the local DotA competitions. As the game became incredibly popular, a competitive circuit involving teams from different LAN centers began to develop; this can be considered the very first competitive structure of Peruvian Dota. LAN centers would later serve as sponsors for these talented squads, offering little more than free access to their machines and, if you were lucky, accommodation for some players. For example, the old EEDL league, featured team “Laboratorio” (better known as LaB), in a match against Vigoss stack . We can see ‘mstcoh’ ( Místico ) as one of the players of the Peruvian squad. A more recent example would be Team Luccini , which owes its name to a LAN center located in Lima, where the players lived, trained, and played.Nowadays, is not uncommon to read a Peruvian newspaper or tune into the local TV news to see reports about kids leaving their schools to play Dota or other games at LAN centers, stealing money from their parents or using their limited allowance to play with the hope of getting that rampage which will grant them an additional free hour. These kids and teenagers have their own local idols that are that close to the dream: playing Dota for a living. A dream that they make their own, ignoring the enormous struggle and risks it demands.Another issue that the South American competitive scene has to confront is the geography of the region, which makes the logistics very expensive, tremendously onerous burden. This is due to the longest continental mountain range in the world, the Andes, that separates east and west, forcing travelers to pick expensive flights instead of cheaper trains or buses for swift trips across the region.To battle all these issues, collaboration between teams, players, and scenes should be the answer. But South America has a long history of rivalries between neighboring nations, which left the region with an intense competitive grudge. This grudge is very difficult to overcome, even for newer generations, and is especially strong in football (or soccer, for you Americans).This rivalry is present in the esport scene in a very subtle way. Although some teams may have players from different countries, such a stack composition is very abnormal. Different from the multinational EU and NA stacks, teams in South America tend to have 5 players from the same country, given the important cultural differences and the enmity between neighbors. Don’t be fooled: a Chilean, Argentinean, Colombian or Brazilian player probably thinks of Peruvians the same way a North American player does. And it’s not something reserved for Peruvian players: the Dunning-Kruger effect is in full force for South American pub players of all nationalities. All of these factors leave the professional Dota players with little choice but to play with other high skilled countrymen.While the South American Dota scene is growing steadily, it’s still eclipsed by the monolith that League of Legends has become. This game has such a strong presence in most of the continent that the common man on the streets will believe that LoL is esports; that everything else came after it; and that this ‘new professional player’s phenomenon’ has its origins in League of Legends. You can’t blame them when there’s advertising of ‘Copa Latinoamérica’ at the bus stops and the tournaments fills medium-sized venues. This is not coincidental as there are, of course, several factors that propels Riot's flagship on the region. The company has two offices in the region, one in São Paulo and one in Santiago, but the biggest reason might simply be the hardware requirements. While Dota requires a somewhat high-end gaming machine, LoL runs on anything with a CPU. Non-hardcore PC gamers can enjoy this game with the laptops they use at college, using their free time to play some matches with the friends that introduced them to the game. For a gamer who comes from a more disadvantageous financial background, LoL vs. Dota isn't a question about preference, but rather one of startup cost.Despite that, the fractured competitive community of Dota 2 has survived these disadvantages based on some small glimpses of hope: the old Artyk/Revenge/Not Today squad that could take some matches off of the TI3-era Na`Vi and Alliance; and the Unknown.xiu team at the Frankfurt Major, who sent Newbee home in last place. On the other hand, some of the top talents in the scene are banned from Valve events; but, they can still participate in other tournaments, keeping them relevant at a local level. If Dendi, jokingly, says in an interview “Smash es mi pastor,” it won’t matter if he is banned or not, he will still be relevant for most of Peruvian fans.The South American region might be the weakest, but ignoring its potential is a mistake that we’ve previously made with SEA and NA: two regions that were nurtured by having their own qualifiers, even when they were a joke compared to most of the European and Chinese teams. There’s no lack of talent in South America, either, but there is a need for more professionalism and perseverance, especially the latter.It’s hard to ask for perseverance from a population of players that are used to living with a very short-term vision. Tournament winnings are the main income for teams in this region, which is usually the norm in every underdeveloped scene. There are some sponsors, but it can take a whole year to close a very limited deal with a recognizable brand. The issue is, as always, that this short-term vision clashes with the usual long-term vision that companies have for these kind of sponsorships; a team needs time to grow, but bills only wait for a few weeks.Valve's way of business is very particular, and the way they have decided to invest into this scene is by granting it with a dedicated qualifier for the Majors. This decision may look controversial; the discussion over it has already been had, there’s nothing new to add to it. With the recent events regarding Infamous and Not Today’s roster swaps, it is hard to focus on what’s actually important: the players and the teams.There’s no doubt that the strongest team coming to the South American qualifiers is the new Not Today team that features Kingteka, Leostyle, Kotaro, Stinger, and Masoku. This squad has some of the most talented players of the region, mixed with the experience of Kotaro, who played with Unknown.xiu at Frankfurt, and Masoku, one of the veterans of the Peruvian scene. The roster swap relegated them to the South American Open Qualifiers, which will force this squad to take their run seriously, since a small slip can mean the end of yet another dream.With SmAsH, iwo, mstco, and VanN out of the qualifiers due to the match fixing ban, the level of competition is certainly affected. Nonetheless, other regions can take this opportunity to improve their chances of punching the precious ticket to Kiev. This is the case for the Brazilian team SG e-sports. Brazil is probably the country with the most esports development in the region, due to their good infrastructure and the considerable market size of 206 million inhabitants. Even Ronaldo is investing in esports!SG e-sports has a decent shot at taking the qualifier. This team had a very respectable run at WESG, where they grabbed the 2nd place of their group against teams like Cloud9 and Fantastic Five, before Alliance eliminated them in the quarterfinals. That experience will help hFn, c4t, Tavo, Kingrd, and 4dr in the coming matches; the talent is already there.Other countries with teams participating the WESG LAN finals are Ecuador, with Team One, and Argentina, with Vultur. Team One participated in WESG but failed to grab a single point in the group phase; hopefully Songz, Grab, blind12, Peaceofmind, and angel learned many important lessons that they can apply for this qualifier. Similarly, Vultur didn’t achieve much in this LAN; they were probably affected by their constant roster swaps before the LAN in China. The current roster doesn’t have Papita (perhaps the best-known Argentinian player), who will be on a team in Peru. It is now up to Algodochin, Dulcemania, Wij, Teckla8, and ElvisCochuelo to represent their nation in the coming brawl.No matter which team emerges victorious and earns the ticket to Kiev, there’s no doubt that it will not only face the finest and strongest competition in the Dota scene, but also have to confront the skepticism of an entire community. Writer uberxD

Editor tehh4ck3r Writer <-- occasionally in English - @uberdota