ONE of the biggest esports organisations in North America, Immortals, is reaching out to competitive Dota 2 players as it considers branching out into the game and establishing a team.

The North American organisation currently has teams in League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch and Super Smash Bros. and is owned by 22-year-old Noah Whinston — backed by executives from companies such as Lionsgate and NBA team Memphis Grizzlies.

Whinston revealed to foxsports.com.au that the organisation, which has found reasonable success particularly in League and CS:GO, has begun talks with Dota 2 players as it evaluates whether to establish a team.

“We’re doing our research right now,” he said. “We’re talking to a lot of players within the Dota 2 ecosystem and trying to evaluate where the right play is.”

Immortals team owner Noah Whinston. Source: Supplied

While Whinston said nothing is certain, he made his pitch as to why players with the right philosophy could mean Immortals joins the ranks of Evil Geniuses, Digital Chaos, compLexity Gaming and Team NP in the North American region.

“For such a long time the organisation itself did not really add value to a player’s experience,” he said.

“If a player joins an organisation and they just slap a logo on their jersey and get paid a salary and call it a day, of course they don’t really recognise the impact an organisation has on their career. It’s super logical.

“But what we do for our players across other games, we do a lot to make sure that they’re well taken care of, and that doesn’t just mean paying them a salary on time — which is the bare minimum you should be able to do as an esports organisation.”

“But also how do we provide them competitive resources, like a good coach? How do we provide them with personal resources like a sports psychologist, and a physical trainer, and a financial adviser and a CPA and an agent to help them negotiate their contracts?

Immortals’ Overwatch team in action at PAX South. (Darren Abate for NGE) Source: Supplied

“Those are the long-term things that we care about as an organisation that we do for our players now that I think players are not really set up well to care about.”

Dota 2 is the richest game in esports, with over $US96 million given out in prize money over its lifespan. Its biggest annual event, The International, had a prize pool of over $US20 million in 2016.

But that leads to a top-heavy esports ecosystem, according to Whinston. He argues the way in which players treat each year as all about The International, and the ensuing roster instability, is “misaligned” with the way an esports organisation wants to run.

“In the Dota 2 ecosystem the existence of TI is sort of this warping force where because TI exists and the prize pool is so top-heavy, it’s in a player’s incentives to just overly focus on competition,” he told foxsports.com.au.

“To spend all of your mental and physical energy, every resource you have just on, ‘how do I perform the best at TI?’, that’s the only thing that I care about (as a player).

“The Kiev Major is coming up — I guarantee you that teams that perform poorly there are going to split up and reshuffle their rosters in preparation for TI because that’s what they think they need to do to perform well at TI.

Immortals’ major success as an organisation has come in CS:GO, League of Legends and Overwatch. Source: Supplied

“There’s very little roster stability because it’s just an arms race that’s all about TI — ‘how can I get on the team that gives me the best chance to win TI?’ There’s not a lot of thought outside of that.

“Maybe now in recent times you’ve seen roster cores where two or three players stick together, but five-man rosters are incredibly unstable.”

And it’s that philosophy that could keep Immortals from expanding into Dota 2.

“I want to be involved in Dota 2 because I like it as a game. For me to get involved in Dota 2 I need to see players that share my philosophy,” he said.

“Players that share my philosophy around stability, sustainability and being willing to do things around practising and caring a lot about tournaments not based on the prize pool but just based on the pursuit of competitive excellence.

“I am looking for the person that compels me to be in Dota because I want that person on my team so badly.”

A visit to TI6 last year inspired Whinston’s love of the game and at that event he was a huge fan of the fairytale run of Digital Chaos.

“I was shouting Moo with the best of them at KeyArena,” he said.

David ‘Moo’ Hull left Digital Chaos just two weeks after the team finished second at TI. The constant flux seen in the Dota 2 scene may just give Immortals more opportunities to enter it.