Lan Mode Confirmed minimium 1.6 million prizepool tournament held annually Valve have said they might support smaller events as well Internal goal is for everyone to watch DOTA 2 international using Dota TV inside their game clients More modes coming down the pipe Hopeful goal of supporting mods inside Dota 2, aka pudge wars Full service replays comiing this week, aka fastforward, rewind, pick a time, slow motion, free camera, and possibly group watching.
I can now 100% confirm Dota 2 will be the #1 esport worldwide and the rest will be sitting scratching their heads.
We split this problem into two parts, there are things we have to do inside of the game for the competitive community, and things we have to do outside of the game. We think we're off to a good start in the game, with support for broadcasting, replays, spectation, etc.
Outside of the game, to be honest, we still feel like we have a lot to learn. Last year's event taught a bunch, and we anticipate this year's event will do the same.
If they really allow for all them old goodies to be remade, I'll be so happy. Pudge Wars, Warlocks, TD variants etc. were some of the highlights during the LANs between games of Dota, BW, CS etc.
On February 15 2012 23:04 Jinsho wrote: The game isnt even out yet. Hold them accountable to their promises once it is instead of blindly salivating over announcements.
announcing lan is a pretty big deal, they also hint the game will be open beta by late this year.
Blizzard is going hands-on with Sc2 this year. Community maps in the ladder pool is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm hoping the competition heats up because then we all win!
LoL is a bad game - competetive wise. Even the Pros are saying that and everyone who has watched alot LoL games and actually understands whats happening knows that. Its a good game for the masses though , no doubt...
Dota 2 will be THE esport to play when it is released.
On February 15 2012 23:05 NeonFlare wrote: "Hopeful goal of supporting mods inside Dota 2, aka pudge wars"
If they really allow for all them old goodies to be remade, I'll be so happy. Pudge Wars, Warlocks, TD variants etc. were some of the highlights during the LANs between games of Dota, BW, CS etc.
me too, oh man, pudge war and TDs are so damn addictive
Either Blizzard adapts or they die, it's that simple. They are making DotA 2 far more accessible to the masses (compared to the first one), while still keeping a huge skill ceiling in place and Valve is doing everything right. I will say that bigger prize pools doesn't legitimize it more. Whether SC2, or if you're LoL throwing retarded amounts of money down the drain to shock people into watching the game. Not to say it's not awesome that LoL and DotA 2 and whatnot are putting this money into ESPORTS, just saying.
As I said though, competition is necessary. SC2 is now going to have to step its game up to compete with what this game can potentially do to the scene. I hope DotA 2 does awesome, and I hope the SC2 scene manages to get their shit together and be a worthy opponent. Same with LoL and whatever other game wants to try to get a huge scene.
Remember, in Capitalism, the more companies compete -- the more us customers win.
On February 15 2012 23:28 chroniX wrote: LoL is a bad game - competetive wise. Even the Pros are saying that and everyone who has watched alot LoL games and actually understands whats happening knows that. Its a good game for the masses though , no doubt...
Dota 2 will be THE esport to play when it is released.
What a trivial word it is then.
THE esport? How would you go about defining it?
Difficulty? Then why do people think SC2 is THE esport when BW is much harder? MOBA games are also very easy. It isn't like you need to micro an entire army, just the one champion.
Oke, so it isn't difficulty because by that standard, Dota 2 falls short.
Is it popularity? Well no, because LoL is likely to remain the most popular MOBA game with its already large playerbase.
Oke, so is it prize money? Well no, because LoL has 5 million over the 1.6 million Dota 2 prize pool.
I get that people hate LoL. Most of the reasons are invalid, but I understand that they do. But how do you go about declaring Dota 2 as "THE esport?"
When a game has:
1) A smaller audience 2) A small playerbase 3) Is less competitive 4) Has smaller prize pools
Then how is it THE esport?
Sorry, but you sound like a curling fan that screams "Curling is THE sport to watch this year."
Sorry, it just isn't. It isn't bigger than football, it isn't bigger than soccer. You sound almost delusional when you yell out such obviously unfounded claims.
Why isn't it enough to just like Dota 2? Why must it be THE esport, even when it falls short in every category when compared to other esport titles?
Lan, bigger prize pool, embedded streams, etc. does not make for a better esport?!
I've watched a lot of different games and i've yet to find a games that I can watch as a sport that wasn't an RTS. The problem with MOBA's and FPS are that they are horrible spectator games - in my opinion. I just don't find any enjoyment in watching a HoN, LoL or CS game. But I do very much like watching War3 and SCII.
You sir, have some balls of steel to say that here. Like big ones. Transformers II big. I respect that. I really do. However you seem to of built your entire basis on the features and company support.
Neither of which are needed for Esports. They help, and more companies should take notice of these things. But replay and spectator mode does not an esport make. Valve money or not.
It's about the people. It's always been about the people both pro's and for lack of a better term at the moment Joes. They are the ones playing the game, enjoying the game and the content produced with that game. These are the important factor. SC2 has it, Halo has it, Hell Quake has it in a devoted fandom.
My concerns for Dota 2's success is how the playerbase will embrace it from the original an essentially free product at this point. Now if they have a good model in Asia, parts of Europe and of course here in NA I expect a very large switch. If they mess something up you'll see a divide potentially(something the Counterstrike fans know all too well.) That and let's be honest Valve hasn't been a big esports supporter until now so if they keep it up I am all for it.
Now I am sure the powers that be know all the lines they need to walk but I am afraid you kinda focused on the game too much instead of what matters to make a scene last. Players that love the game and lots of them.
The interview is almost strange to read after all SC2 fans have to go through with Blizzard, his answers are straight forward. The community wants LAN, the community will get LAN. No run around for years and bullshit being fed to us.
Even if you don't like Dota this is a great thing to happen to competitive gaming because someone is delivering the shit we need and certain other companies can't so easy ignore it anymore
Its still Dota and not starcraft. I dont see them competing for the same audience at all. I for example played 2-3k games of Dota on warcraft 3 but cannot watch the game, ists simply not very exciting to see players buy some items farm a bunch and try to gang other heroes for hours.
id rathe see the strategical brilliance of players in starcraft 2 when they do something with not seen before micro / builds.
that having been said, blizzard should listen to some of the points players make, congratulations to valve for supporting a game like that.
On February 15 2012 23:28 chroniX wrote: LoL is a bad game - competetive wise. Even the Pros are saying that and everyone who has watched alot LoL games and actually understands whats happening knows that. Its a good game for the masses though , no doubt...
Dota 2 will be THE esport to play when it is released.
What a trivial word it is then.
THE esport? How would you go about defining it?
Difficulty? Then why do people think SC2 is THE esport when BW is much harder? MOBA games are also very easy. It isn't like you need to micro an entire army, just the one champion.
Oke, so it isn't difficulty because by that standard, Dota 2 falls short.
Is it popularity? Well no, because LoL is likely to remain the most popular MOBA game with its already large playerbase.
Oke, so is it prize money? Well no, because LoL has 5 million over the 1.6 million Dota 2 prize pool.
I get that people hate LoL. Most of the reasons are invalid, but I understand that they do. But how do you go about declaring Dota 2 as "THE esport?"
When a game has:
1) A smaller audience 2) A small playerbase 3) Is less competitive 4) Has smaller prize pools
Then how is it THE esport?
Sorry, but you sound like a curling fan that screams "Curling is THE sport to watch this year."
Sorry, it just isn't. It isn't bigger than football, it isn't bigger than soccer. You sound almost delusional when you yell out such obviously unfounded claims.
Why isn't it enough to just like Dota 2? Why must it be THE esport, even when it falls short in every category when compared to other esport titles?
Was gonna write a post about how calling it "THE king of ESPORTS" was wrong
There is a pretty good chance Dota is too late to market and LoL will blow it out of the water for many years. Features and functionality are (sadly) far from the most important thing when it comes to how big a pass-time becomes.
On February 16 2012 00:27 heyoka wrote: There is a pretty good chance Dota is too late to market and LoL will blow it out of the water for many years. Features and functionality are (sadly) far from the most important thing when it comes to how big a pass-time becomes.
I really wish this would make blizzard wake up. They are slowly (or maybe quickly) going from the best company that makes amazing games and has amazing support, to a company that makes pretty good games with shit support. No lan ever, still no clan support, or name changes, no shared replays, no advertising for tournaments, or automated tournaments (which WC3 had.) I'm really starting to lose faith in blizzard, I really hope valve can be a wake up call to them on how they should be treating their customers.
I really do want dota2 to succeed and all wc3dota players to move on to it. For you who have not experienced it or are newbs I'll say that it's the only game that I have followed that can be compared in depth with sc. The tactical prowess in the top level is mind blowing. Think of it like that specific quality that Savior had. When to fight, where to fight, how many fronts can I handle, with how many units, how to flank, when to expand and where. The difference is that in dota if you make just one mistake in the late game, you lose the game, that's it.
On February 15 2012 23:28 chroniX wrote: LoL is a bad game - competetive wise. Even the Pros are saying that and everyone who has watched alot LoL games and actually understands whats happening knows that. Its a good game for the masses though , no doubt...
Dota 2 will be THE esport to play when it is released.
Well, it depends on what you want out of your eSport. There is a good possibility that after Dota 2 is released that LoL is still most popular eSport and thus receives more funding than any other game.
Just a note I make my posts using proper forethought. Much like seeing a cake in the oven and knowing it will turn out the best because of ingredients, chef skill, etc is the same way I know Dota 2 is the #1 esport.
The features, growth so far, support, and largest esport tournament on the planet EVERY year with flying in 80+ people fully paid is just the beginning of where this is going.
Already you can see the numbers of joindota stream watchers going up, from a few hundred to the now 9,000+ marks, with good vod viewership and youtube numbers. The force behind Dota 2 is far greater than even SC2 at this point in it's life and lol was a joke in beta. It's honestly mind boggling how shortsighted people are in not seeing the veritable avalanche that is dota 2 esports.
The free to play business model that LoL has isn't a good one from a player's perspective. Anyone who actually plays LoL knows that it's abusive as shit, and that you would rather pay a 50 dollar one time fee to have the game in its entirety. If Dota2 follows LoL's business model I don't know how it would go, especially when most Dota players got every hero and function for free.
On February 16 2012 01:56 Itsmedudeman wrote: The free to play business model that LoL has isn't a good one from a player's perspective. Anyone who actually plays LoL knows that it's abusive as shit, and that you would rather pay a 50 dollar one time fee to have the game in its entirety. If Dota2 follows LoL's business model I don't know how it would go, especially when most Dota players got every hero and function for free.
You won't be able to top Riot's 5 mil with a one time fee model though.
Good for them, but I personally have no interest in MOBAs. I really do hope DotA 2 and other MOBA games succeed as esports, but preferably not at the detriment of RTS games like SC2 and BW. I respect the games, their communities, and their esports endeavors, but I find no interest in playing or watching those types of games.
Great for DotA 2 to be pushing to include all these great features that SC2 should have, thus causing quite a bit of competition for Blizzard to improve their efforts with SC2. I'm especially intrigued by the possibility of including mod support. Perhaps someone can reverse-engineer an RTS out of DotA 2? That would be something.
On February 16 2012 02:04 Bagration wrote: Two words: Brood War
I can agree, but only in Korea and arguably in China. Everywhere else, not so much even though there are a lot of passionate fans and players for the game.
I seriously don't get Valve's intention. Before the game was even out you had players playing for millions of dollars of prize money, and the general public didn't even have access to the game. That was just completely retarded from Valve's perspective.
On February 16 2012 02:17 Tryndamere wrote: I seriously don't get Valve's intention. Before the game was even out you had players playing for millions of dollars of prize money, and the general public didn't even have access to the game. That was just completely retarded from Valve's perspective.
1000% agree. The hype from it is already gone and it's still miles away from release and not even many people have beta access yet. I'd like to hear what a valve representative would have to say before I slapped them in the face and told them hosting a tournament when the game was available would have been better in any situation imaginable.
There is no THE thing to watch. People are going to watch mostly whichever game they enjoy playing the most/ whichever game they find most entertaining to watch. No body is going to watch DOTA2 exclusively over another game for its higher prize pool, embedded stream, LAN, etc. If they gave Halo a million dollar prize pool would I ever watch it over sc2? Nope.
On February 16 2012 02:17 Tryndamere wrote: I seriously don't get Valve's intention. Before the game was even out you had players playing for millions of dollars of prize money, and the general public didn't even have access to the game. That was just completely retarded from Valve's perspective.
1000% agree. The hype from it is already gone and it's still miles away from release and not even many people have beta access yet. I'd like to hear what a valve representative would have to say before I slapped them in the face and told them hosting a tournament when the game was available would have been better in any situation imaginable.
That tournament served a major purpose aside from hype.
It essentially, in one fell swoop, caused every foreign DotA team to switch to Dota 2. This matters because the hardcore DotA fans see this, and think, "Hey, I want to play what the pros are playing!"
The International was not a cry out to the general public so much as it was a love letter to the already established community.
The Chinese have been showing interest in the game, but the current setup for the servers isn't very good for them, not yet.
LAN will be a huge piece of the puzzle to winning them over. Dota 2 has been down for the past day or so for major network improvements (The next update will also include a complete overhaul to the Source Engine's networking component, verified by Zoid on the dev forums), and Erik Johnson has pledged to continue adding servers into regions until everyone can play with sub 100ms ping.
I'd be willing to bet money that The International 2 will be the big advertising event you claim the first failed to be.
Erik Johnson himself said that The International last year was mainly being used for a learning experiece - they'd never done anything like it before, and needed to get some experience in hosting and broadcasting large tournaments before it really mattered.
On February 15 2012 23:37 zalz wrote: 3) Is less competitive
Huh?
On February 16 2012 00:27 heyoka wrote: There is a pretty good chance Dota is too late to market and LoL will blow it out of the water for many years. Features and functionality are (sadly) far from the most important thing when it comes to how big a pass-time becomes.
Unfortunately this is true. HoN has had better features than LoL for a long time, but still hasn't seen anything like the growth LoL has despite going f2p and creating the best spectator ui I have ever seen.
I have faith that valve will make dota2 far more accessible than HoN, which seems to me to be the main determinant of whether a game sinks or swims in this genre. The fact that dota2 also is years ahead of everyone when it comes to in game features is a plus as well.
The sc2 hater proclaims a probability! Although I wouldn't say "now" because as of this exact moment it is not. But I do hope this gives blizzard more of an incentive to add features to make sc2 even better esports wise :D.
I don't see a MOBA ever passing SC2 in watch-ability they are so boring to watch. I've played probably LoL and Dota2 and While they are fun to play they are boring to watch imo. Starcraft is so much fun to watch BW even doubly so.
On February 16 2012 03:24 Bengui wrote: Call me back when the prize pool minus what Valve sponsors directly is higher than the SC2 prize pool minus what Blizzard sponsors directly.
The prizepool including dota 1 is actually comparable to SC2. Also I believe GomTV is somewhat sponsored by blizzard.
If you look at even the prizepools during dota 2 beta it's higher than SC2's. The Defense, Premier League, SEA tournaments, dreamhacks, and Russian/Ukraine tournaments are all higher prizepools than anything from sc2 beta, and SC2 beta was available to everyone practically wtih a pre-order.
Yea I think I'll tune into the "king of e=sports" whenever the melatonin, ambien, or kush doesn't work, and I am in dire need of the ultimate solution to put one to sleep.
the activision valve lawsuit will kill dota 2 I think. Activision might go as to even not allow events that have dota 2 to get an sc2 licence killing its initial growth. not to mention how late to the party dota 2 is going to be all around the world including korea and china.
the fact that its got lan and will be f2p is something that it needs to do to even be competitive. lol hasn't had a problem arguably without lan and I'm sure that it was going to be pirated hugly in asia anyway.
On February 16 2012 00:27 heyoka wrote: There is a pretty good chance Dota is too late to market and LoL will blow it out of the water for many years. Features and functionality are (sadly) far from the most important thing when it comes to how big a pass-time becomes.
Myself and other dota player don't mind this at all. DotA 2 will have the whole DotA fanbase (China, which is huge), and we can tell who the LoL and HoN players are in game because they're bad. If we can keep the LoL and HoN community out of it, then all the better. DotA 2 is probably going to be F2P, so the fanbase will come.
DotA is a better ESPORT because the developers care about the community and its competitive. the developers will help the community grow, while the competitive scene will propagate itself. We're in the beta and there are tournaments every week with people nobody has heard about playing and doing well, its great for the scene.
In sc2, the developers are hurting the community and the competitive scene by patching before we can figure out how to deal with new strategies and putting poor maps in the ladder pool. Blizz puts almost no prize money in the scene and has bad community interface.
In LoL, there is a competitive scene and money, but the only time the game advances is when new heros are implemented or heros are buffed. How often do you see a game where a team isnt running 1 jungle 2 solos 1 duel lane? It's not a good game competitively.
Is DotA the "king of ESPORTS"? Of course not, but it has a huge potential and a huge scene, a lot of it is still stuck in dota, waiting for the DotA 2 release.
Is it gonna be free? If not I don't see it besting LoL. Sadly the measure of an esport is longer based on competitive merit but on how much money a company can throw at it. Valve is amazing though, this kind of support makes me wish they made sc2 instead of blizzard.
If it's free I have a feeling it will be a super competitor to LoL. The game is more challenging, has more depth and more features (LAN, replays, etc) for a traditional competitive title than a game like LoL without question. It really just depends how much money Valve is willing to throw at it to control its "esports longevity". We see now that you don't need to be the best game that displays the highest amount of skill and dedication to thrive in the tournament scene, it's which company buys out the tournament for the most money.
On February 16 2012 00:27 heyoka wrote: There is a pretty good chance Dota is too late to market and LoL will blow it out of the water for many years. Features and functionality are (sadly) far from the most important thing when it comes to how big a pass-time becomes.
Myself and other dota player don't mind this at all. DotA 2 will have the whole DotA fanbase (China, which is huge), and we can tell who the LoL and HoN players are in game because they're bad. If we can keep the LoL and HoN community out of it, then all the better. DotA 2 is probably going to be F2P, so the fanbase will come.
DotA is a better ESPORT because the developers care about the community and its competitive. the developers will help the community grow, while the competitive scene will propagate itself. We're in the beta and there are tournaments every week with people nobody has heard about playing and doing well, its great for the scene.
In sc2, the developers are hurting the community and the competitive scene by patching before we can figure out how to deal with new strategies and putting poor maps in the ladder pool. Blizz puts almost no prize money in the scene and has bad community interface.
In LoL, there is a competitive scene and money, but the only time the game advances is when new heros are implemented or heros are buffed. How often do you see a game where a team isnt running 1 jungle 2 solos 1 duel lane? It's not a good game competitively.
Is DotA the "king of ESPORTS"? Of course not, but it has a huge potential and a huge scene, a lot of it is still stuck in dota, waiting for the DotA 2 release.
It's this exact attitude that will hurt DoTA2. Trying to alienate any new players who dare to come into 'their' game.
I know all gaming communities aren't exactly friendly or the best, but the DoTA community is one of the tougher ones on noobs for sure.
On February 16 2012 03:15 SigmaoctanusIV wrote: I don't see a MOBA ever passing SC2 in watch-ability they are so boring to watch. I've played probably LoL and Dota2 and While they are fun to play they are boring to watch imo. Starcraft is so much fun to watch BW even doubly so.
Well, LoL numbers already pass sc2 numbers. And don't bring in that "embedded" talk because it's been discussed and refuted before. They don't embed streams and count the numbers.
On February 16 2012 04:51 sermokala wrote: the activision valve lawsuit will kill dota 2 I think. Activision might go as to even not allow events that have dota 2 to get an sc2 licence killing its initial growth. not to mention how late to the party dota 2 is going to be all around the world including korea and china.
the fact that its got lan and will be f2p is something that it needs to do to even be competitive. lol hasn't had a problem arguably without lan and I'm sure that it was going to be pirated hugly in asia anyway.
...Do you even know what the lawsuit about?
It's about keeping the name "Dota" free from being trademarked. If Blizzard wins, they get nothing.
If Valve wins, they trademark the name "Dota"
At least educate yourself before you say something.
On February 16 2012 02:17 Tryndamere wrote: I seriously don't get Valve's intention. Before the game was even out you had players playing for millions of dollars of prize money, and the general public didn't even have access to the game. That was just completely retarded from Valve's perspective.
1000% agree. The hype from it is already gone and it's still miles away from release and not even many people have beta access yet. I'd like to hear what a valve representative would have to say before I slapped them in the face and told them hosting a tournament when the game was available would have been better in any situation imaginable.
They've said that the invitational they did is going to be annual, so there's going to be another tournament with just as big of a prize pool this year, and next year, and so on. And while doing something like that for a game like starcraft 2 would be utterly retarded because it's a completely different game, dota 2 is a carbon copy of dota for warcraft 3. Everyone was talking about dota 2 in july/august last year, because they announced such a massive prize pool, and since they're going to keep hosting similar tournaments, I don't see why it could've possibly been a bad idea.
On February 16 2012 05:29 IMoperator wrote: how are these games even fun? HoN, LoL, Dota... all of them are just so boring to play.
how are these games even fun? Starcraft, Warcraft, Command and Conquer... all of them are just so boring to play.
Hey guess what, different people enjoy different kinds of things. Dota is HUGE in china, and if valve manage to win china over from warcraft 3 dota, to dota 2, there's going to be far more (as in, far more than twice as many) people following dota 2 than there are people following games like LoL.
Thought they wanted to do more production this year for the international, meaning lets NOT bog down dota2TV with tens if not hundreds of thousands of clients overloading the server, and ideally watch it on a stream
That said, this is the first major esports title to have LAN mode since like...Counterstrike Source, or if you dont consider that major, then Warcraft 3. But this will lead to the SEAsian and Chinese scenes the ability to blow up and grow the game in LAN Centers and tournaments.
On February 16 2012 04:51 sermokala wrote: the activision valve lawsuit will kill dota 2 I think. Activision might go as to even not allow events that have dota 2 to get an sc2 licence killing its initial growth. not to mention how late to the party dota 2 is going to be all around the world including korea and china.
the fact that its got lan and will be f2p is something that it needs to do to even be competitive. lol hasn't had a problem arguably without lan and I'm sure that it was going to be pirated hugly in asia anyway.
...Do you even know what the lawsuit about?
It's about keeping the name "Dota" free from being trademarked. If Blizzard wins, they get nothing.
If Valve wins, they trademark the name "Dota"
At least educate yourself before you say something.
First of all it's not a lawsuit it is an opposition to a trademark filing. Secondly Blizzard very much so intends to get the rights to the trademark "dota" as there's a whole section titled "Blizzard's Rights In And To The DotA Marks" (here).
That doesn't mean that Blizzard will start suing people for using "dota" after acquiring it but neither does it mean that Valve would. There's no evil party in this dispute. It's just two companies trying to assert their rights. And give me a break with the "for the community" talk, that's just publicity. They wouldn't give two shits if some WC3 map that got played by 100 people was remade into a sequel by another company.
Blizzard wants to stop effectively ignoring dota after they've seen the numbers that LoL got and release "Blizzard DOTA". After they release it, they of course want exclusive rights to the trademark to license it out for merchandise, etc.
Valve has hired Eul (the guy who actually came up with the Name and the Idea to recreate Aeon of Strife in WC3) and Icefrog and just wants to make a sequel to a successful mod. Just like they did with CS, DoD and TF2 (TF1 was originally a Quake mod). Also, they didn't oppose other mods like Red Orchestra or Natural Selection that were originally on their engine to be remade by third parties. They see this case as little different from all the others, hiring the people who made the successful mod and recreate the idea on a professional level. Again they want the trademark for marketing reasons and licensing deals.
Ok, I must admit that I feel that Valve is in the right here but I must also admit that there are some points that speak for Blizzard. Their EULA (which is not automatically binding in it's entirety as some legal precedent shows) stating that everything made with their editor is automatically their IP for once and the franchise being loosely based on their lore and charaters. Also they did try to reach a settlement out of court which is a plus but I have no Idea what their demands were.
Maybe the below 15 year olds will prefer these "my little pony" games where everything is sparkly and pretty, because RTS/FPS-games are too hard for them. For the rest of us, I don't think it'll cause much of a ripple.
On February 24 2012 09:38 BenBuford wrote: Maybe the below 15 year olds will prefer these "my little pony" games where everything is sparkly and pretty, because RTS/FPS-games are too hard for them. For the rest of us, I don't think it'll cause much of a ripple.
These posts remind me of the "if u don't get hit it's not a real sport" type of people, except 40x nerdier LOL
On February 24 2012 09:38 BenBuford wrote: Maybe the below 15 year olds will prefer these "my little pony" games where everything is sparkly and pretty, because RTS/FPS-games are too hard for them. For the rest of us, I don't think it'll cause much of a ripple.
So your problem is that its not hardcore enough for tough guys like yourself?
As people have pointed out - if we are judging by prize pools or playerbase, LOL is actually ahead. You have to use a metric where you argue that DOTA is just a better game, which is obviously hard to prove. But either way, I think it's great for both DOTA and LOL to have such competition. It means both companies will constantly be making their games better, bringing out new features, and providing a great experience for us. I'll be very happy to play both.
Imagine how great it would be if Blizzard had a competitor with a vaguely similar game to Starcraft 2. You'd definitely have LAN mode and chat channels, that's for sure.
dota2 will definitely lead as the king of esports in the future. valve is a company who listens to the community, and the sooner blizzard realizes this, they can dig themselves out of the shithole
Even if BW is going trough some rough times, it still makes all other games look like Mario Kart in terms of professionalism. Oh, and LAN isn’t a big plus. That feature has been around for a while you know. Any “eSport” not having LAN is a joke.
Money and interface doesn't mean it's going to the king of esports. You need that and gameplay and watchability. I still think sc2 will be a better e-sport and will have longer staying power.
It's easier to watch, has more to talk about, better build up and it's just very simple for new viewers. There's the red guy and the blue guy and they try to kill each other. DOTA has creeping, laning, and 10 heros, 5 on 5. It makes the game more confusing and there's nothing interesting about creeping.
Although the interface for DOTA2 is definately superior I still believe the gameplay and community behind sc2 will ensure its place in esports in the future.