This is just something I was thinking. If the success of DOTA 2 will harm/hamper SC2. It's like a big behemoth on the horizon. Will SC2 still have fans / viewers after people discover DOTA 2? After watching the gamescom dota 2 tournament, I was extremely disinterested in MLG and only really was interested when nada went crazy.
So will DOTA 2 sort of be the next "iteration" of esports replacing SC2? or will SC2 live on in Dota 2's shadow?
Annual championship with 1.6 million minimum prize, DOTA TV, more interesting strategies etc. As a big SC:BW fan, its obvious sc2 has failed to live up to the spectator side of SC:Bw.
Nope. If anything it will probably help SC2 by promoting ESPORTS in general. SC2 and DOTA2 are two very different games and genres. The only thing it might do to SC2 is take it off the pedestal of top ESPORTS game at MLG or something. Nothing really too significant.
I don't think their markets overlap that much really - they're quite different games. I play bit of DOTA (LoL these days) on the side but play much more SC2. I think people who currently play SC2 and get DOTA 2 when it comes out will still follow and play SC2 as well.
This would be like saying the new counterstrike will hurt sc2. Yes it is a new game and many people might check it out, but they really do appeal to different crowds already.
I think the markets actually do overlap a lot. Say even 50% of sc2 market, and everyone seeing that dota 2 is actual the "vehicle" to get behind when you have blizz taking 50% of revenue etc..
It's normal to hear something like "I switched from WC3 to SC2." It wouldn't make sense to hear "I switched from SC2 to DOTA2." There's obviously some overlap there, but they're completely different games, and I find it hard to believe they'll impact each other's competitive scene in any perceivable manner.
mm it's interesting to see peoples thoughts, but I feel that an action RTS game is fairly similar to SC2 in terms of how it is as a spectator event. I just feel taht dota 2 will over time capture more fans, and sort of become the thing to watch, whereas sc2 will slowly be overcome with "why not this dota 2 feature" while blizzard switches focuses to titan/d3/etc
I just see a big decrease in interest in sc2 coming up, with bigger esports and other games sort of taking most of the interest share.
Well, DotA is much worse as a spectator esport than SC2 so it should be fine. About the playerbase, I'd expect a lot of SC2 players to play DotA2 when it first comes out, at least initially.
On September 02 2011 09:39 tyCe wrote: Well, DotA is much worse as a spectator esport than SC2 so it should be fine. About the playerbase, I'd expect a lot of SC2 players to play DotA2 when it first comes out, at least initially.
How is it worse as a spectator experience? It has an established scene in China and does get viewers even on joindota / dota commentaries, and the dota 2 tournament was rather exciting (more exciting to me than any sc2 I've seen.)
It has inbuilt DOTA TV, more replay options/support, and more developer support for tournaments (world championships)
On September 02 2011 09:12 dacthehork wrote: As a big SC:BW fan, its obvious sc2 has failed to live up to the spectator side of SC:Bw.
It's been one year. No offense meant but I feel like your insight on the topic is somewhat short-sighted.
lets remember where BW was after 1 year...
Playing on pingball tables for its first televised lan : P
Fixed.
Know your stuff before making comments like that. Korea had many offline tourneys that weren't broadcasted on Television for obvious reasons (no such word as ESPORTS, nor internet broadcasting).
If anything, SC2 needs more work given the resources and materials that people can access today, compared to the old days. Look at the production value of OSL/Proleague/MSL and GSL. While OSL/Proleague/MSL has amazing production team that brings interesting intros and graphics, I fail to see such innovation in GSL production.
The only thing interesting was the 'player-announcement' at the beginning of the match, some which seemed like 'oh hey, look here. boobs'
On September 02 2011 09:39 tyCe wrote: Well, DotA is much worse as a spectator esport than SC2 so it should be fine. About the playerbase, I'd expect a lot of SC2 players to play DotA2 when it first comes out, at least initially.
mobas get more viewers than SC2 already.
dota2 got 1.6m~ lol got 200k~ even hon gets 25k sometimes (more than ipl2 and dreamhack)
one lol streamer averages 12000 viewers a day.
i find it much more entertaining spectating than sc2 tbh.
They're not even in the same genre. When D3 comes out it'll pull a lot of users too, but the people that watch SC2 as an esport rather than just a game are going to stick around.
SC2 will probably continue rising in popularity for another year or so due to the expansions, assuming Blizzard doesn't screw them up. If Blizzard does REALLY well, I can see SC2 lasting as long as BW so far, since SC2 will only enter life support around 2014-15 (after the 2nd expansion).
I enjoy watching BW/SC2 more than LoL/HoN, but I can get the appeal of LoL/HoN. I just find that the endings of DoTA-like games to far less climactic - there's less tension than in BW/SC2.
I have never watched a LoL or Dota live stream for more than 2 minutes. I have no idea what the hell is going in on and frankly I'm not really interested in those types of games. Maybe I'm just dedicated to RTS games though...
Can someone advice me a good VOD of DOTA2 or DOTA to watch please, like a final of a big event or something quite spectacular? I've never saw that game (maybe few seconds here and there), know almsot nothing about it and i want to deflower my eyes with something good if possible.
I've never even played or seen dota in my life, and I'm a huge gamer. Actually, I don't know any other gamers who even play the game... So at this time it's impossible for me to consider it competition with SC2.
You can give stats if you want, I'm just saying from personal experience the game is really nonexistent for me.
On September 02 2011 09:39 tyCe wrote: Well, DotA is much worse as a spectator esport than SC2 so it should be fine. About the playerbase, I'd expect a lot of SC2 players to play DotA2 when it first comes out, at least initially.
mobas get more viewers than SC2 already.
dota2 got 1.6m~ lol got 200k~ even hon gets 25k sometimes (more than ipl2 and dreamhack)
one lol streamer averages 12000 viewers a day.
i find it much more entertaining spectating than sc2 tbh.
Its a difference of opinions, If you had no idea what either one was about, I figure it would be significantly easier to understand what SC2 was about. MOBA's are complicated team games that rely on a bunch of different mechanics. For example someone who doesn't know might see a tank character with a 2/10/20 record in a game and think they are garbage when they are dying a lot even though they are doing amazing and winning the game for their team, Where as if someone is losing their bases its pretty obvious that they are losing in sc2.
On September 02 2011 10:01 gds wrote: Can someone advice me a good VOD of DOTA2 or DOTA to watch please, like a final of a big event or something quite spectacular? I've never saw that game (maybe few seconds here and there), know almsot nothing about it and i want to deflower my eyes with something good if possible.
I'm not too worried, I think sc2 will still grow world wide and we still have Korea which will eventually make the transition too. DoTA didn't kill BW in Skorea last time around.
I also don't think dota games can draw new casual viewers well at all, I think sc2 is funner to watch if you're an utter noob. I also think sc2 is at the same time the deeper game and is very rewarding the more skill you have so yeah.
Dota 2 got 1.6m because it was the first time it was unveiled, LoL because of riot promotion and because it's F2P.
dota is so boring to watch as a neutral... it is already dead. its like cs 1.6. i'll admit i loved watching cs 1.6 back in the day, but its because i played. to a neutral its boring as hell. same as this game.
sc2 has potential to be big because even a complete noob can relate to big armies colliding with eachother and watching huge battles. its like watching a war. dota is just fantasy crap which people cannot relate to at all without being a hardcore player.
On September 02 2011 09:39 tyCe wrote: Well, DotA is much worse as a spectator esport than SC2 so it should be fine. About the playerbase, I'd expect a lot of SC2 players to play DotA2 when it first comes out, at least initially.
mobas get more viewers than SC2 already.
dota2 got 1.6m~ lol got 200k~ even hon gets 25k sometimes (more than ipl2 and dreamhack)
one lol streamer averages 12000 viewers a day.
i find it much more entertaining spectating than sc2 tbh.
That's also the first dota 2 tournament ever. LoL doesn't have widely streamed tournaments nor does HoN. While sc2 has tons of content everywhere. Small cups every week/weekend, major tournaments at least twice a month and tons of high level daily streamers.
I can't see Dota 2 harping on sc2 that much. Obviously i don't know anything about the community in dota or dota 2 but they don't have Day[9] so gg no re.
On September 02 2011 09:39 tyCe wrote: Well, DotA is much worse as a spectator esport than SC2 so it should be fine. About the playerbase, I'd expect a lot of SC2 players to play DotA2 when it first comes out, at least initially.
mobas get more viewers than SC2 already.
dota2 got 1.6m~ lol got 200k~ even hon gets 25k sometimes (more than ipl2 and dreamhack)
one lol streamer averages 12000 viewers a day.
i find it much more entertaining spectating than sc2 tbh.
That's also the first dota 2 tournament ever. LoL doesn't have widely streamed tournaments nor does HoN. While sc2 has tons of content everywhere. Small cups every week/weekend, major tournaments at least twice a month and tons of high level daily streamers.
I can't see Dota 2 harping on sc2 that much. Obviously i don't know anything about the community in dota or dota 2 but they don't have Day[9] so gg no re.
well the numbers are not confirmed, and valve is having a hard time even calculating it. It could have been as high as 4 million.. They set up 3 servers in China alone to stream it out.
SC2 will definitely survive - and if Dota 2 takes over the "mainstream esport", even better.
I'd prefer SC2 having a niche dedicated fanbase, just enough for it to be sustainable as an esport, at least in Korea. It's much more enjoyable being a part of such a community than what it is (becoming) now.
Seriously fuck mass popularity. Nothing good ever came out of it.
On September 02 2011 10:01 gds wrote: Can someone advice me a good VOD of DOTA2 or DOTA to watch please, like a final of a big event or something quite spectacular? I've never saw that game (maybe few seconds here and there), know almsot nothing about it and i want to deflower my eyes with something good if possible.
-Nearly 10 minutes selecting characters -Horrible mics for the casters, the clipping hurt my ears so bad I have to turn the volume way down to the point where I can't hear anything. -Virtually no team colors, can't tell wtf is going on in battles b/c of thiss -The way everyone moves their characters just pisses me off. It's everyone is a mentally retarded old guy on speed walking in circles, back and forth, jerking around everywhere. -The map is too big to tell what is fucking going on -It is over a fucking hour long. And not in a good way, like Rain vs Boxer.
If that's the best you can do then you have confirmed my suspicion: The game is utter shit to watch.
On a different note tho: How/why are the graphics so cool looking? I thought dota ran through Warcraft III, which obviously has fairly dated graphics and no widescreen support. I'm a noob, don't laugh at me :o
On September 02 2011 10:01 gds wrote: Can someone advice me a good VOD of DOTA2 or DOTA to watch please, like a final of a big event or something quite spectacular? I've never saw that game (maybe few seconds here and there), know almsot nothing about it and i want to deflower my eyes with something good if possible.
-Nearly 10 minutes selecting characters -Horrible mics for the casters, the clipping hurt my ears so bad I have to turn the volume way down to the point where I can't hear anything. -Virtually no team colors, can't tell wtf is going on in battles b/c of thiss -The way everyone moves their characters just pisses me off. It's everyone is a mentally retarded old guy on speed walking in circles, back and forth, jerking around everywhere. -The map is too big to tell what is fucking going on -It is over a fucking hour long. And not in a good way, like Rain vs Boxer.
If that's the best you can do then you have confirmed my suspicion: The game is utter shit to watch.
On a different note tho: How/why are the graphics so cool looking? I thought dota ran through Warcraft III, which obviously has fairly dated graphics and no widescreen support. I'm a noob, don't laugh at me :o
People that have never played BW or SC2 would think the exact same goddamned thing as you are. Just because you don't understand the game doesn't mean it's "shit to watch". Apparently hundreds of thousands of people disagree with you.
Why are there so much mindless posts in the forums lately?
Dota takes longer to get into than SC2. What teams are good, what items are good, to know all the heroes and their properties their spells their combos and their strengths and weaknesses.
In SC2. it's 3 races, >15 units each, sure their are subtleties that most won't understand but it's easier to understand flamethrower dune buggies burning little dogs than Dota.
Also, I've invested so much of my time into SC2 I'm not likely to jump ship (doubtful I'll have time to watch both), and many TL'er I feel are the same way. But I nevertheless hope Dota 2 develops a big following, for ESPORTS.
On September 02 2011 10:05 jdseemoreglass wrote: I've never even played or seen dota in my life, and I'm a huge gamer. Actually, I don't know any other gamers who even play the game... So at this time it's impossible for me to consider it competition with SC2.
You can give stats if you want, I'm just saying from personal experience the game is really nonexistent for me.
On September 02 2011 10:01 gds wrote: Can someone advice me a good VOD of DOTA2 or DOTA to watch please, like a final of a big event or something quite spectacular? I've never saw that game (maybe few seconds here and there), know almsot nothing about it and i want to deflower my eyes with something good if possible.
-Nearly 10 minutes selecting characters -Horrible mics for the casters, the clipping hurt my ears so bad I have to turn the volume way down to the point where I can't hear anything. -Virtually no team colors, can't tell wtf is going on in battles b/c of thiss -The way everyone moves their characters just pisses me off. It's everyone is a mentally retarded old guy on speed walking in circles, back and forth, jerking around everywhere. -The map is too big to tell what is fucking going on -It is over a fucking hour long. And not in a good way, like Rain vs Boxer.
If that's the best you can do then you have confirmed my suspicion: The game is utter shit to watch.
On a different note tho: How/why are the graphics so cool looking? I thought dota ran through Warcraft III, which obviously has fairly dated graphics and no widescreen support. I'm a noob, don't laugh at me :o
You could come up with very similar complaints about SC2. You're blatant bias obviously had you against DotA from the beginning.
Dota2 will probably overtake SC2 in china philipines brazil etc. where dota/LoL is already big. Dota really never was an esport anywhere else except for sweden maybe, even then it was less popular than CS and the proscene was virtually nonexistent in NA/KR
They will only have a possible positive effect on each other as they will probably develop an overlap of fans who otherwise would only be interested in a single game. Otherwise they have completely different fanbases and communities and its almost impossible that they will have any sort of negative effect on each other.
On September 02 2011 12:33 Hakker wrote: Dota2 will probably overtake SC2 in china philipines brazil etc. where dota/LoL is already big. Dota really never was an esport anywhere else except for sweden maybe, even then it was less popular than CS and the proscene was virtually nonexistent in NA/KR
I think that will depend a lot on how accessible Dota2 is to play at internet cafes and with friends. That is one of the faults of SC2, being that it is not a game you can just go to a PC bang and play. You need a Bnet account, pay for time, and same with friends you want to play with. WC3 Dota is something that's been copied everywhere in China and at every PC bang, while LoL is free and SCBW essentially so as well.
It won't have that big of an effect. There aren't that many people who are disbanding SC2 outright for Dota2 when it comes out, there will be some switchovers but you ahve to realize the demographic of the games is different. SC2 will be fine, Dota2 will be big but not SC2 status. It'll be in the 2nd tier of american esports like in the fighting game, league of legends tier. But SC2 should still be by far the most popular in NA
DOTA is amazingly fun to play. I can spend whole evenings playing DOTA, especially (only actually) if I'm playing with friends with voice chat. I had a great time watching the DOTA2 tournament last week. I thought it was fun, decently casted and it looked in general great.
Although I hope DOTA2 will do great as an esport, I don't think it will because I can see how boring it can be to watch. Unless you have regularly played most heroes and used most items, it can be overwhelming. People in this thread said it quite well, SC2 is 3 races with about less then 15 units each. For an amateur, it`s easy to see that red army is kicking blue army`s ass. I hope in DOTA2, the commentators will take more time to explain the builds and strategies. I hope they say stuff like ``This hero is getting a perseverance for the hp/mana regen but can later transition into a battlefury or linken sphere'' In the tourny, they didnt say much.
Whether DOTA2 becomes a great esport or not, it doesn't matter for me becasuse I know im going to have a blast playing it just as im having fun playing TF2 casually.
I moved from DotA to SC2, but they're generally quite different and bring in different crowds. When DotA2 comes out I probably won't stop playing SC2, but I doubt I'll invest as much into SC2 as I'm now.
DotA isn't really noob friendly as most people know. The same also applies to casts. Most people who watch DotA have played it quite a bit so the casters won't explain basic stuff. Maybe if there's a caster like husky for dota2, people will change from sc2.
No, who says two eSports can't live alongside each other. It's just not possible that Dota2 will come along and sweep everybody's attention away from SC2 to the point where SC2 will crumble. I don't think theres any recorded instance of this either in eSports history, feel free to correct me ^_^
On September 02 2011 16:32 Highways wrote: Blizzard DotA will kill DotA 2 lol.
Not a big Dota fan, but the caster at the first Dota 2 tournament was insane! Does anyone know his name?
I think you are talking about tobi-wan, almost a bit korean style casting, where you can actually hear the real excitement in his voice.
I agree. First time ever i had the feeling that i have when i'm watching broodwar with korean commentators. To some it might be irritating but i like it.
But no, DOTA 2 won't "kill" SC2. Two totally different games. I love both games though, and i will be following both.
On September 02 2011 10:41 jimbob615 wrote: dota is so boring to watch as a neutral... it is already dead. its like cs 1.6. i'll admit i loved watching cs 1.6 back in the day, but its because i played. to a neutral its boring as hell. same as this game.
sc2 has potential to be big because even a complete noob can relate to big armies colliding with eachother and watching huge battles. its like watching a war. dota is just fantasy crap which people cannot relate to at all without being a hardcore player.
sc is so boring to watch as a neutral.. i'll admit i loved watching sc back in the day, but its because i played. to a neutral its boring as hell. same as this game.
dota2 has potential to be big because even a complete noob can relate to heroes colliding with each other and watching one on one combat. its like watching wrestling. sc is just sci-fi crap which people cannot relate to at all without being a hardcore player
None of what you said is actually relevant to dota. Maybe if you cited difficulty in understanding what's going on, what heroes do, why people are or aren't pushing, I'd get behind it.
I find starcraft boring as hell to watch, because I don't understand it well enough. I can appreciate the clever maneouvers, but I don't get any of the bigger issues.
Watch a stream and ask questions, or an actually decent commentator.
I think it´s a bit shortsighted to say that starcraft will be unaffected just because it´s an RTS and dota is a different genre. Ask any old wc3 fan what dota did to the wc3 battle net =p From personal experience, the acquaintancies that normally play wow or consoles or portal etc that picked up starcraft 2 because it was the newest blizzard game (the types of people that are making s2 so massive at the moment) they are all planning on switching to dota2 the second it´s released. But sc2 was never going to sustain the huge mainstream following it has right now anyway, bw too was huuge for a year or three after it´s release before it started to die down a bit as people moved on to different games, the same will happen to sc2 and dota2 will speed up that process. The people remaining will be the slightly more competetive people who really like the game for the game itself and not because it´s a shiny new blizzard game.
What a troll post lol... Sports can co-exist y'know? Look at the fighting-game community, it's completely isolated from the rest of the esport community (almost at least) yet it thrives nonetheless.
I believe that sc2 will survive dota 2 because the difference in the games is huge. We may lose a few players in the first month or so but they will gradually come back due to the difference in games.
Not at all. If any game is the end of SC2, it's going be Diablo 3, and when I say "the end of SC2" I only mean how many people play online. The competitive scene definitely won't die as a result of any games coming out anytime soon.
The thing about Dota 2 vs SC2 is that Dota2, I'm assuming will be like the original Dota. What I mean by that is that it will still be very difficult to play, and will in a certain degree be like how if SC2 was harder to play like BW, which SC2 isn't. So the thing that's nice about SC2 is it's extremely easy to follow and play from a casual standpoint.
I've watched some of the Dota2 tournaments, and I've been very impressed. The only thing I can say is that it's kind of hard to follow, and the games are much much longer. I know people have done analysis of BW game length vs SC2, but an hour game length for Dota2 is very common. I'm not sure that's very good for a competitive scene because people just straight up can't and won't devote that much time to it on as regular of a basis as they do for SC2, where an entire series will probably be over in that time.
Just the length of games makes it so hard for it to be a competitive game. Although I didn't watch the LoL stream at the past MLG, I imagine live tournaments won't be able to be much bigger(4 teams I think it was) than that just do to how long games are.
So people will definitely play it, myself included, but the people who are into SC2 right now aren't going to stop watching and give up SC2 for it.