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Table of Contents
Tournament Recap
By ScintilliaSD
Brunception
By Shostakovich
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DreamHack Dota 2 Invitational
Finals Recap
The DHI Finals took place last weekend, with Dignitas and Alliance giving us one of the best Bo5s of the year, including a fantastic base race to finish it off. In the end, the Swedes claimed the $2,500 first place prize, but Dignitas did not walk away empty handed. Apart from the $1,500 second place prize, they also bag themselves an invite to Dreamhack Summer!
Since the Grand Finals were such an action packed series, our recap this week comes in the form of these great highlight videos from the GD Studio. Speaking of the GD Studio, the talk of the town this week was their great production quality for their casts, and to talk about that and more, we have Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci here today for a lengthy interview. And guess what? He's interviewed by TL's own Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz. Bruno interviewing Bruno - enjoy!
Tournament Recap
By ScintilliaSD
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9VhGElx.jpg)
In March, Swedish eSports organization Dreamhack began an 8-man invitational tournament with a $6000 prize pool, allocating $2500 and an invite to Dreamhack Summer for the eventual winner of the tournament. A month later, the tournament has concluded, and the home team Alliance has emerged victorious after a nail-biting best of 5 series against Team Dignitas. However, as Alliance was already guaranteed an invite to Dreamhack from their position as champions of the last competition, the invitation has been passed on to Team Dignitas instead.
The tournament was full of action from the start, with some of the best teams in North America and Europe fighting for the Dreamhack slot and a piece of the prize pool, but this is not the last we've seen of them far as Dreamhack Summer is concerned. There are still many spots up for contention, and we're sure to see more teams fight to join Alliance and Dignitas in Sweden.
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/miwi/dhi_group_a.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/miwi/dhi_group_b.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/miwi/dhi_bracket_end.png)
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/dota2/2013_04_21_standings.png)
The GD Studio headed the coverage for the tournaments with their own unique flair, complete with live community polls, a fair amount of trash talk, and, of course, Victory Cat. They have produced an excellent series of highlight videos for those who have missed the tournament, and they can be found below.
A heartfelt thanks goes out to The GD Studio and Dreamhack for allowing us the privilege of watching such entertaining games, and congratulations to Alliance for their well-deserved victory, as well as Dignitas for securing their trip to Sweden in the summer! The Dreamhack Invitational has whet the appetites of Dota 2 fans for now, and we will be looking forward to the LAN event in Sweden this summer with bated breath.
Brunception
By Shostakovich
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/riptide/dota2/statmanbruno.jpg)
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci burst on to the scene at TI2, stealing our hearts and minds with his in depth statistical analysis of the event. Today, he is interviewed by TL Dota 2 Coverage's resident statistician, Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz. Here, DotA fans, is the man who brought you this.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: Thanks for having us, Bruno. How has your transition from Argentina to Sweden been? Any culture shock or funny stories to share?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: It's my pleasure. Well, naturally I miss my friends and family, other than that, things like food and the culture in general are quite similar. The funny thing is that because we live in this big house in the outskirts of Stockholm with not much to do around, most of the time, I don't feel I'm in Sweden but rather in a self-sustainable space ship that could be on the moon or Tanzania for all I know! I definitely need to go downtown more often!
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: So, life is just Doto, raising cats, and sometimes go to downtown? That sounds awesome.
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: There's also Reborn! Don't forget that!
riptide: What do you do when you're not DotAing?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: Well, there are lots of things to do in the studio all the time. Most of the time when I'm not doing anything DotA-related we share stories with Apollo and 2GD, discuss with Adebisi ways to make the studio better, disconnect random cables so that Trance goes crazy trying to decipher what's going on with the audio, or cooking. I love cooking; it's super relaxing.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: Before I ask you how many random disconnected cables are necessary to drive Trance insane, let's talk about the DreamHack Invitational. What's your opinion of the event overall? Personally, I think it offered good matches and production. It was your first experience with a tournament after TI2, correct?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: In terms of full organization, yes. I've casted some here and there, mostly with BTS, but nothing super serious. The event was super satisfactory from our point of view, the numbers were good, people seemed to like it, teams were happy about participating in it, and most importantly we had fun.
We started planning this tournament a couple days after I got to Sweden and it's super easy to work with these guys, our vision is really simple: Do something that raises the bar in terms of production quality, we have the right people and the right toys. It's nice to see something you put so much effort in succeed.
We started planning this tournament a couple days after I got to Sweden and it's super easy to work with these guys, our vision is really simple: Do something that raises the bar in terms of production quality, we have the right people and the right toys. It's nice to see something you put so much effort in succeed.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: The big mini-map on the studio helps a lot visualizing the big picture in a play. Add some arrows next to the hero portraits and you can fully build the whole context of a fight for the viewers. Are there any other similar ideas you want to explore?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: Many, but of course you always save something for later. This is something I've said a lot of times in different places, but I enjoy creating stuff way more than anything else.
Dota 2 has been a huge success as an esport, and that made it easy for content producers: People like watching DotA so they don't demand much extra from them. But that at the same time leads to a somewhat stale producing metagame where the biggest differentiation from Product A and Product B is normally who casts it. It also leads to people being unable to distinguish similar products if they're covered by the same people (People confusing G-league with G1-League, or joinDOTA masters with Eizo cup or Bigpoint Battle).
These many ideas will be fully explored differently in different tournaments, because we believe that giving an identity to each product is crucial for viewers to remember it, for us not to get bored doing always the same, and for sponsors to differentiate from the rest.
Dota 2 has been a huge success as an esport, and that made it easy for content producers: People like watching DotA so they don't demand much extra from them. But that at the same time leads to a somewhat stale producing metagame where the biggest differentiation from Product A and Product B is normally who casts it. It also leads to people being unable to distinguish similar products if they're covered by the same people (People confusing G-league with G1-League, or joinDOTA masters with Eizo cup or Bigpoint Battle).
These many ideas will be fully explored differently in different tournaments, because we believe that giving an identity to each product is crucial for viewers to remember it, for us not to get bored doing always the same, and for sponsors to differentiate from the rest.
riptide: How about getting casters and the production team to re-enact team fights in the studio during post game analysis? For example, you could use real ice for Ice Path and real fire for Macropyre.
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: The only thing I can promise is that we can reenact post-lvl6 Riki in our studio roaming around.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: I heard people saying that they prefer sticking to the stream instead of watching DHI games inside the client. Do you think DotaTV has some catch-up to make?
riptide: Or in other words, do you think the production metagame is balanced at the moment?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: It's hard to say, DotaTV is a nice product that covers the basic needs of a stream and gives you control over the game to click and move wherever you want, no stream will able be able to provide that.
Would it be nice if it allowed people the ability to broadcast additional info to viewers, or to create polls? Absolutely.
However if that was the case and it becomes the norm, we'd be trying to think of ways to top that to the point where it would become a game of cat and mouse. I think the responsibility now lies on stream content producers to create more different stuff and see what sticks, and after a time of that Valve may decide which features are core and need to be in DotaTV and which features should be producer-specific to, once again, give different identities to different products.
Having said that, I'd love to see embedded streams between games in tournaments as it was with TI2.
Would it be nice if it allowed people the ability to broadcast additional info to viewers, or to create polls? Absolutely.
However if that was the case and it becomes the norm, we'd be trying to think of ways to top that to the point where it would become a game of cat and mouse. I think the responsibility now lies on stream content producers to create more different stuff and see what sticks, and after a time of that Valve may decide which features are core and need to be in DotaTV and which features should be producer-specific to, once again, give different identities to different products.
Having said that, I'd love to see embedded streams between games in tournaments as it was with TI2.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: Which teams impressed you most in the tournament?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: Team Dignitas mostly. Everyone expected TL, Fnatic, and Alliance to be favorites, but Team Dignitas proved to be a very strong contender beating the first two and taking the finals against Alliance to 5 games. They're one of the most innovative teams in the western scene and their game plans are really solid. I enjoy watching them play.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: I agree, and Dignitas plays a lot of Warlock and Spectre. I can't help but support a team that runs my favorite heroes. It was so sad to see what happened with them in the last game. You said you weren't prepared for that. Are you prepared now?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: What happened there is the closest thing an esport can be to a real sport.
The entertainment factor of any competitive activity is tightly related to how far into the activity you still can't predict the final outcome. Football (bartlett) can give you the winning goal in the last minute. Basketball can give you the winning shot in the last second.
In DotA, as with many esports, you normally know the winner 5, 10 or even 30 minutes before the match is over, and while you're waiting for the unexpected, the "big throws" or the "big plays", 99% of the time, your brain is set to the fact that team A is going to win because they have an advantage. Base races are the only situation where you can't honestly tell who's going to win until, at best, 2-3 seconds before the match is over. That's why it's so memorable and people get super excited about it
The entertainment factor of any competitive activity is tightly related to how far into the activity you still can't predict the final outcome. Football (bartlett) can give you the winning goal in the last minute. Basketball can give you the winning shot in the last second.
In DotA, as with many esports, you normally know the winner 5, 10 or even 30 minutes before the match is over, and while you're waiting for the unexpected, the "big throws" or the "big plays", 99% of the time, your brain is set to the fact that team A is going to win because they have an advantage. Base races are the only situation where you can't honestly tell who's going to win until, at best, 2-3 seconds before the match is over. That's why it's so memorable and people get super excited about it
riptide: In retrospect, is there anything you guys could have done from a production point of view to make that moment better for the viewers? Would something like split screen have been useful at that point? Is that doable in your current setup?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: We considered PiP (Picture in Picture, essentially showing 2 screens at the same time), we could have done it (we tested it even), of course no one was expecting a situation so suited to that like the base race at the end. In the end we wanted to save something for the future.
Instant replays are on the table as well, as well as more ways to make the viewers a more active part of the cast. But there are a couple big tournaments in the horizon, so you'll be able to see more about it there.
Instant replays are on the table as well, as well as more ways to make the viewers a more active part of the cast. But there are a couple big tournaments in the horizon, so you'll be able to see more about it there.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: That was probably the craziest thing I've ever watched in Dota 2. I saw similar situations, but only in Wc3 DotA, and I can understand why you weren't ready for it, it was pretty much a perfect storm, something that was slowly built and suddenly exploded in everyone's faces. On the other side, TheAlliance is doing pretty well lately. No wonder they won DHI. We actually have a Chinese spy on our crew who says that TheAlliance is the only team in the west that actually follows a plan and establishes goals for the early and mid game. What do you think about their current form?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: They've reached a strong level of consistency. It's been unfortunate to see them drop out in the first round of EMS. They combine a deep level of understanding of the metagame to get the right picks, with solid play from their role players.
In my opinion you truly see whether teams like these are here to stay when you see how they play after a big patch update, where it forces players to adapt to new scenarios. So we'll see what happens after the next big gamechanging patch comes, but I trust they'll make it.
In my opinion you truly see whether teams like these are here to stay when you see how they play after a big patch update, where it forces players to adapt to new scenarios. So we'll see what happens after the next big gamechanging patch comes, but I trust they'll make it.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: Let's talk a bit about stats. Which heroes are trending right now? I'm seeing that Magnus has been super effective the last weeks and Puck is once again really popular.
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: Magnus, Lifestealer, and Lone Druid make for a super easy to play lineup now. It's very strong and opens lots of space for supports. Whenever I see that combination picked by a team, I die inside a little bit.
riptide: Regarding sponsorship, have you guys considered contacting hair product manufacturers to sponsor Weppas' hairstyle? I'm sure you could do some really good product placement there.
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: We're letting him grow it a bit more so that we can fit five or six sponsor logos there, I believe one more month will be enough.
[Here, the two Brunos engage in a lengthy discussion about the issues that arise from their sharing a name, Twitter messages gone astray, gossip, IceFrog and meditations on the topic of nominative determinism.]
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: TheAlliance secured their spot for Dreamhack Summer. What are your expectations for it? What about TI3?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: Dreamhack is the ultimate go-to western LAN event. We've talked to some of the guys (Hellspawn as you know helps us with the show regularly), and you probably saw what they're doing for DH Stockholm (LED panels!). Dreamhack has the same mentality as the studio in terms of improving themselves over and over, so I believe it'll be unparalleled in the western scene and at least up to par with the best Chinese events.
Regarding TI3, well, things are brewing, it's too early to tell. Last year at this stage, invites started rolling, so by that logic they shouldn't be that far. I know for a fact that Valve wants to improve upon last year, polish the product quite a bit and possibly incorporate new content in a similar way to what we're doing, so we'll hear more when Valve announces it, but I still think it's going to be the best produced esport event of the year.
Regarding TI3, well, things are brewing, it's too early to tell. Last year at this stage, invites started rolling, so by that logic they shouldn't be that far. I know for a fact that Valve wants to improve upon last year, polish the product quite a bit and possibly incorporate new content in a similar way to what we're doing, so we'll hear more when Valve announces it, but I still think it's going to be the best produced esport event of the year.
riptide: What do you think about Western LAN event production quality in general? As a content producer yourself, do you think that live events should either go big (spend on high level production) or go home (play everything online)?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: More LAN is always good. Remember the early SC2 days, with everyone trying to run their online content, products being indistinguishable from each other, and players playing lots of matches a day trying to make a living out of it?
Dota 2 right now is similar to that. What saved SC2 was the big LAN events (which naturally started smaller and grew with time); viewers and players started focusing on these kind of events, ignoring the smaller online content. LAN is good. It doesn't have to be super big, although it helps, but I envision that one year from now with China interested in the western audience and teams as well. Thus, the LAN circuit will be what people will focus on, and online content should merely be filler/qualifiers for the LAN events.
Dota 2 right now is similar to that. What saved SC2 was the big LAN events (which naturally started smaller and grew with time); viewers and players started focusing on these kind of events, ignoring the smaller online content. LAN is good. It doesn't have to be super big, although it helps, but I envision that one year from now with China interested in the western audience and teams as well. Thus, the LAN circuit will be what people will focus on, and online content should merely be filler/qualifiers for the LAN events.
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: Last question: SirJolt wants to know what's the percentage of questions are you asked that ask for a meaningless stat in a cheap attempt to get a laugh.
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: Well, this question just upped it to 51%, so I hope you're happy!
Bruno "shostakovich" Tomaz: Hahahaha. Thank you very much, Bruno. Do you have any last words or shoutouts?
Bruno "Statsman" Carlucci: Shoutout to all my friends from BTS and GD Studio, especially to Pyrion Flax whose work on EMS finals has been absolutely great.
And to the fans, thanks for watching us be silly on camera. We promise to be back with more, soon. Maybe Apollo will lend me his pink pikachu costume!
And to the fans, thanks for watching us be silly on camera. We promise to be back with more, soon. Maybe Apollo will lend me his pink pikachu costume!
Writers: ScintilliaSD, Shostakovich
Gfx: Shiroiusagi, Hawaiianpig
Liquipedia: miwi, JBright
Editors: SirJolt, Firebolt145, riptide
Gfx: Shiroiusagi, Hawaiianpig
Liquipedia: miwi, JBright
Editors: SirJolt, Firebolt145, riptide
(to bad Liquid didn't win) and Bruno is awesome 
