Esports are on the rise, and the fact is beyond doubt. Partly its in the money. In the newly created premier tournaments from The International 5 in Seattle, through the upcoming Manila Major in May, Valve will have payed out twenty-seven million dollars in winnings. The amount of money spent by fans to support the extravagant prize pool, stadiums, and online streaming may still be insignificant compared to the NFL but the rapidness of its increase is astounding (and Valve will never have to pay a settlement for debilitating injury). Additionally, ESPN has started to take notice, including coverage of TI 5, and featuring Dota 2 in their Sports Center Top 10 plays of the night. If you listen to the ESPN announcers in both videos (try to ignore TobiWan in the background), there is a real difference between the two. The woman in the TI5 video may or may not be a fan, but she puts in the effort to understand what's happening and does an exceptional job explaining the plays. On the other hand, the two guys on Sports Center don't understand, don't try, and then blow the whole thing off. Esports fans appreciate professional sportscasters that take the time to understand the sport, and respect it.
What sets Esports aside from regular
sports is the constant transformation that the league undergoes.
Unlike the NFL,
NHL,
or other professional sports that occasionally alter the rules,
traditional sports can not alter the fabric of the game itself.
Dota has existed since the release of
Warcraft 3 by Blizzard in 2002. Warcraft allowed users a generous
amount of tools to create incredibly detailed customs games, using
the visuals of the base game. Dota was the most popular of myriad
custom games. In 2011 Dota finally separated from Warcraft and was
remade as a solo game, now called Dota 2. Though it was already
successful, Valve continued to release new versions (the first Dota 2
version was 6.70). Since its release, Dota 2 has adopted a new
version roughly every four to six months.
The most common change are the nerfs
and buffs. Nerfs are improvements to a hero, whereas buffs make a
hero less effective. In any patch, at least half of the heroes will
receive a minor buff or nerf. How do the developers decide? It
seems pretty straightforward, though there is no official policy.
Icefrog,
the unknown person behind the development, has to consider many
angles.
For instance, some heroes are stronger
than others. Dotabuff compiles a monthly win
rate for all heroes. Seems pretty simple. But it also
breaks the win rate down by skill
brackets. Looking at this list, it is apparent that a hero's
win rate varies by five percentage on average, but by as much as
twelve on the extreme cases (currently Medusa and Huskar). Even this
is only part of the picture. The professional scene is as important
to Valve and Icefrog as the pub scene. Some of the heroes scraping
the bottom of the barrel in public games (like Wisp, Enchantress,
Oracle, and Lone Druid) are popular and effective heroes in pro
tournaments, while top heroes in pubs (like Omni, Necro, and Riki)
are rarely used in pro games. In the case of the first, these heroes
are often difficult to play or are only effective as part of a team.
In the case of the latter, heroes that are powerful in pubs often
have a weak spot that pros are better able to neutralize.
In past patches Icefrog nerfed the
heroes who were dominating pro and pub games. Often he critically
disabled heroes, dropping heroes from win rates of fifty-five percent
to forty percent. A variety of other heroes received small buffs.
With incremental improvements, a hero may go unpicked, until one day
players realize how powerful they are. Occasionally, a hero would be
reworked. They might have one or all four abilities totally
redesigned. In some intangible way, the hero would be the same, but
in practice players would have to create a whole new method by which
to make the hero successful.
Other aspects of the game are changed
as well; adjustments to the map, new items, and rewards for killing
enemy heroes. But it all misses the point. What is the goal of the
biannual changes to the game?
The most obvious answer would be, to
develop a game where all heroes have an equal chance of winning, and
all items are considered valuable. That is not to say that all
strategies succeed, or every item works for all heroes. It means
that no hero would be successful sixty percent or forty percent of
the time.
This doesn't seem to be what Valve is
aiming for. Every time a hero becomes overpowered they suffer like
Icarus, by falling in flames. A more measured approach would be a
steady stream of minor nerfs until they stabilize at a fifty percent
win rate, but Valve doesn't do this. Any that rise too high are
often sent to the low forties as a punishment. And heroes that
already sit at a fifty plus win rate continue to receive minor buffs
as long as they don't dominate the scene.
This method is about creating a
rotating cast. Since there are over one hundred heroes Icefrog's
goal must be to highlight heroes for a period of time, but then allow
others to shine. Some must fall so others can ascend.
This is both the most exciting and
annoying part of the game. Having a favorite hero that you've
devoted time to perfecting, crushed into oblivion by nerfs is beyond
frustrating. This is mitigated by the fact that most players have at
least five heroes they enjoy playing. Its also exciting because
someday you're favorite may be on top. And if there is a hero that
is driving you crazy, you know it won't last forever.
Considering all this, the feelings the
pro have, the ups and downs of patches, is undoubtedly amplified.
The best of them make a living off of Dota, and yet, in a constantly
changing game, the skills of an elite player in one year may only be
second or even tenth best the following one. Unlike baseball where
the rules are solid, and players can expect their performance to be
unaltered (aside from the inevitability of the effects of age), in
Dota the reality of the game transforms, leaving only those who can
learn and adapt to remain on top.
Comments
Post a Comment