Thoughts 2: 9/12

As I said last Thursday, Tuesday and Thursday aregoing to have shorter (250 - 500 word) informal, barely revised articles. It may be about games, writings, politics or something else entirely.

Today it's about watching Dota on YouTube.

If you're looking for the best way to learn from a semi-pro the player to watch is Purge. His videos, titled Purge Plays... are understood to be instructive to new and experienced players alike. His analysis has made him a valuable part of the Dota community, and earned him invitations to analyze premier professional tournaments.

Following the Dota scene is difficult because games are about fifty minutes long, and most tournaments use best of three series. Noobfromua is an convenient YouTube channel because it allows you to watch only the best parts of the game. No one wants to observe the carrys farming their jungle. Noobfromua excellently reviews each game and cuts out anything which isn't a great play or a teamfight.

But, if you're looking for horrendous and hilarious plays made by everday players there's no better place to look than Dotacinema's Fails of the Week or Dota Watafak. Yet they are very different experiences. Dotacinema's fails of the week series was originally hosted by SUNSfan and Reaves. They have a series of clips of players messing up, and they comment on the failures. While it is a video about players failing in a video game, they approached it as something worthy of effort. The rapport they establish between the two of them develops and improve over time. Unfortunately, after over one hundred episodes, Reaves left the series and SUNSfan brought on SirActionSlacks as his replacement. In a combination of poor casting and a lack of effectiveness between the two casters the series has suffered. Perhaps the worst mistake of all is their constant criticism of the choice of clips. They downplay their work, as if it's no good. It's not serious, but by telling the audience the clips aren't worth watching, they'll come to believe you.

Dota Watafak is a channel, with the same idea, but there's no casters. Instead it uses musical cues, graphical editing, and memes to deliver the punchline. The cues are childish, grating, and whatever else one expects from memes, but the clips are still good 170 or so episodes in.

A final recommendation is the deranged and disturbed Pyrion Flax.  

That's it.  Poem tomorrow. 



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