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Why the South Koreans are the new force in Dota 2
MVP Phoenix have taken the Dota world by surprise. We look at how they’ve managed it.
The rise of South Korean Dota
© MVP Phoenix
The West might as well give up; the South Koreans have finally arrived in the wonderful world of Dota 2. They’re absolute giants in the world of eSports. They’ve dominated the StarCraft scene for as long as we remember and continue to reign supreme in League of Legends despite a strong showing from EU at Worlds last year.
When Valve’s second Dota Major was played in early March, the teams from South-east Asia were brushed over as an afterthought. Not many established teams had practised against them and the Western teams seemed more worried about the Chinese teams, who many predicted to have a strong tournament.
In the end, though, it was MVP Phoenix, the little-known team from South Korea, who stunned the Dota world with some insane performances and an eventual fourth-place finish. They then went on to continue their remarkable form and sweep aside The International 5 champions, EG, 3-0 in the grand finals on the way to winning their first major tournament at DotaPit 4. Fnatic, the team from Malaysia, were another surprise package. They knocked out reigning Major champions Team OG on their way to a sixth-place finish. Fnatic’s eventual conquerors? None other than MVP.
In South Korea specifically, Dota has never been considered as big a game as League of Legends. Despite the huge prize pools, nothing has managed to steer the community’s attention away from LoL. Now that the country has a tournament winner and a team who look one of the best in the world going into Manila, it may well change. We take a look at the remarkable rise of MVP Phoenix and the reasons behind it.
The South Korean eSports infrastructure is somewhat spectacular – eSports has been a mainstream phenomenon for over 10 years in South Korea. There are internet cafés on every corner, where kids can play against their friends for a small hourly cost. Televised matches are frequently broadcast on cable for the wider public to adore; it’s fully entrenched in South Korean culture. However, in the West, big media companies such as BBC and ESPN have dared to dabble in eSports with limited success. Whereas players may be mocked and questioned by the Western public, players are idolised and considered stars in their own right. South Korea even have KeSPA, the 'Korea eSports Association', which was founded all the way back in 2000. The association were approved by the government Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, which shows the advanced position of eSports in South Korea.
Arguably, it was only a matter of time before we saw the emergence of a really strong South Korean team. With such a huge pool of talent gaming every day, it was only a matter of time before someone made the switch and fully committed to becoming the best at Dota 2. If MVP Phoenix managed to grab enough headlines in their home country, the Dota scene could look very different in a few years. EternalEnvy of Team Secret famously said, “If Koreans take this game seriously, we don’t stand a chance. If they join Dota it’s not going to be fair, how do [we] mere humans hope to defend our titles?” Well, EE, the time may have come.
What makes MVP’s achievements even more remarkable is the current absence of dedicated servers for South Koreans to play on. Three of MVP’s five players hold top-10 rankings on the Chinese-ranked leaderboards. This is despite the fact that they are unable to play on Chinese servers from 4pm until midnight as the ping is too high. Should they wish to play ranked, they must play between 1am and 6am. The previous incarnation of a server was scrapped by Valve due to low player activity. With MVP’s recent triumphs, interest might well manifest itself again, though.
When talking about the new stars on the scene, it's impossible not to talk about their irrepressible play style and take on the meta. Their four group stage games at the Shanghai Major, against pre-tournament favourites EHOME and eventual winners Team Secret, lasted a total of 98 minutes.
That’s a staggering average of just 24.5 minutes per match. There was no element of death-ball, just amazing team fight and perfect execution to outplay some of the world’s very best teams. Even PPD, the man famed for being able to draft around any strategy, was powerless to prevent a 3-0 humbling for his EG in the grand final of DotaPit 4. Not only was it impossible to ban out their signature heroes (there were simply too many of them), they had revolutionary answers to many a strategy. They ran Juggernaut support as a counter to Lone Druid and Phantom Lancer in the mid-lane as a counter to Invoker; both unusual picks that worked exceptionally well.
Looking to the future, MVP have locked the same roster for both Manila and The International 6. It looks unlikely that they'll have to qualify for Manila as a direct invite must surely be on the cards for the now-formidable force from South Korea. If their success story catches on in South Korea, we could see some very strong teams emerging in the coming years and potentially an era of dominance unparalleled in the Dota scene.
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