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Gareth talks about the new Dota 2 major system
We're just moments from The International 7, but Valve have already revealed a huge shake-up of the competitive landscape post TI. We spoke to top caster Gareth to dissect the announcement.
Alas, just as the Seattle-based developers stunned the Dota world post-Boston with the reveal of 7.00, they've already announced the introduction of a new system that will reshape the competitive landscape as we know it. Valve will take a step back from organising majors, instead outsourcing the tournaments to third party organisers as we usher in the era of majors/minors.
Tournaments with a $150,000 prize pool will have it doubled by Valve, and the tournament will be considered a minor. Similarly, tournaments with $500,000 will also see the money doubled but dubbed a major. Add to that a new player-ranking system that will see teams know exactly how and where they stand with regards to The International spots throughout the year, and we're in for a truly intriguing season ahead.
As always with anything Valve, there are probably more questions than answers at the moment. We spoke to esteemed caster Gareth 'Gareth' Bateson after his return from commentating in Peru about just how he believes the changes will impact the professional scene.
When everyone first saw the blog, there was understandable excitement. What were your first impressions after reading Valve's latest reveal?
The first feeling was that of excitement, with such a large scale update to the format of the tournament season and something we've been clamouring for. We all started holding our breath for the Valve branded and supplemented tournaments that would be coming throughout the year, feeding into TI. Then it dawned on us that there are so many questions to be answered, details untold and the fact the answers will likely not come soon meant we had to take a step back from the excitement and start asking the important questions.
Will there be quality assurance of conditions at tournaments for players and broadcast talent? Would specific technology or vetted production companies be required – thereby increasing expenditure for minor/major organisers? How will the scheduling work since Valve state they'll be helping to reduce conflicts, since the closer to TI you get, the more impactful and important the tournament becomes?
What do the qualifying points qualify you for: direct invitation, invitation to closed qualifiers or a mixture of both? While it may seem simple from an outside perspective for Valve to hand power and oversight to third party organisers in setting up these minors and majors, there's a hell of a lot of work to do and the onus is most certainly on IceFrog to keep parity and ensure consistency from one event to another.
With $150,000 now the minimum prize for a Minor, will we see small tournaments phased out as they become less appealing to players? What do you think the impact of the changes will be on the Tier Two scene?
Predicting how the landscape of the scene adapts is something we need Professor Trelawney for – it's almost an impossible task unless you've got the right tea leaves. Small tournaments will undoubtedly become less popular for Tier One and the top end of Tier Two Dota teams, but a lot of this depends on how the qualifiers for these minors and majors are run.
If there's potential for some of the smaller tournaments to feed into these minors or the qualifiers run as individual tournaments, as we've seen from WESG, where you play for prize money and qualification within the online qualifiers, then this could in fact play a big role in aiding Tier Two teams. It may specifically help those that are often on the cusp of making LAN events.
It’s still important though to not choke out smaller tournaments
It’s still important though to not choke out smaller tournaments such as ProDota or Mr Cat, as they offer an immense amount of support and practice outside of scrims for teams, as well as the ability to get your name out there.
Name recognition and brand awareness either for your team or individual players is incredibly important in this climate. Whether it be to increase your fan following or to move on to more prominent teams as an individual, these small tournaments offer a platform that is often lost within qualifiers for large scale LAN events. So with the potential for new organisers to enter and outsource qualifiers to these currently established tournaments, and perhaps run them as qualifiers as well, I don't see the Tier Two scene dying just yet.
Do you think we'll see some other tournament players enter the space?
There's room for projects such as ELeague or even corporations to begin finding a foothold in Dota 2. Just imagine – The McDonalds Major! It's difficult to gauge the feasibility of new players entering the arena however, but I definitely believe the organisers currently in the scene will be doubling their efforts in order to snag themselves a minor or major tag to apply to their tournaments.
How do you see this impacting the emergence of new players? With potentially more events on the horizon and players willing to play them for a clear TI invite, do you think we will see more talent or will it see the same talent being recycled even further?
There will always be new players popping up, whether it be a roster like Planet Dog or players like Yapzor and Khezu. Mix teams that can prove their worth through Tier Two tournaments and in qualifiers for large events will always be a mainstay in Dota 2. Something the Chinese region did very well through academy teams was to nurture this talent and mix it in with some of the old guard, a la Invictus Gaming. This is something that the European Dota culture still lacks.
The trouble here is of course related to previous questions: if the qualifiers for majors and minors become saturated with existing teams and squads, will there be room for new talent to grow and perform? It's all down to the details again, which we still don't know. Will the new system provide a platform for them to show to an audience? Will it provide an opportunity to play against the best and prove they're players that can fit in with some of the bigger established names?
Fortunately outside of China we are seeing many more cross-region transfers of players, whether it be from South America to NA or Europe to SEA. I believe the dissemination of ideas and playstyles is incredibly important for the competitive scene to grow. With Valve now nurturing more than just four regions, we'll undoubtedly see more of this, which allows new players to be scouted and recruited onto pre-existing teams or to form new ones. This is especially important with the precedent being set for older players retiring from play in order to move into roles as team coaches or broadcasting talent analysts.
The player ranking system is a further attempt by Valve to try and solidify the scene in a way that reduces the ridiculous roster rampage that occurs after every major event
Just how important is getting the player ranking points system correct? What do you see as potential pitfalls of the system?
The player ranking system is a further attempt by Valve to try and solidify the scene in a way that reduces the ridiculous roster rampage that occurs after every major event. Time will only tell whether 'winning' players who rack up the big points will stick together to keep their team in a good spot, and the plan to only take into account the top three points on a team means that stacking players is not as lucrative and exploitable.
The details and actual mathematics behind the points system is going to be interesting to learn, and how tournaments later in the year being more profitable will be balanced to keep tournaments earlier in the year as competitive. Parity is definitely the name of the game with this new system. It's imperative to get it right, in order to create an environment in which everybody can flourish, from players to organisers, the broadcast talent and, of course, the viewer experience must remain of paramount importance.
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