During the first week of August 2014, fans, commentators, game developers and players convened in Seattle for the largest professional video game tournament in human history. The fifth annual International Dota 2 championship tournament for Valve Corporation’s popular competitive online strategy game brought teams from all over the world, competing for a share of the world record breaking $18 million prize pool.
Over the course of six days, 20 teams of five players each battled against one another through elimination-style bracket matches, until one team, Team Evil Geniuses of North America took the $6.6 million championship victory over Team CDEC of China. However, in the wake of this triumphant victory, many teams announced breakups, roster changes, and even the outright kicking of some of their players, amidst a storm of feuds and controversy across the Internet and social media. This jarring backlash of hostility and negativity is nothing new in the world of eSports, and unfortunately stands as one of the biggest barriers holding back competitive gaming from achieving a much larger fanbase.
In some cases, it seems that this continual upheaval is almost built into the very fabric of the culture of professional Dota – Team Secret being an excellent example. Formed in the wake of the previous International in 2014, Team Secret was a fan favorite to take the entire championship this year, owing to the sheer star power of each of its members. With a lineup featuring the bombastic, playmaking, yet mercurial Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, high school age prodigy Ludwig “zai” Wahlberg, as well as players from other extremely well-known franchises like Alliance and Natus Vincere, Team Secret was a literal all-star lineup of the most effective members of several enormously successful teams. During The International 2015, however, it all fell apart.
Once the main event was underway, and Team Secret had lost the first two matches to the Chinese EHOME, prospects looked dour for the previous popular favorite. Team Secret’s fate was sealed in the losers’ bracket when they lost 2-1 to the Russian team Virtus.Pro. Following the loss, Arteezy, never known for his patience in defeat, immediately took to Twitter, posting a series of (now deleted tweets) casting blame on his teammates and highlighting the level of communicative dysfunction that lead them to make critical mistakes under pressure during their matches. Further interviews and transcripts of livestreams, as well as statements from his other teammates, showed that while Arteezy’s anger was unprofessional and melodramatic, it was rooted in fundamental concerns about the way the team failed to communicate or cooperate.
By all expectations, Team Secret had all the makings of a dynasty – each of its players was among the best in the entire competitive scene for their specialized roles, and the combined result should have made for an unstoppable juggernaut. However, in building a team out of members that could not stand being around each other enough to practice for the tournament, Team Secret could only ever be destined to fail. What was once a budding franchise with a great deal of fan support is an exploded shell, with new members shuffled around from other teams looking to refine their strategies and dump weak links in the wake of The International.
Arteezy himself ended up returning to his previous team, the victorious Evil Geniuses, the story of which is by far the most tragic example of the damage caused by post-tournament roster shuffling. Before the tournament, EG was one of the longest running competitive gaming franchises, fielding teams in games from Starcraft to Halo. EG’s Dota 2 squad is one of the most well known teams currently still active, and the main North American presence in the competitive scene. EG’s lineup for the tournament ran the gamut of players from Clinton “Fear” Loomis, one of the oldest active Dota 2 professionals to Sumail “Suma1l” Hassan, the youngest player ever to win The International at 15 years old, and has remained relatively consistent over the past few years. A notable new addition for 2015 was Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling, a refugee from another North American team, Cloud9.
Throughout The International 2015, EG had a meteoric rise, winning every match up and into the semifinals, where they were booted to the loser’s bracket after losing 0-2 to CDEC. They rallied back, however, hurdling semifinalist LGD Gaming to defeat CDEC 3-1 and seize the $6.6 million prize in a spectacular finale. A mere few days following the victory, however, Aui_2000 tweeted confirmation of rumors that he had been kicked from the team he helped carry to the finish line. In a lengthy blog post, EG captain Peter “ppd” Dager enumerated his reasoning for kicking Aui, describing him as “not an effective communicator” and “creating a stressful environment,” providing an example in which Aui would question gameplay strategies even as they sat down to play their final matches. Meanwhile, Aui continued to tweet about the opacity and lack of communication from his team surrounding his kick, attracting a large amount of sympathy across Twitter and Dota communities all across the internet.
Aui’s kick, independent of any rational explanation from ppd, illustrates that eSports still have a long journey towards achieving the level of legitimacy enjoyed by traditional sports. The type of backdoor player trading and kicking that has become customary after each international tournament can only ever lead to increased negativity and animosity between a sedentary pool of professional players. Furthermore, roster shuffling stymies any attempt to build a professional, enduring franchise, which sports like football, basketball, and even professional wrestling have shown are the key to growing and retaining a fanbase.
If eSports in general are to be taken seriously in any degree, teams and players must move towards the professional and regulated elements of traditional sports, not those of pettiness and controversy. If they fail to do so, they will never rise above the stereotype of socially inept geeks getting upset over computer games.
Johnny McCabe is a Collegian columnist and can be reached at [email protected].
