4Game

I have had a little time to read through the outrage of last week, and had some time to collect my 2 cents. I'm just one small voice in this community but who knows.

About the major cancellation; It was inevitable given the climate. As much as we are all fatigued with C19, and we want to believe that Omicron is the dying variant of the disease as we reach herd immunity, the countries just isn't quite ready to open borders to each other. What to do with the prize money, and peoples time invested, etc etc is really up for discussion. Put it towards the next Major? Divide it up among teams? We know Valve is NOT going to hold an online major. It will be LAN or no major.

But there is an underlying theme here. People feel like the Esport side of DotA2 is neglected, mismanaged, and pales in comparison to the scene of competitors. And you wouldn't be wrong. But here is where my thoughts are: First and foremost Valve has limited staff and refuses to hire more staff for anything unless there is a surefire profit involved. If valve profits a billion dollars off steam, they do not want to take 100 million out of that profit and put it towards advertising, renting venues, production, team salaries etc unless it will MAKE THEM MONEY. We see riot doing these things at a LOSS, and Valve simply will not do something like that. I personally speculate that Valve recognizes that the day of profitable Esports is on the horizon, but its just not there yet.

My theory: Valve knows in their heart that DotA2 is a superior product. From graphics, to gameplay, to viewer experience, to comeback mechanics, DotA2 is the cream of the crop. And even if it FEELS like the competitors are getting a stranglehold on the Esport scene, Valve truly believes that if it decides to commit and go all in, they could capture the attention of the entire world. We might not agree with that sentiment, but honestly that's how I believe it is. So until Valve decides that Esports is profitable, they will continue to focus mainly on their "Superbowl of Esports" once a year and sit idly by until ad revenue, viewership, and profits in general look lucrative enough to jump in.

I know we all want Valve to buy a 500 million dollar arena somewhere, rent it out throughout the course of the year to Mariah Carey and 2Chainz concerts to pay overhead, and have a dedicated site for Majors and TI. And have youtube commercials on everything gaming related, and pay big streamers to promote the game occasionally, and have a network of teams in every region that profit share and protect their players, and have trade deadlines, and truly make DotA2 a REAL SPORT, but that time is not now. It might be someday, but its just not there yet.