CONTENTS GAME ANALYSIS ESPORT 04 TO THE WOODS
5 Signs that you could jungle
09 UPS & DOWNS
Na’Vi and their prospect in the upcoming International
10 PUGNA IS A HERO IN DOTA 2 14 OFFLANER ITEMIZATION
42 ONLY ONE MERLINI? 52 5 THINGS AT TI6
That did not come across on the stream
MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS 58 CREDITS
FAN CONTENT
60 CONTACT AND SOCIAL MEDIA
18 THE UNFORTUNATE 22 CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE Chapter 2
DEPARTMENTS
24 DRAGONUS THE SKYWRATH MAGE LORE Artist Interview
04 GAME ANALYSIS 18 FAN CONTENT 42 ESPORT 58 CREDITS
38 DOTABREWS
For past issues of Feeder’s Digest visit issuu.com/feedersdigest
34 ERAN FOWLER
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TO THE WOODS 5 SIGNS THAT YOU COULD JUNGLE
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ARTWORK BY CAP MEOW
A GUIDE BY PIZZADOG 5
90%
JUNGLING
81% JUNGLING
70%
JUNGLING
55% JUNGLING
48% JUNGLING
Here are the top 5 junglers according to DOTABUFF. There are always new junglers to come with every new patch. Check out Leafeator’s 6.88 JUNGLE VENOMANCER GUIDE! Source ENIGMA’S EXASPERATION by MaxOfS2D PROJECT 6.84 by Keller Max
D
ota 2 is a game that is said to be comprised of three lanes. You, however, know better. You know that the jungle is a viable alternative to laning at the beginning of the game. Bafflingly, your teammates seem unable to comprehend the fact that killing jungle creeps is a legitimate laning strategy. Jungling can provide your team with advantages, but should not be undertaken in every game lest you get rekt. Whilst in no way exhaustive, here are five signs that you could jungle in a particular game.
1. YOUR TEAM HAS A HERO THAT CAN SOLO LANE Without a hero that can solo a lane on your team, you are likely to be met with cries of “Why did you leave me to this?!?” or “WTF I’m a Crystal Maiden how was I meant to solo GGWP”. For this and other reasons listed below, you should only pick a jungler towards the end of the draft, so as to avoid your teammates raging at you and increase the chance of a victory. If your team does not have a hero that can at least adequately solo a lane, a competent enemy will run your team down in short order. Competent teams are not always found in pubs, but look at your team composition just in case. Make sure someone can solo the off lane or safe lane.
2. THE ENEMY’S TEAM HAS WEAK LANES Once you are sure that someone can solo the off lane or safe lane, turn your eyes to the enemy line-up. The next sign that you could jungle is weak enemy lanes relative to your team. If the enemy has defensive supports such as Dazzle or Omniknight, and little kill potential in lane, you are more freely able to jungle. Weak enemy lanes are important because sending some6
one to solo against a strong lane like Juggernaut + decision to hover your hero icon over the helpless Shadow Shaman or something similar is just ask- jungle creatures. ing to throw the laning phase away.
4. YOUR TEAM HAS SPACE FOR AN ADDITIONAL CORE
If your ally that is due to solo the offlane/safelane is either going to get repeatedly killed or simply zoned out of experience range for the entire laning phase due to strong lanes from your opponents, you shouldn’t jungle. The extra experience and gold that you will get by going to the jungle will be more than lost if your solo lane is being dominated.
“NO WARDS FEED MID GGWP”. Statements like this ring across the MMR brackets. One of the most common complaints in Dota is the lack of support. Don’t exacerbate this by picking a jungler when you already have three or four core heroes.
3. THE ENEMY DOESN’T HAVE STRONG ROAMING HEROES
Apart from having no wards and increasing the chance of being dominated in the laning stage, If the enemy has weak lanes, they are less likely picking a jungler with multiple other cores to have strong roaming heroes that can kill you (particularly hard carries) will leave your team whilst you are merrily jungling away. Nevertheless, starved for farm. one hero that can walk into your jungle and easily disrupt you is enough to warrant avoiding the jun- Sure, everything will be rosy for the first few mingle altogether. utes. The safe lane carry happily turning creeps into money. The midlaner animation-cancelling to Be especially careful of Riki and Bounty Hunter, as riches. The offlaner stealing a creep from under they can leech your experience without you being the enemy support’s nose every now and again. aware of it, before ending your life with a stealthy All of this whilst you slaughter families of satyrs stab in the back. and loot their bodies in the jungle? How great! If you see one of these heroes picked on the enemy team, you really shouldn’t jungle. But, if they pick heroes that are going stay in lane long enough to earn retirement, you can be more confident in your
“
However, once the game opens up and farm becomes more contested in the mid-game and late-game, your team will start struggling to find enough creeps to kill safely. This will put
Jungling can provide your team with advantages, but should not be undertaken in every game, lest you get rekt.” 7
IRON TALON was introduced in patch 6.86 your team in a position where they have multiple cores with bad farm fighting up against one or two cores on the enemy team with the items they need. We all know how that ends.
5. YOUR HERO WOULD NOT DO BETTER IN THE LANE
the woods, consider the lane instead. But if nothing excites you more than hitting jungle creeps by yourself, the jungle can be the place for you.
SO, TO JUNGLE OR NOT TO JUNGLE?
Overall, junglers are a situational part of Dota Finally, why send your hero to the jungle when 2. When the stars align and the game calls for they could be equally effective in the lane? Legion a jungler, they can be devastating and carry the Commander may head to the jungle and PURteam on their backs. On the other hand, taking a CHASE IRON TALON 3 TIMES MORE OFTEN THAN jungler in a game that will punish jungling can be ANY OTHER HERO in Dota 2, but she is also a the majority of the reason why your team loses very powerful laner. that game. Granted, there are heroes like Chen and Enigma that are dedicated junglers who do not succeed Whether you choose to jungle or not, you hopefuloutside of the jungle environment. However, they ly now have a better idea when jungling is a valid are the exceptions. Most heroes that you would option. Pick your hero near the end of the draft, send to the jungle, like the aforementioned Legion after carefully considering both teams’ line-ups. Commander, Lifestealer, Ursa, or Axe can all hold Or just instapick Legion jungle and listen to the their own in a lane. sounds of your teammates’ despair and woe. It’s up to you. On top of this, you often get more gold and about Edited by ktmufasa the same experience in the lane as you would in the jungle. So, the next time you want to head to 8
UPS AND DOWNS
PEDRO
Downs
1- SingSing, where are you?
He has been away from Twitch for a while, being a little away from his fan base for unknown reasons. Meanwhile Kaipi, continues to underperform in every tournament. Rumors say he has been trying to increase his MMR. © Beyond the Summit 2016
2- Visa Issues!
Ups
LGD was directly invited for The International 6 but it didn’t matter for the US Government - their direct invite and effort meant nothing and Xue “September” Zhichuan won’t be playing with the Chinese team. The Philippine teams TnC and Execration both secured their spots after a big fight.
1- Na’Vi is back!
After some mediocre performances in the past few tournaments, the new roster is finally showing some solid games and also won the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2. Dendi is proving to be the legend we all knew he was and the entire team is playing very well.
3- Team Complexity is so complex
After some great games and putting a real challenge against tier one squads, it seems that they are looking weaker every time they play. Let’s hope that Nahaz and the coaching expert James Leath will help them someway.
2- MoonduckTV rises
The new studio is creating so much good content, getting new casters, new equipment, showing good administration and a promising future ahead.
3- Valve & Betting
Valve has finally intervened and recently took some actions against betting websites. We definitely needed some legal regulations about it.
© ESL Gaming Helena Kristiansson 2016
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PUGNA IS A HE Pugna, contrary to popular belief, is a playable hero of an online video game called DOTA2. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to myself, Pugna is short, boney, physically weak and often called “rattlebones” by his peers. Unlike me, however, Pugna also happens to be a powerful sorcerer, capable of banishing his enemies to the nether realm before blasting them with energy and sucking them off. Okay, so that last part probably didn’t exactly sell you. But let me tell you this, I’ve been picking Pugna in ranked games, running mid and dominating the vast majority of opponents handily. How do I do it? Well, stick around because I’m here to teach you all of Pugna’s dirty secrets.
OPPONENTS WILL UNDERESTIMATE YOU Pugna’s most distinctive feature is being a glass cannon. Or bone canon. Whatever. He’s small, he’s green, his in-game icon kind of looks like a pot leaf- he dies in like 3 hits. But like Sun Tzu once said, if your enemy can defeat you in three hits, all you have to do is defeat them in two- or one. I mean, it helps to decrepify them first. Enemy players, mindful of these weaknesses, will play aggressively. Knowing that it only takes a few hits to dispatch you will make them try to harass you out of lane. Fortunately, Pugna’s premium attack range and auto attack damage makes him a foe to be reckoned with. Nether Blast gives you a means to last hit mul10
“LORD OF DESPAIR” BY KATZEIMSACK -
ERO IN DOTA 2
- PURCHASEABLE IN GAME AND THROUGH STEAM
A GUIDE BY NIGMA
tiple creeps while also melting your enemy’s face. Once you hit level 3 you can start dropping well placed nether blasts, being mindful that Decrepify can be cast while Nether Blast is still in midair, unleashing a huge amount of burst damage that will often catch enemies off guard. Since most players expect Pugna to banish them first and only then follow up with Nether Blast, this reversal of the sacred combo will leave 40% HP heroes wondering where their life bar went. Reading your opponent’s movements will give you insights as to when they will walk into your range; watch for allied creeps that they are looking to last hit and plan your blasts accordingly. Once you hit level six, you can follow up your nether blasts with your ultimate, chaining the ability directly after the blast to give your opponent as little time as possible to react in the form of a stun. Be sure to cast Life Drain in a well-lit area, however, as losing vision for even a microsecond will cause your hero to stand around like an imbecile with a thumb up his tailbone.
AETHER LENS & PUGNA Aether Lens is to Pugna as apple pie is to loud obnoxious flag waving Americans. Having four activated abilities, Aether Lens increases the cast range on all of them. A boosted Decrepify can slow enemies at 900 range and Life Drain will have your enemies angrily yelling “LOOK WHERE I DIED” over Discord with its
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AETHER LENS boosts spell damage & can be easily disassembled from arcane boots. It is the THIRD MOST OFTEN BUILT ITEM for Pugna with a good 54% win rate. jaw dropping 1400 break range. Nether Ward, too, benefits from the range increase, allowing Pugna to more easily place his infamous tree topper onto ledges, forests and other hard to reach places. Did I mention it also boosts all your spell damage and can be made by disassembling Arcane Boots?
LET’S (NOT) GET PHYSICAL
pesky jocks who will be scratching their heads wondering if their right mouse button suddenly gave out. With only a 2.5s downtime (even less with Octarine Core), Decrepify can be used very often, but be on the lookout for diffusal blades, which can remove decrepify instantly!
THIS BOTH SUCKS & BLOWS
Look, I get it. You think you know it all, but chances are you don’t actually understand how Pugna’s Physical damage is in. It’s the new hot craze Life Drain works. This little skeleton’s ultimate that all the cool kids are talking about this sumability does in fact do more than just drain life. mer. With heroes like Phantom Assassin, Sven, First off, if you are draining an enemy hero but Lifestealer, Juggernaut and others being picked this meta, it helps being able to kick back, relax, your HP bar is full, Pugna will actually convert that drained HP into mana for himself. Purchased and not take any physical damage whatsoever. an Aghanims Scepter like you should? Well, Pugna’s Decrepify has become more than just a promise of magical assblasting to come, it’s also draining an enemy for just one second will fully refund the ability’s mana cost if you’re at max a powerful, lifesaving ability. HP! Let’s recap: 1400 cast range (with Aether Lens), 0 second cooldown (with Aghanims), mana Got allies being omnislashed? Ravaged by an angry bear? Cold snapped? Giant (or lesser) fish cost refunded after just 1 second of casting- you creature on the attack? Decrepify no longer slows still with me? There’s no reason not to spam this ability constantly. allies, and double click activation allows Pugna to cast it on himself with almost no cast time, allowing you to save yourself and others from those But wait, there’s more. 12
As you may have heard, Pugna’s life drain can also be used to give allies HP. For the low cost of 225 mana, Pugna can essentially become the most efficient healer in the game, restoring allies back to full HP faster than any other healer. Feeling woozy after that blood transfusion? Draining even just a full HP melee creep will put Pugna back in stable condition, and any nearby jungle creeps will put fully rejuvenate his HP bar in most situations. Lost the will to live? You can deny yourself with it! But wait, there’s (even) more! Being able to fully heal your carry in seconds without cooldown is pretty cool, but what if he’s out of mana, too? If your allied friend is at full HP but you keep suckin’, Pugna will actually convert his own HP into mana for your friend. At a maximum rate of 300 mana transferred per second, Pugna blows all other forms of mana distribution out of the water. PAGNA, GIF ME MANA!
TRANSITIONING INTO LATEGAME Say what you want about Pugna’s lategame performance, but having a zero second cooldown ability which can devastate enemies and heal allies solidifies Pugna’s lategame presence. Having a battle of attrition? Aether Lens gives Pugna the cast range he needs to safely take hot nether dumps on buildings from miles away. Arcane Rune in the late game? Maybe you’ve finished that Octarine Core? Nether Blast’s already laughable 5 second cooldown will fall faster than the British Pound. Ezalor on the team? With Chakra Magic you can drop two Nether Blasts at once, which, considering the damage, should probably be considered a crime against humanity. Concluding, it seems like Pugna has flown under the radar of the game once again. Why, I’m not sure. Playing him requires a bit of finesse. He’s not the hardest hero to play, but his ability to spontaneously combust into a pile of bones by being so much as sneezed on definitely make him an easy target. If you want someone to easily grind MMR with, maybe Pugna isn’t for you, but as someone who loves an underdog, this mage is gonna keep raging. Edited by ktmufasa
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LIFE DRAIN is Pugna’s ultimate that pierces spell immunity. Aghnam Scepter will increase drain to 300hp/second at level three and reduce cooldown to zero seconds!
Offlaner Itemization
A GUIDE BY HAPPYMEAL
Itemization is a key mechanic of the game that leaves a significant amount of the Dota 2 population confused. What do I build, when do I build it, etc. are all questions often asked by novice and intermediate players. Sometimes, even the most experienced players have difficulty picking the perfect item for the scenario! However, here is a step by step guide on the thought process to itemize for an offlaner. Some of these may or may not apply to other positions, but feel free to try out anything if you feel it might apply to your scenario.
Analyze your hero The most important aspect of what you want to buy should come with what your hero aims to
achieve. Ask yourself, what is the purpose of my pick? If it’s a hero who you picked to initiate such as Slardar, Legion Commander, oftentimes Blink Dagger, Force Staff, Shadow Blade, and etc. are the go to items for these kind of heroes. Did you pick a hero whose purpose is to get a certain level and then go do things in other lanes? These heroes generally excel at providing the team with the ability to push lanes or scare the opponents such as Nature’s Prophet, Abaddon, or Faceless Void whose items will often be geared towards providing auras to his teammates, taking down buildings, or amplifying your ability to do things in a team fight. Mek, Drums, Vlads, Blink Dagger, Necrobook, Aghs, etc. are often the key choices for these kinds of heroes. Did you pick a hero that’s meant to do something entirely different? Timbersaw, Lone Druid, Broodmother, etc. are heroes that often have more individualized item
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builds less based on utility and more based on their specific interests. Timbersaw building bloodstone for mana regen and tankiness, lone druid with midas or radiance to push and farm, broodmother with a bunch of different options is specifically meant to dominate a lane and keep the enemy from farming that side of the map. What you need to build on every hero doesn’t just depend on your hero, there’s another team entirely to think about!
Analyze your opponents and lane Another aspect of itemization for an offlaner comes from being able to effectively deal with your opponents both in and out of lane. Think about what best works against them. Enemy heroes without strong disables, but strong burst physical damage are often weak to mobility items and damage mitigation such as Force Staff, Euls, Glimmer Cape, and Ghost Scepter. If you’re playing against heroes like ursa, lifestealer, juggernaut, etc. always consider purchasing one of these items to help your team fight against them. If you’re playing against heroes with strong magic burst such as Zeus, Lina,etc, then try to purchase ways to mitigate that. Pipe, BKB, Glimmer Cape, etc. all have their use against these kinds of heroes. There are also heroes who have very strong single target utility and abilities like lion, venge, necro, etc. where items like Lotus Orb and Linkens Sphere are good options depending on time in game. It’s important to note that well rounded teams are not always the easiest to itemize against. Try to go the route that most allows your team to win instead of focusing on working against every hero on the team. Remember you only have 6 item slots and often the first two encompass items that don’t help you directly counter the enemy (boots and blink or another starting item). Always take the path of least resistance. There are also the lane to think about. Sometimes you won’t be able to actively contest the lane or farm in it. The best way to work around this is Iron Talon. This item allows pretty much every offlaner to take jungle farm. Look at the enemy lane and see if you need to start out with this because of how strong it is or if you need to start out with regen, Stout Shield, etc. It’s quite important you know whether the lane is available or not solely based on the heroes within that lane. If you’re required to jungle at lv. 1, it’s best to start from the beginning and get as much gold and experience as possible before executing whatever in game plan you want to.
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Itemization at a deficit Depending on your scenario in game, it might not be easy to purchase the optimal item. Your team may have drafted greedy heroes that don’t allow you to farm as easily or the enemy team may have crushed your lanes entirely. These are good times to understand that it might not be the time to buy the optimal item, but take action against the enemy team in one way or the other. Always gather some teammates to do a smoke gank and get wards down. Try to take objectives. This will assist greatly. However, a small item or two may help. A Cloak if you are fighting enemies with strong magic damage, a Bracer if you need some extra stats a Wind Lace if you need help catching up or running away, or an Orb of Venom/Blight Stone if you need a little extra fire power or some extra slows. Never buy too many of these, but buying one or two of the smaller items might help you and your team achieve a kill or another objective to turn the game around. Always aim for your bigger items first. If you can buy a blink dagger on an initiation based hero, then it’s always better to get that instead of the smaller items.
good, it might prove valuable to buy an item that isn’t utility based to boost other aspects of your team. If you feel you can split push, a necrobook might be the option. If you feel that you need to start dealing more damage, then ac, mjolnir, radiance, etc. might be the option. If you’re playing a hero whose biggest contribution is to throw an amazing ultimate, always consider refresher orb. A faceless void or earthshaker with double chrono or echo slam can always come in handy. Remember to understand the scenario you’re in. If you’re stuck at an impasse, then itemization might not always be the reason you get out of it. Sometimes it’s the gameplan that might need to change. However, always keep in mind what items you need and try to build them as efficiently as possible.
Final Thoughts Remember that while itemizing is important, good itemization will not always win you the game. However, attempt to achieve the best possibility for you and your team to win the game. Execution matters, but so does what you purchase. Items can be game deciding because it helps you deal with the scenario effectively. So, always look towards how items can help you win your match.
Late Game Itemization Most of these tips will apply to the mid game and early game, but late game is an entirely different beast. Feel free to keep your utility items from earlier, but sometimes you need to transition into an entirely different kind of hero depending on the scenario. If you’re playing a utility based hero, but your team isn’t dealing enough damage to kill the opponents despite your itemization being 16
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The Unfortunate
5 Short Films which did not make into top 10 but easily could have 18
Pedro Msr-
art, we are certain that every submission is very good, and those rating are somewhere in between “really good” and “most amazing thing I have seen the whole year”.
This year again Valve’s Short Film Contest brought out the best video artists, directors and animators within the dota community, competing for a prizepool of over $43,000! 10 lucky submissions were chosen by Valve to be presented at the main event, and the competition was fierce. The greater part of the ~30 submissions had to be left out. We searched those unfortunates entries and picked five submissions that could have easily been top 10 as well - if those 10 would have been 15. While we have the nerve to rate those pieces of 19
Battle Rush True Hero
What blew us away from the start was the perfect imitation of the shopkeepers voice - this could very well be a second DotA 2 Trailer. The contrast between the calm monologue of the shopkeeper (and his damn cute yak courier) and dynamic clips of heroes makes for great suspense - Crystal Maiden looks kind of scary. The icing on the cake is the large Pitlord shadow at the end, which satisfies those in need of memes. Screenwriting: 4/5 Soundtrack: 5/5 Editing: 4/5 Creativity: 4/5
This short film is a wild ride! Center of this movie is a crazy race of the fastest heroes ingame, but packed with surprises. When someone tries to play foul, it sparks off a wild chain reaction, resulting in sudden changes of leadership and unexpected twists. The clip is very dynamic, due to the fast camera movements and the intense music. The tempo gets slowed down suddenly for some bullettime-like slow-motion scenes, allowing you to rest for a splitsecond before accelerating again. The end seems to contain a certain grain of salt from the creator towards a specific hero - who, you ask? Go watch it yourself! Screenwriting: 4/5 Soundtrack: 4/5 Editing: 4/5 Creativity: 3/5
Screenwriting: 4/5 Soundtrack: 5/5 Editing: 4/5 Creativity: 4/5
Techies
It starts with Beethoven’s 5th symphony creating the hype of a group trying to coordinate a push in a minefield. Dazzle expressions are what got us here, that moment when he saw the minefield sign and the camera goes behind him exposing all the bombs is amazing. There was some sound engineering around this one, because the synchronization of explosions and the music really creates an unique experience.
Baited
On the script it looked nothing. The beginning simple, almost comic. Just a smoke. And then suddenly, high above it, a centaur. A single Hoof Stomp, hanging there, strong. Until Io took over and sweetened it into a phrase of such delight! This was no composition by an untalented artist! This was art we have never seen. Filled with such longing, such unfulfillable longing, it had us all trembling. It seemed to us that we were watching the creation of God. Screenwriting: 5/5 Soundtrack: 5/5 Editing: 4/5 Creativity: 5/5
Rubick’s Mega Magic Stick
This one is a real shame that didn’t got in the Top 10, we believe the entire North American community would make good use of such great product. It promises to improve your MMR and the ability to land skills like a professional. There’s also a quote from our father Gabe Newell. In short, a funny, creative short film, different from any other that was submitted. Screenwriting: 4/5 Soundtrack: 3/5 Editing: 4/5 Creativity: 5/5
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CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE CHAPTER 2 [ Missed Chapter 1? CLICK HERE! ] Buy wards & courier 51% Rylai’s looked at the satchelled donkey, lazily grazing underneath the shop’s shelves. As her gaze uncomfortably lingered, it slowly met her eyes, letting out a weak hee-haw. She groaned involuntarily. “Really, it’s alright. I don’t need much,” Dazzle sighed. “Oh! No, no, I insist,” Rylai said, as her attention snapped back to the issue at hand. “Leave the wards and the donkey to me. Please!” Her arm swung like a battleaxe as she slammed the bundle of gold down, unsettling everything else on the counter. After righting a few toppled vials, the bushy-bearded shopkeep poured out the bag’s contents and began fingering through the coins, murmuring as he counted to himself. Plucking a few elixirs from the shop’s shelves, Dazzle dropped a small pile of coins their place. “Much appreciated. I’ll be off, then. Sven will be waiting for me!” Rylai stood and watched him march off, his ringed staff jingling with each step. They sound like sleigh bells, she thought. A gruff voice piped up behind the Crystal Maiden. “You’re way over, miss.” “Excuse me?” She whipped around, blinking rapidly as if she’d just awoken from a dream. The
SHALEBLADE
Leave it to Dazzle 49% shopkeep had come out from behind the counter, and held her (significantly lighter) gold purse out stretched. His bearlike arm hair swayed gently in the breeze - he looked like he hadn’t bathed in several seasons. And was that donkey standing behind him, staring at her too? “Uh, your change?” His furrowed squint gradually shifted from exhausted impatience to discomfort. He reached back to scratch his head, sending greytipped hairs and dandruff fluttering down behind him.“Y... you paid too much.” She could hear Sven and Dazzle’s voices in the distance - Sven’s low rumble interspersed with Dazzle’s gruff squawks. The courier seemed to be nibbling at his pant leg, though if he noticed, he didn’t react. Oh god - he was still staring at her. “O-okay!” Rylai stammered before turning and jogging off, doing her best to focus on the fight ahead. However, her forced enthusiasm was cut short as she saw the rest of her team standing around just outside of the Radiant’s inner fortifications. She couldn’t quite make out what anyone else was saying, but she could hear the Naga Siren’s shrill shrieks clearly. “You want me to rely on that stupid witch? She probably lives in a cave!” Slithice threw her arms up in the air before crossing them in front of her. “I can deal with most things, but I don’t
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know if she’s ever spoken with another intel ligent being before!” Dazzle was visibly unamused. “And do we even have anyone to defend the middle tower?” She huffed. “We can’t just split into groups of two anyway.”
Naga turned to Sven, her face a mix of shock and mild disgust. “How long has he been here?” Sven shrugged, and turned to look at the Crystal Maiden bounding over to rejoin the group. Slithice regained her composure almost immediately. “Ah, look who’s here. We were just talking about you. You’re sticking with Sven, and I’ll be taking the other one along.”
A dribbly grumble came from behind Sven’s greatsword. “A-actually, Siren, I-” Slithice looked down and screamed as Slark trundled out from behind the massive blade. Sven and Dazzle cringed, reflexively reaching for their ears. “-er, I was gonna take mid. You can trust me on that one.” As he was met with more and more silence in response, his gaze fell to the ground, and he began to retreat back behind the sword. “I-I’m sorry to startle you, uh, Siren.”
Sven groaned before speaking. “Siren, please the plan was for Rylai to stay by you.” Naga’s shoulders slumped dramatically as she tilted her head. “Really, Sven? Can’t we just get on with this?” Still glaring at Sven, she gestured at the Crystal Maiden. “You’re going with Sven, right, maiden?” SHOULD CRYSTAL MAIDEN AGREE WITH NAGA AND LANE WITH SVEN? VOTE HERE!
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Dragonus The Skywrath Mage Lore
EDITOR KTMUFASA © CHEROBEROS 2016
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W
Dragonus, Vengeful Spirit and The Queen the Eyrie.
hen the Ancients first recruited heroes from all over the world, before the Defence of the Ancients, above the clouds, there were two great incidents in the Ghastly Eyrie, the sky kingdom that had just witnessed a violent coup d’etat.
However, no skywrath dared to do anything against her because of how draconian she was. All those who displayed disloyalty or rebellious tendencies were swiftly purged during the two weeks following her coronation.
The princess second in line to the throne had become the queen and no one talked of anything but the former heir apparent exile for over a month. Many of the skywrath suspected that these incidents were all the doing of the new queen.
Vicious, vengeful, arrogant - this was how the other races depicted the skywraths. One anomaly to this was the skywrath named Dragonus. Dragonus had a very un-skywrath calm temperament and was very good-natured. Hatched as a scion, he was the son of the Nightwatcher Guild’s warden, a being obsessed with learning skywrath sorcery.
Unlike the princess formerly first in line to the throne, Shendelzare, who often descended to the local town to interact with the low hatched, the new queen barely left the Eyrie. Nothing but bad rumors about her were sang through the birds of
Dragonus knew everything about the incident - the 25
dark sides of both the new queen and Shendelzare. The Nightwatcher Guild was the guild responsible for scouring Eyrie and rooting out corruption among its nobles. As the son of the warden, outside of learning magic in the Eyrie’s library, Dragonus spent most of his childhood playing with the princesses, who were both two years younger than him. Contrary to popular belief, Shendelzare and her sister did not always have such a hateful relationship. Hatched from the same clutch of eggs, the sisters were inseparable when they were little. Where Shendelzare was strong and quick, her sister was clever and articulate. The three of them spent a lot of time playing together in the royal garden. Since she was young, the younger sister had always dreamt of becoming the queen and sharing the beauty of the royal
gardens with the rest of the skywrath people. In contrast, few knew that Shendelzare initially had no desire to become queen. She wanted to support her younger sister and promised that she would become a warrior to protect her. Dragonus was present when the promise was made, but had never approved of the stronger Shendelzare promising, so easily, to give up her inheritance to her weaker sister. Dragonus was fascinated by the Legend of Shaldera’s Golden Wing, the queen who ruled the Eyrie for a thousand years and one. As a high scion Dragonus grew up attracted towards strong woman. He had a strong conviction that the strong Shendelzare should be the next Queen of Skywrath. As they grew, the three of them learned how monarchy works through the different treatment they each received. As the first in line to the throne,
The Princesses and Dragonus at the Royal Garden 26
Shendelzare was treated with far more care than her sister. Her room was four times bigger than her sister’s, she was allowed to access sacred chambers and received a wealth of amazing gifts.
queen to have Shendelzare relinquish her right to the throne. To all appearances, Shendelzare agreed with her sister. However, Dragonus noticed that something different about Shendelzare; something vaguely pleasing to him but which he could not put his finger on.
As the princess second in line who had always proudly claimed that she would be the queen, this difference of treatment hurt her deeply. But she always felt secure because of Shendelzare’s promise.
On the date of the audience, the younger sister articulately expressed her desire to become ruler, but after slight hesitation Shendelzare unexpectedly refused to relinquish her title as heiress and expressed her desire to become the next queen.
At first, Shendelzare felt badly about her preferential treatment. However over time she grew accustomed to it, and something inside her changed. Her ego grew.
Shamed in front of the attending nobles as well as the queen, the younger sister could do nothing to respond to the unexpected betrayal. When Shendelzare laid bare her ambitions and destroyed the dreams of her younger sister, Dragonus was
One day, the younger sister requested an audience with her mother, the queen. She petitioned the
Betraying her sister, Shendelzare exposes her hidden desire 27
extremely delighted. The woman that he loved and cared for had finally expressed her desire to become the queen that he always wanted her to be. As a result of this incident, the relationship between the two sisters began to break down. At night, the two young girls fought to the death while exchanging cruel insults. Knowing that Shendelzare would be the one who win, Dragonus stayed still and watched. The end was as expected; the younger sister was beaten half to death. Before Shendelzare could finish her, Dragonus intervened and requested that she spare her sister. Shendelzare relented, and the younger sister lay on the ground, crying pitifully. Feeling guilty for breaking her promise to protect her sister, Shendelzare avoided her sister.
The avoidance was mutual; the younger sister focused her energies on learning skywrath arcane magic and hoping to get more power to overcome her elder sister’s physical strength. Her desire to become queen was still strong; perhaps stronger than ever. Sharing similar interests, Dragonus spent a lot of time practicing skywrath magic with the younger sister. He also pitied her, because ever since the shameful incident no scions treated her with respect, and felt guilty that his support for Shendelzare’s ascension to the throne meant that he secretly wished for the younger sister to fail in her efforts. Affection grew in the younger sister’s heart towards Dragonus. However, she knew that the one that Dragonus loved was her sister, not her. This
The Sister and Dragonus studying in the library 28
further fueled her jealousy toward Shendelzare.
cause the queen had a bad premonition when the first hatched had a weak body, she reversed the order so that the stronger Shendelzare would be the first princess in line to the throne.
Overtime, with her savvy political skill and unsavoury methods, the sister managed to gain respect from the other high scions. Most of the high scions that respected her though, were corrupt scions that engaged in similarly unsavoury methods fraudsters, cheaters and users of dark and forbidden magic.
Dragonus was baffIed and didn’t know how to respond to the revelation, but nonetheless promised not to reveal it to anyone. He believed Shendelzare’s to be the most suitable heir to the throne rather than her sister.
Being a master of the art of blackmailing, She blackmailed a lot of corrupt scions in order to do stuff in her favor. In return she also protected the corrupt high scions from the Nightwatcher Guild while letting them continue to do their corrupt acts.
What both of them didn’t know was that there was an invisible spy eavesdropping on their conversation - the very same satyr who would later assassinate the queen and trap Shendelzare. He quickly reported the revelation to the younger sister. She was consumed by a silent rage.
Dragonus knew about the sister’s lack of scruples and, as the future Skywrath court mage, it was his duty to stop her, but he turned a blind eye toward the younger sister due to their amicable relationship. The best he was able to do was futilely advise her to be truthful.
No longer bound by any affection to her mother, the younger sister began to weave a vicious scheme to assassinate the queen and become ruler herself. During this time, she accumulated enough political power and influence to be able to weather the turmoil that would inevitably follow.
Dragonus’s innate talent in all sorts of arcane sorcery was already obvious to the elder skywrath mages. He had been recognised as a prodigy ever since he was a child. One day, the queen herself noticed him. She realized that this young scion was the same boy that was always playing with her daughters.
The day came and the queen was no more. Blame for the assassination fell on the mysterious assassin sent from another kingdom. Dragonus suspected that the culprit was the younger sister, but didn’t dare to accuse her without any concrete proof.
The queen discussed with Dragonus about skywrath sorcery and his future on the Eyrie. She confessed that the reason she didn’t want to spend much time with her daughters was because she was afraid that one day, one of them would wish her to die so that they could take the throne.
Worried that a similar fate would soon come to Shendelzare, Dragonus prepared himself to be her full-time guard, which would mean abandoning any further study of skywrath sorcery. Shendelzare refused to countenance this and ordered Dragonus to stay away from her until he completed his studies.
The queen, caught up in remembering her daughters’ childhoods, also inadvertently let slip that the one who hatched from the egg first was actually Shendelzare’s younger sister. But be
Unable to defy Shendelzare’s order, Dragonus anxiously studied more skywrath sorcery. Nightmare after nightmare came to Dragonus each night 29
while he slept. To distract himself, Dragonus focused fully on his books and anything complicated enough to occupy his mind.
But she made a mistake. She thought as long as she is the queen, Dragonus would have accepted her the way she is.
A few days before the new queen’s coronation, some high skywrath mages and a few elder skywrath mages captured Dragonus. He was locked in an ancient sealed dungeon deep in the Eyrie. Unexpectedly, the younger sister came to the dungeon.
What she didn’t expect was the obnoxious change on Dragonus. Ever since that day, he became cold hearted and sarcastic to the queen. This definitely annoyed the queen very much, not to mention, the hateful stare he used every time he looked at the queen doesn’t ease her at all.
The younger sister confessed that she intended to assassinate Shendelzare and become the queen herself. Knowing how much Dragonus loved Shendelzare, she understood that he would rather commit suicide rather than to serve the murderer of his beloved. She was desperate to avoid this; she loved Dragonus and wanted him to serve her as the queen. She came to the dungeon to make a deal with Dragonus. Outraged with the sister’s preposterous confession, Dragonus threatened to kill her if she went through with her plan to assassinate Shendelzare. It was an empty threat and both of them knew it - the skywrath sorcery used by Dragonus, his sole source of power, would not work on her once she became queen. After a few days of discussions, Dragonus reluctantly agreed on a deal. Shendelzare would be spared but forced to flee into exile. She would suffer a betrayal and shame far greater than the betrayal she inflicted on her younger sister as a child.
After a month, the queen could not take it anymore. She realized that she had destroyed the caring and gentle Dragonus. The Dragonus who remained now was like a bottle filled with runes of hatred toward her. She stopped summoning him and avoided him on many occasions. With his newly found free time, Dragonus tirelessly sought out Shendelzare’s whereabouts, but unfortunately due to skywrath’s magic restrictions he wasn’t able to leave far from the Eyrie. Three months later, the Goddess of The Woods, Verodicia’s reincarnation, the Nature’s Prophet came to the Eyrie. He requested that the Eyrie send their best hero to aid the Ancients in the north in exchange for a political favor. After long negotiations between the queen and her goddess, Scree’auk, they decided to send Dragonus to the north as their representative. The queen was complicatedly relieved that she would no longer have to bear Dragonus’s hatred towards her.
As a result, Shendelzare lost her wings and was sent to exile by the vote of her own people; even by the sorrowful Dragonus himself. Triumphing on the deal she made, she was very satisfied with it. She appointed Dragonus to become her personal elite guard while still letting him study skywrath sorcery. 30
Before Dragonus left, he needed to be blessed by the goddess, Scree’auk herself, in order to preserve the power of his skywrath sorcery outside the Ghastly Eyrie. The two of them privately talked about recent matters. Scree’auk told Dragonus what happened to Shendelzare. In order to take over the Eyrie from her sister, Shendelzare sacrificed her physical body to get more power. Now she is a vengeful spirit aiding the ancients and later, if she manages to kill her sister, she will perish. Dragonus was engulfed with mixed feelings of sorry and hope. He couldn’t imagine what Shendelzare was going through. He decided that he wanted to help her become the queen but knew that according to Scree’auk, if she fulfilled her revenge she would perish. Sympathetic to Dragonus’s plight, Scree’auk offered him a deal: if Dragonus managed to make her forgive her sister, Shendelzare would be returned to her own physical body. It was an impossible offer. How can Shendelzare forgive her own sister if even Dragonus couldn’t? However, without any other options, Dragonus accepted the offer. He then travelled north to aid the ancients. Every time he beats his wings he remembered the days when three of them were close friends and how it all fell apart. Forgiveness is the only hope, the only chance to restore his beloved ones from this tragedy.
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Dragonus heads north to aid the Ancients
To be continued on the Defense of The Ancients
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The winds carry news of another hero joining the fight of the Ancients
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ARTWORK PROMOTION & ARTIST INTERVIEW
ERAN FOWLER
Feeder’s Digest’s PEDRO had the pleasure to talk with the talented artist Eran Fowler. Each piece of his art has a unique personality, with a mix of moody atmosphere and feelings that immerses you in the art itself. When you see Before the Horns, you can really feel the peace around there. If you go even further, you can probably hear to the sound of the river flowing against the rocks.
Before the Horn © Eran Folio 2016 Available on STEAM MARKET First of all tell me a little about yourself: where are you from, your age, and anything else you think is interesting or not. I’m an American living in Vancouver BC. I grew up in a military family, which is responsible for giving me quite the travel bug, and went to school in Canada to study illustration. Just this year I started a family with my partner of more than ten years, which has been rewarding, but a challenge to time-manage. I work full-time at Titmouse Animation, and in my “free” time I take on freelance commissions. How long does it take to produce a piece like Before the Horns? 36
It depends on the painting of course, but usually it takes between forty and sixty hours for something with an involved level of detail. Both were around forty hours if I’m remembering correctly. I see that you have almost nine hours playing Dota 2 in your steam account - was it for research purposes or did you actually played the game? If so, what did you think about it? Research purposes, I’m afraid. I needed better views of the subject matter than I could find elsewhere, and you can only make workshop submissions from within the game UI. It isn’t a genre I usually play, but since being introduced I’ve found the game’s concepts and designs to be very engaging, and a friend has promised to show me the ropes. How has the Dota 2 community has treated you? The community has been great, lots of enthusiasm and humor, and I couldn’t have made it into the Workshop without their support. I just hope they don’t mind that I’m new to the game! I know that your works on Dota 2 have been commissioned, but are we going to have more great artworks from you? Since being introduced to the game I’ve decided to start playing on my own time, and to continue making paintings. I’m intrigued by the world and characters that have been developed, and I’m not ready to say goodbye yet. Would you like to shout out to anyone? A shout out to Geoff Edlin and Matthew Lane, who introduced me to this game and whose ideas I had the privilege of bringing to life.
FOLLOW ERAN FOLIO ERANFOLIO.COM ERAN FOWLER ILLUSTRATION ERANFOLIO@DEVIANTART 37
NILCEPS
C
raft beer has been getting more and more popular in America, a craft beer is a “beer whose flavour derives from traditional or innovative brewing brewing ingredients and their fermentation”, this means that a brewer might make a stout infused with brussel sprouts or an orange wit, something two brewers and Dota enthusiast have done already. Greg ‘Wyvrex’ and Robert ‘ItsTheCob’ Yost have set out to brew a beer for every hero. In my long interview we’ve talked about beer, brewing, the community and the Summit 5. How did you get the idea to make your own beer and specifically Dota themed beer?
Do you make the beer first and then think about who would drink it or is it the other way around?
Wyvrex: I’ve had the idea to brew from some time and was just sitting on it until one of our friends was moving and I got a hold of his brewing equipment, but even I didn’t use most of it for a considerable amount of time until I was inspired by a video SirActionSlacks talking with PyrionFlax, and PyrionFlax saying if you want to make it you have to do something original, I’ve already had the idea of dota inspired brews but this solidified that idea. Another thing that inspired me was at TI there was a food truck with the items renamed, we had the Space Cow meat pie, it just blew me away, you can get a Coors but you can’t get a Space Cow milk stout.
ItsTheCob: We like to think about the hero first, what kind of drink would represent him best or what the hero would like to drink, for example we’d like to make a rice style lager for Juggernaut. Wyvrex: To add sometimes we find an ingredient that we find interesting and look if it fits if it does we go ahead with the idea but if it doesn’t fit anyone we shelf it until we find a connection or make a beer not related to Dota.
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You’ve mentioned you’d be interested in making liquor, would that be be DotA themed as well?
Wyvrex: I’ve went to the Summit 5 last week and I’ve asked them for their honest feedback and they really liked it, I think Cr1t was the only one that didn’t like one of the beers, which was a salty gose, which I understand that is a special kind of beer.
ItsTheCob: Yes, I think the one that makes the most sense is making a nice rum for Kunkka Wyvrex: One of the ideas we have for Kunkka, since he seems to be a 17th century french admiral, is distill rum but also brew a 17th styled french beer and age it in the same rum cask.
What beers styles are you going to do next? ItsTheCob: As I’ve said before a rice style lager for Juggernaut is something that we’d love to make, we’d also like to try making a cider for one of the tree heroes, we definitely want to have the major beer types covered, but a 119 beers isn’t a realistic number to produce so we’d like to have a number of beers and then a few seasonal beers, for example the bloodrite would be during summer since blood oranges are in season then.
That sounds amazing but I’m guessing it’s not as easy as that. Wyvrex: Yes at the moment our biggest hurdle is missing equipment. Right now we are doing extract brewing. In extract brewing you have a syrup or dry powder with all the starches already extracted from your grains and we want to move towards all grain brewing, it is a lot cheaper and allows you to scale up your brewing operations. The one piece I want to get right now is an all-inone all grain brewer that also has an attachment that converts it into a still. It costs 1000$ but that would allow us to brew 5 gallon batches and allows us to tailor our recipes to scale up for the eventual time when we would be able to sell our beer.
Wyvrex: One of the major obstacles for us with lagers and pilsners right now is that they need to be kept very cold which is something very hard for us in Arizona. But that is one of the nice things of brewing, the basic equipment is really cheap and everything after that is quality of life stuff. The first thing I’ve built was a plywood box with a fridge on the end and an aquarium thermostat running into it that switches it on or off depending on temperature, a very basic fermentation chamber which has allowed me to brew more consistently.
Since you’ve brought your beer to the Summit what is was their opinion, did they like it? ItsTheCob: I’ve went there for the Summit 4 in december, the feedback was great.
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So what is your end goal? Having an own brewery?
Do you have plans for commercially selling your beer? Wyvrex: We’ve registered the business in arizona, getting a permit to sell would cost us 1400$ which would require us to sell a lot of beer to just to break even, not including our labor. So we need to scale a lot larger to make it economical so we can sell it under our own label. ItsTheCob: You can however brew up to 5000 gallons without needing a permit, you just can’t sell it without a permit, the liquor and brewing laws vary from state to state so our challenge is how do we get this from Arizona to everywhere else, some markets we have a priorities on. Wyvrex: Seattle obviously ItsTheCob: Yeah getting our beer to TI is the big one, Anheuser-Busch is the company allowed to sell it in the arena but they have a beer garden there so having it in there would be something we’d like. Wyvrex: Ultimatly making money and selling it was never our intention, obviously being able to fund yourself would be great, but going to the Summit and seeing our beer, this idea, in their hands and them liking and enjoying it is the most rewarding part of it all.
Wyvrex: There is a microbrewery, called 8-bit Brewery, that is doing something similar to this they brew enough for their own tasting house and one bar that stocks their beer, they were lucky and had some discounts on their equipment and their startup-costs were 500,000$. If it was left to just us to get to that stage Dota would be ded game. What we want to do is reach out to a microbrewery or a large enough brewery we’d meet with them and make sure they’d understand the idea behind the beer and hero. With Valves blessing we’d for example reach out to a brewery in Seattle that then runs a booth at TI, most of the profit would go to the brewery of course then whatever Valves cut would be an a small part to us so we could continue expanding our operation. ItsTheCob: This wouldn’t be just for Seattle but trying to get this out wherever there’s a tournament or a pubstomp, so the fans can drink a brew and Dota. Wyvrex: With this kind of model we could distribute the beer all over where there is a brewery willing and interested. And you know once we are established far away in the future we’ll hold our own, relaxed and community driven tournament, the brewmaster invitational. Is there a hero in the game that you’d really like to make a beer for but don’t know how yet? Wyvrex: I’ve had Ursa for a while but I have him figured out now, since bears like acorns and berries it would be a beer with acorn flour and berries mixed in. ItsTheCob: I’d really like to make a beer for lich and I always joke that I’d make a crappy cool lager with 10% alcohol. But I’ve yet to think of something for him. 40
Have your beers been in any Beer competitions? Wyvrex: Yes we’ve submitted the Blood Rite, and we’ve gotten some feedback on the colour since it was too brown and not red, and that it was too malty, however there were one or two people saying it wasn’t hoppy enough, I was just like really? <Rant about IPAs and hopps> Who was your favourite team at the Summit? Wyvrex: It has to be Ad Finem, at the Summit they were amazing, Rob I’m really sorry you couldn’t be there to meet them, they are the most upbeat charming people. They would make everyone laugh all the time. I’d be happy to live in greek squalor if I could hang out with those guys. Do you want give a shout out to anyone? Shout out to the Defense of the Patience podcast people and their community we play in their inhouse quite often. Follow Dota Brews on Youtube Twitter Facebook
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Only one Merlini?
A GUI
Š ESL Gaming Helena Kristiansson 2016 Š ESL Gaming Helena Kristiansson 2016 42
IDE BY PIZZADOG An Interview by Greed-Sama 43
Even with TI right around the corner, Ben “Merlini” Wu gave me the opportunity to sit down with him earlier last month and talk about his career as both an ex-pro and caster and some of the competitive scene’s latest developments. He offered frank insight about the complexity of Dota 2 as a game and a critical reflection of the three Majors we had during the last season. And no, I did not ask him why there was only one Merlini. Tell me a little about yourself, Ben. You’re one of the most insightful analysts in the Dota 2 scene, and you’re always willing to be frank when it comes to your opinions about the game? How did you get your start playing and then casting Dota 2? Yeah, I touched upon it in high school. Maybe ten games I would say about? But once I gave it another go in college that was really when I enjoyed playing. None of my friends really played it, so I had to make a bunch of new Dota friends. That’s always kind of tough when you’re starting off; you don’t have anyone to teach you what’s going on. But I guess that was kind of the cool part too. I had to learn everything on my own. So what’s your fondest memory of playing? My fondest memory of playing was with the old MYM squad with Maelk, MaNia, and Pusher. And H4nn1 of course. We had a lot of fun playing, but it wasn’t very serious back then. We were serious about Dota; the scene wasn’t. We won a couple of tournaments, but they were only for a couple thousand dollars in total. First place was some-
times a three figure amount. But, it was a bunch of guys I hadn’t met and everyone didn’t speak English that well. No one knew Dota that well. There weren’t any set strategies, so it was kind of cool being the people that experimented. It was just really cool being a small scene back in the day. You kind of blazed the trail in a way. Yeah. There were some small tournaments here and there. The DreamHacks in particular were our version of TI in terms of it being what everyone was looking forward to. There were two big ones throughout the year, winter and summer, and there weren’t that many organizers in Dota 2. So, that was what we were playing up to, and when we finally won one it felt great. Mostly, I like probably what most other Dota players like, chilling and playing with their friends. Talking over whatever program we used to talk on.
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it’s really great Dota. I would watch it or like the teams anyway, and it’s, “oh, I might as well cast and share my thoughts.” But for the StarLadder games when they were spamming tournaments - three a year, roundrobin, 16-team format for EU and a smaller format for NA. There were inevitably six teams, maybe more, that no one knew about, no one cared about. Like who are these guys? Why are they in this? Did they really have to make it 16 teams? We just had to cast Bo1s all year, more so Zyori than myself. There’s obviously some downsides to every job, and for the most part casting is great and I like doing it and I like casting, but sometimes you really have to grind out the games for teams that nobody cares about with games that are just utter and complete crap. That was one of the moments. I was having a lot of fun casting with Andrew because he’s just one of those guys that’s fun to shoot the crap with, even though the games weren’t that great. So, that was one of the few times I enjoyed casting, not for the Dota being casted, but more so for the person I was casting with.
What about casting? Casting is more - I enjoy Dota and I guess people like hearing me talk about Dota - so that is kind of naturally where I went to. There was also a severe lack of analysts back when I started. It’s still kind of that way today, actually. Everyone who is good enough to talk about the game is usually playing it. I guess syndereN is what every player wants to do. They just much rather play. It’s better rewards, but it’s also way riskier as a career.
You know, having people that you like working with in the workplace is a very important thing. Some people might not consider it work, but a lot of the casters have to grind out hundreds, even thousands of games before they get any recognition. I had to cast my fair share of online games before all these events.
I’m a little bit fortunate in the sense that I’m one of the few ex-pros that has stayed pretty much retired in Dota 2. I really haven’t had any success or incentive to go back to a player. But my fondest memory of casting, I think is back in 2014. Back in the TI 4 era when I was doing online casts with Zyori. A lot of the times when I cast,
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Dota 2 is an incredibly complex game. What about it allows it to not only be a game heavily focused on mechanical oddities and pre-game knowledge, but also somehow engages an impressive viewership across all of its platforms? A lot of the mechanical oddities are due to the Warcraft 3 engine. Zeus. The reason why he has a mini-stun on his bolt is because in Warcraft 3 you couldn’t code the exact same two spells on a hero. So, Arc Lightning was based off of Chain
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The trend for the games has been slightly shorter and shorter, with slightly more kills per minute. This is just a general trend. I don’t have any hard numbers to back it up but just going by feel. When I first started playing, 50/60 minutes was the average amount of time that you had to set aside for a pub. Now, 35 is more average. You still have to set aside an hour, but the average game length is much shorter. At the same time, it’s still really fun to play. You still have the very distinct laning CS phase, you have the mid teamfight
People keep begging for new heroes. It sounds cool in theory, but my memory of Pit Lord from Dota 1 is that the hero was obnoxious to play against. Same with Techies. People were calling for Techies, and then they were like, “oh wait, this hero is the bane of all that is Dota.”
Lightning and the Lightning Bolt was actually Storm Hammer, which is Sven’s stun, because they couldn’t have both of them be lightning. A lot of the strange things about it are inadvertently caused from it being imported from the old Warcraft 3 engine. But I guess that’s a lot of what makes Dota kind of cool and complicated. There’s all these Pure and Magic and Composite [damage], not that there’s all of these anymore. But there’s still Light Armor, Heavy Armor, Chaos Damage. I actually think Warcraft 3 was one of the better games that Blizzard has made, and it’s very difficult to trump that in the RTS world. Because of that success, a lot of it carried over to Dota. A lot of the lore for the heroes is kind of cool. A lot of their skillsets is kind of cool. And of course, I think Icefrog has done a tremendous job in, not only making it viewer-friendly but also player-friendly, which is very difficult to do.
phase, and the late-game phase where one big mistake could cost you the game. I think Icefrog has kept the essence of all that but made it more fun for everyone and opened up more options. People keep begging for new heroes. It sounds cool in theory, but my memory of Pit Lord from Dota 1 is that the hero was obnoxious to play against. Same with Techies. People were calling for Techies, and then they were like, “oh wait, this hero is the bane of all that is Dota. This isn’t even Dota.” People really need to be careful with what they wish for. But aside from all the heroes, that’s the cool thing about Dota. You don’t need cool heroes. You don’t need cool items. You don’t need cool spells. The patch keeps things fresh now and then, but even then, the patches for the last six months have been very light in terms of balance and in terms of map changes like Roshan. There’s all these things that have kind of condensed down to what we know as Dota today. I think it has retained its incredible complexity. 46
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However, I think they could be better in noob-friendly territory. More tutorials or better tutorials and constantly update them - the barrier of entry is very high. But for people that already play it, it’s great, and it has stayed great. Where do you see Dota in 5 or 10 years? Do you think the game has longevity? You know, people have asked me this every two years I would say. The first time I said, “yeah, I think it’s going to go pretty long. I don’t really see any reason why not. The playerbase is still growing. There is more money being put into it. The company that makes it is taking it more seriously.” Then, the same question comes up a couple of years later, so I don’t have any reason to believe that it wouldn’t continue to be sustained. Similar to the prize pool for TI. People asked me
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Like there’s a running joke that you never quit Dota; you only take breaks from Dota. You always come back because every other game is insufficient and not as rewarding compared to Dota. two years ago, “do you think it’s going to break 11 million again? Do you think it’s going to break 18 million again?” And it seems like every year, it keeps getting bigger. There’s no overwhelming evidence to prove otherwise. There’s not a competing game that’s better that people are flocking to. Like there’s a running joke that you never quit Dota; you only take breaks from Dota. You always come back because every other game is insufficient and not as rewarding compared to Dota. And I think that’s very, very true for the majority of players. You’ll play other games now and then,
but you’ll always have Dota in your library and installed on your computer. Especially, if you have a couple of friends that play. So, that’s one reason why I don’t think that the playerbase is going to decrease. It’s just going to keep steadily increasing as it has been for however long it’s been out. This year the Dota 2 scene got Majors and roster locks for the first time. As someone who got to experience a lot of the repercussions and benefits, what are your overall thoughts looking back? I think it has pushed out a lot of third-party organizers, but if they are good enough, they’ll host their own tournament. They’ll still thrive but maybe not as much as before. I think the Frankfurt Major didn’t have the same epic feel as TI. People were expecting a bit more. Shanghai was a huge disappointment. Manila was great. It was above and beyond what everyone expected, which was easy after the Shanghai Major. It also brought in a lot of new elements to the spectator that made it have a great wow factor. So, I think at the end of the year - with one being way better, one being kind of average, and one being way sub-par, I think it’s actually good that there was one that really stood out. We can borrow its elements and implement those for future TIs or future Majors. If we had all of them being just crappier versions of TI, there wouldn’t really be anything to look forward to. All in all, I think it would have been a little bit better to have two Majors and TI because of how crammed it was during the last part of the year. We’ve almost had three Valve-hosted tournaments in the last six months. The Shanghai Major was in February, Manila was late May, and now TI is going to happen early August. So, it didn’t seem like it was really planned out that well. I think 48
ideally you have one every three months, but the gap in between the Frankfurt and Shanghai Major was slightly more than three months. It just seemed like it was very hard to fit in anything between, whether it be rest or other tournaments or just whatever it may be. And I think having breaks is also important for building a sense of greatness about the next tournament. So I think two would be my ideal number. I think if they planned it a little bit better, then three could be good. With TI around the corner, who’s your to take it. OG? What are EG and Secret’s chances? Do you think there showing in the Open and Regional Qualifiers was enough to prove their new rosters? My strongest for going into the Manila Major was actually Wings, but Wings placed 16th just because they’re really inconsistent. They’re still kind of that way, but they’ve been placing closer to the top. Like at [The Summit 5] they’re going to be in the grand finals and at NanYang they were also top two and almost beat Newbee, who I would think are some people’s contenders for champions of TI.
FOLLOW MERLINI @MerliniDota Merlinidota
So, I’m actually going to still go with Wings. A lot of people give me flak because that was in my compendium prediction for the Manila Major. They were like, “ahaha Wings,” but if you actually watch them play, you see the potential. You hear the pro-players talk about them. I think they have what it takes. They have that certain novelty, that innovation, and that don’t-really-care attitude in terms of picking towards the meta that a lot of other teams don’t. And although I do hear, “we crushed Wings in scrims,” I think they still have the highest upside of any team. I also think that having a new team chosen for winning TI is no coincidence. Every single TI there 49
has been a different winner. I guess you can say that OG are repeat champions of Valve events, but I think TI is a completely different story. I think the thirst for the players that haven’t been number one is just way different. We see significant fall-off every year. This year was a bit of an exception because EG performed well for a few months, but they still fell-off. They just fell-off a little bit later. Newbee, post-TI that they won, just did terribly. Alliance, same thing. Na’vi are kind of getting back there, but they also fell-off. So, I think we are bound for a new champion, and I think I’ll have to pick Wings again. Final question: Io arcana, yes or no?
Chen in pubs so no one would buy his set. And I feel like some people who might really like Puppey might play Chen. Someone who really likes cosmetics and think the cosmetic is really cool, because I have no doubt that Valve will make the Arcana awesome, will try and play wisp. So, I think it’s cool in the fact that more people might play wisp, and in the fact that I want to see how they make it great. Because even with the Void remodel we got the Faceless Rex courier out of that. I don’t think it was implemented that well, but when I saw the concept art and stuff for Faceless Void, I thought it was hilarious. It was one of the cooler things that have happened from the compendium.
Yeah! We have all these awesome cosmetics for all these different heroes. The Invoker one was really awesome. The Phoenix one was really awesome. They’re all really cool. They are what you envision when you imagine an epic set for one of these heroes. But for wisp? It’s like, “how are we going to make him awesome?” I also think it would be cool to encourage more players to play wisp. I kind of feel bad for Puppey because he has a Chen set, but nobody plays
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EXPERIENCING TI6 AS PART OF THE CROWD
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THINGS THAT DID NOT COME ACROSS ON STREAM
A REPORT BY CAPTAIN MEOW PHOTO BY VALVE DOTA2
I only started playing Dota just before the Frankfurt major, around October 2015. TI6 is the first esports tournament I’ve attended and Dota is the first PC game I’ve ever really put time into. I went to TI6 with my boyfriend who just located his DotA-Allstars Forum account registration from March 2005 and has been playing on and off ever since, but still somehow languishes at 3k… A lot of people have already posted their impressions of TI6 on reddit and twitlonger. I thought I’d cover some of the smaller things only apparent to those who went in person that stood out to me.
1. DOTA 2 THEMED FOOD AND DRINKS Some of the venders at TI tailored their food and drinks to the events. There was a food truck outside the arena selling sandwiches called ‘Goblin Techies Bomb.’ Toffee’s covered some of these IN HIS VIDEO WITH KELLY MILKIES where she reviewed some of the van food. Inside the arena, the bar on the ground floor sold three different kinds of Dota 2 beers: Frostbite Lager, Alacrity Waning IPA and Poison Dagger Pilsner. We tried Rylai’s lager and found it mild and enjoyable.
2. THE PEOPLE ARE UNITED On the finals day, many of the Chinese fans gathered to sit behind the Chinese casters. Whenever Wings scored a kill the Chinese fans stood up, cheered and waved their Chinese flags back and forth. You could hear the competing chants for DC and Wings. I was actually really impressed that (notwithstanding all the flags) people didn’t resort to shouting “USA” or “China”. When Wings raised the Aegis after defeating DC, some fans started crying and many spontaneously started singing the Chinese national anthem. I asked some Chinese fans why they chose this particular spot and they told me no one organized it on social media. Chinese fans just wanted to sit close to the “Chinese Comrades” (the Chinese casters, next to the English casters). Also, this section was very close to Chinese pre-draft panel. Many Chinese fans gathered around the Chinese panel during the game because there was a big TV broadcasting the Chinese cast. Perhaps for future tournaments Valve could make headsets available to Chinese/Russian fans so they can hear the cast in their own language inside the arena? 54
Photo by Valve
3. SUNSCREEN FOR EVERYONE As was shown on the streams, there were two huge screens outside the arena showing the English stream. One screen was in front of the VR experience room and secret shop and the other was in front of a musical fountain where many local families visit regularly, near the beer garden. Doesn’t matter if you were a Dota 2 fan who couldn’t get tickets, or got stuck in a very long line for to buy your Faceless Void underwear, or simply a local who just happened to be in the area, Valve cared about the health of your skin. Many locals were hanging out around the area, some watching the games.
There were multiple sunscreen stations around the screens where people could get sunscreen for free. Someone even left a husky plushy, possible from Crystal Maiden’s arcana set, next to the sunscreen to catch people’s attention. Or maybe they just they don’t like dogs...
4. DOTA 2 IS EVERYWHERE I knew that I’d see fans around the arena, but I didn’t expect to see the Dota 2 badges, team shirts, swag bags and tidehunter backpacks all around the city. I even overheard locals talking about Dota 2 and the international randomly on the street!
It felt kind of reassuring and like I was part of a not-so-secret community every time I saw a Dota 2 fan walking around Pike Market, at the hotel breakfast or walking around random parts of Seattle.
On the drive in from Vancouver, when the border guard asked why I was coming to the US and I somewhat sheepishly responded “a video game tournament” he even said “Oh! Is it Dota 2? I only learnt about this game since I became a border guard.” 55
5. TEAM SUITES WERE ORGANIZED REGIONALLY (WITH EXCEPTIONS) Special suites for teams and other VIPs were situated between the first and second levels. If you sat in the right seats on the first level you could often see players and other personalities watching games comfortably in their team suites. (I personally made sure that I could always see the Secret team suite, but PLD never made an appearance while I was there FeelsBadMan) The suites for each team corresponded with the huge team banners hung on each of the four corners of the arena. These suites were mostly
regionally based: • CN wing: LGD, Newbee, VG.R and Wings • EU wing: Alliance, Escape, Liquid and OG • SEA wing: Fnatic, MVP Phoenix, TNC and... Ehome? (Iceiceice is actually Singaporean) • NA (?) wing: EG, Secret, DC and NaVi Do you notice something weird? Yes, somehow Valve put four teams with intertwining history together in one bit. In fact, Secret’s suite was sandwiched between EG’s and DC’s. Perhaps Valve loves spicy memes and drama just as much as we do.
A rough diagram to illustrate the different wings. Team suites were between the first (1xx sections) and second floor (2xx sections). Source map: SeatGeek.com 56
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