Off The Wagon
Is it Dota season already?
Anyone who guessed 5 months on the Dota 2 hiatus timer, congratulations! I managed to stay away from the game since May, and like all good vidya, it eventually came back. Sort of like Minecraft or Skrim, you uninstall it for a bit, but every once in a while you find yourself coming back for a hit of that classic nostalgia. The actual reason I find myself back on the Dota high is two fold.
The first reason is that Valve finally revamped the ranking system so it’s not an infinite stalemate for anyone under 5k MMR. In a 5 person team game where you are forced into randomly generated groups, it’s a total crap-shoot whether or not you’re going to actually be facing a similarly skilled set of opponents, or 2 smurfs and their friends trolling low MMR plebs like myself.
If anyone understood the above paragraph I’m gonna have to ask you to stop reading and go outside because this is so deep into the nerdcabulary even I’M now feeling the need to touch grass. I’ll provide a quick translation: I was bad at game and an update made me gooder.
Now for the second reason for my return to the Dots: Heather snagged tickets to the massive annual tournament called The International or TI! Thank you Heather!
The event is similar to the anime and comic conventions I’ve frequented over the years. Namely, a bunch of fellow geeks enjoying the chance to gab and celebrate something we love.
There’s also a non-zero overlap of people who enjoy YGO at these Dota events. I often forget that most people are fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! because of the competitive gaming aspect rather than the love of historically accurate fanfiction, of which Monpian and I are definitely outliers now that I type it out. Because of that, there are more than a couple instances of Dota 2 casters referencing the prior, much to my delight. I’m certain a few casters besides Danog and Bkop have made refs but these are the only two I had direct links to off hand.
Speaking of Dota 2 casters, they’re always a blast to listen to when watching professional Dots. I’ve been told by friends who do not play Dota 2 that it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s happening on the screen, but those same friends have expressed enjoyment at some of the spirited and lively casting moments. And for even easier to follow Dota-related entertainment, one of my favorite things about TI is Valve’s True Sight series and the gorgeous animated scenes of some of the key plays:
Looking forward to a great weekend hobnobbing with fellow gamers and catching up with a few old friends!