Recognizing this barrier to entry, Valve is doing something a little different for this year’s International to get people a little more involved. Alongside the regular commentary and Twitch.tv broadcasts, the group stages, which start today, will include a special Newcomer’s Broadcast.
This broadcast will explain what’s going on in much more beginner-friendly terms, taking the time to explain what items do, why teams have been drafted the way they have been, and why the teams are playing in a particular way. The intent is to open the world of competitive Dota 2 to a wider audience.
You might find that Dota 2 isn’t the game for you; if not, there are plenty of other options to choose. If first-person shooters are more your thing, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Battlefield 4, Team Fortress 2, and even Quake (in its Quake Live guise) all see professional play. League of Legends offers similar action-RTS gameplay to Dota 2, albeit with a more rigidly enforced meta and certain elements that lean ever so slightly in the pay-to-win category, and Infinite Crisis puts comic book superheroes into a similar MOBA setting. The venerable StarCraft 2 is a conventional base-building RTS game that continues to draw big audiences and big money. And there’s an abundance of fighting games, from Super Smash Bros Melee to Ultra Street Fighter IV. If you’re after something a little less frenetic, Hearthstone is also starting to pick up.
Find the one that works for you, and you’ll open up a world of regular competitions, for most games are a mix of the purely online competition along with the occasional LAN tournament. Some, such as the regular Dreamhack events, are multidisciplinary, with many different games all on display. Others, such as the International, focus on just a single game.
Based on our experience with Dota 2‘s layers and complexity, the Newcomer Stream isn’t going to make everyone a Dota 2 expert overnight. Those new to the e-sports scene will still find they have much to learn if they’re to keep their Kappas per minute at an acceptable level and avoid the perils of copy pasterino cappucino, but the newcomer stream should be a fine introduction to a world that’s every bit as entertaining as that of traditional sports—and then some.