Understanding The International

Recently The Dota 2 International was held in Seattle. Millions of dollars in the price pool, thousands seated in Key Arena, and the rest of the world behind staring at screens in their homes, watching everything play out live. Two years ago I understood little of what was happening - but with time and an unexpected Blizzard game I learned something new!

It can be difficult to understand everything that is happening on screen; the camera is moving very fast and there are characters everywhere. With a splash of colour on the screen, and casters screaming in the mics, something has happened. At the time I did not know what, but my eyes were on the screen trying to figure it out. My boyfriend starts to hammer his fist on the chair’s armrest and shouts in dismay or satisfaction. I do not dare to interrupt while the apparent fight is ongoing, but I do ask for clarification once everyone settles down. Ultimates have been used, characters have died and the rest is scattering about trying to get the last kill or flee from the scene. Everything makes sense now, or does it?

Though he tries to explain to me what had just happened, in a way for someone who has never seen Dota before, I can not fully grasp full consequence of the ultimates and deaths. Once the fight is over, it moves on and in the midst of an explanation my boyfriend shouts out again and is distracted. It is hard to get the full picture and I long to join him in his excitement.

Overwatch, a completely different game compared to Dota and published by Blizzard Entertainment, was released a bit over a year ago and I have been playing it frequently. When an event started that allowed players to gain unique skins in Overwatch if they played another of Blizzard’s games called Heroes of the Storm, we had to get them. I had played HotS once or twice before, but never got the hang of it and quickly lost interest. When the event for Overwatch started, my boyfriend and I played on behalf of our interest in Overwatch, and after a while I got better at it. Even though we had the skins for our favourite game, we continued playing HotS out of entertainment.

Heroes of The Storm is similar to Dota in many ways. They are of course very different, but they are within the same genre of games. After playing HotS I suddenly understood the lanes in Dota, the value of towers, the usefulness of creeps. It was still different characters and abilities, but that was now the only thing my boyfriend had to explain to me. Now, when I watched The International, I understood when a team fight was happening, I saw who was dying and what that would mean for the rest of the match. Having characters explained previously I recognised them and could point them out.

The best thing about all this, playing HotS and watching The International, is that now the explanation has turned into a discussion. That, for me, is a valuable change.