It has been more than a year since we last saw the world’s best teams clash against each other in Dota 2. A year confined to regional online leagues and dwindling competitions and prizepools with an interrupted Dota Pro Circuit and a cancelled The International.
Fast forward to 2021. Valve introduces the first regional leagues with a tangible structure for the scene. At the same time new patches, new heroes, items are in the pipeline and the developers finally deliver a new player experience worthy of that name.
And the biggest marketing push that Dota has ever seen in the form of a Netflix animation launches to popular acclaim. To cap off the perfect storm to draw in new and returning players to a game that has been bleeding numbers over the years, the esports scene gets to showcase their strength at the Singapore Major.
Or lets say that would have been the case if not for actual reality. At the time of writing eight of the intitally planned 18 teams have had to either substitute players or withdraw entirely. The majority of those due to COVID-19 infections or potential exposure to the pandemic.
Bad Luck or Negligence?
Some fans will of course jump to the defense of the players. But with this many teams and players being affected, you really cannot make excuses for “bad luck” or “an outlier” anymore. And for some (looking at you BoBoKa) there really is no excuse. If even half of the rumours are right, claiming players were out partying, visiting the gym or going to large gatherings, it only tells of lacking professionalism and discipline.
Imagine qualifying to one of only two Majors this year and finally the LAN event the community has been wanting for throughout 2020. A strong showing in Singapore even almost guarantees a way into the biggest tournament in the world, The International. And then you miss out because you could not quarantine yourself properly in times of a global pandemic. It just showcases how unprofessional the Dota scene can still be.
Does it have to be like this?
The League of Legends scene pulled of Worlds 2020 in a bubble system with quarantine before and after without any infection, while the currently ongoing PUBG Global Invitational Survival event in Korea is also going off without any of the issues Dota has.
It is embarrassing to see a scene that regularily puts up esports’ biggest prize pool be unable to follow proper health guidelines in times of a pandemic. We are more than a year into the global repercussions of COVID-19 by now and it really should not be too much to ask for players to act as the professionals they should be.
Now we are left with a Major that is really only a Major in name as many teams are unable to play with their actual rosters and two have withdrawn entirely. Instead of a celebration of Dota’s highest level of play coinciding with the hype from the animation, we already have a shitshow before the Major even started.
We can only hope that the teams learn their lessons for the second Major of 2021, but the Singapore Major will always be a lost opportunity.
More Dota 2:
- Everything you need to know about the Singapore Major
- Huge Dota 2 Update tackles New Player Experience and Smurfs
- What to expect from the Singapore Major Wildcards
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