Dota: the history of 2020

The most difficult year for the professional Dota 2 scene is coming to an end. During this time, overshadowed by the pandemic and its consequences, the discipline faced many obstacles that not only slowed its development down but even rolled it back. In this article, we will try to find out what happened to our favorite game in 2020 and predict what awaits us next.

Cancellation of LAN tournaments and moving to online

The first and most powerful blow to the Esports scene was the abandonment of LAN tournaments and the moving to online. The only major tournament in 2020 entirely held in LAN is the January Major DreamLeague Season 13, which took place in the German city of Leipzig. According to our insider information, this event's matches became the most popular events and attracted the greatest amount of traffic from most bookmakers.

But already in February 2020, all scheduled major tournaments began to be canceled or moved online, which reduced the prize pools. The huge ping, the home atmosphere, and the lack of bootcamps discouraged most professional players. Many of them notice that online tournaments look like training.

Lack of support from Valve

The second blow came from where it wasn't expected: Valve has almost stopped supporting the Esports scene. For a long time, there was no information from the organization about the DPC season and the year's main tournament - The International. There was just a small message that the tournament may not take place this year. And, of course, it didn't take place.

In September, Valve published a large letter saying that The International is postponed to August 2021, and the new DPC season will start in January. Before starting all events, the organization promised to support independent organizers financially. But all their support was limited to funding a few small tournaments for the American region.

Teams' disbandments and reduction of tournaments

Both of the previous factors have led to serious consequences. Most organizations have completely abandoned their Dota 2 rosters. Thus, we lost Geek Farm, Adroit, CR4ZY, the old Virtus Pro roster, and many other teams . For the whole of 2020, not a single new organization dared to assemble a Dota 2 team. Many Esportsmen are already desperate and play at tournaments exclusively as mixes.

In addition to the disbandments, tournament operators have also begun to abandon Tier 2 and Tier 3 tournaments. At the same time, cases of organizing fake tournaments have become more frequent: in 2020, information about at least 5 such cases became public.

Can anything change?

Looking back at all of the above, it seems like the Dota 2 era is coming to an end, but this is far from the case! If you look at the experience of its rival, League of Legends, their viewer interest has only increased in 2020. Riot Games managed to achieve this due to the properly built structure of competitions in each region, as well as the World Championship, which was held in LAN in Shanghai.

How can Valve use this? It seems that the organization is already trying to integrate the rival's experience. Their previously described DPC rules for the 2021 season, the division into multiple leagues, and the Tier 2 scene's support are all very similar to the League of Legends system. Insider information also appeared that The International in 2021 would be held in any scenario, even if Valve has to build a dome, as the NBA did. As viewers, we can only hope that these plans are destined to come true in the coming year.