r/Dota2 and our responsibility in the Dota 2 community (2024)

I was going to write this post much sooner, but I thought I’d wait a while for the initial drama and controversy to subside. So here we go.

The impact of r/Dota2

If there’s one ‘community hub’ that is central and most relevant to the Dota 2 community, it is r/Dota2. Any news that is shared and talked about, any new gameplay update, any creative content that artists want to share, it is done primarily on this subreddit. Even well-known (or lesser known) personalities like casters, content creators and professional players come here to see what the community is saying about them and what criticism they have. Hell, we even have Valve employees frequently browsing the subreddit, giving us updates or gathering feedback and gauging what the response is to particular updates.

Even if its still a fraction of the community that plays the game, there’s no other place that matches the level of engagement and impact that r/Dota2 has. Not Twitter, not Facebook, not YouTube comments or anything of the sort. With that in mind, I’d like my fellow redditors to understand and acknowledge the influence that they have on Dota 2. Cliché as it might be, the saying, “With great power comes great responsibility” has a lot of truth to it. And certainly applies in this case.

The International 10

Now, specifically with regards to The International 10 and the production of the event, there was a lot of negative feedback going around. Teams not getting adequate rooms or things like toilet paper, delays to the matches, the quality of the artificial crowd noise and performances of the talent crew.

At first, I disagreed with most of what Reddit was saying because I think such things just happen and are hard to avoid. But then, even I started to notice some of the problems and give credence to the criticism people had. But I didn’t engage in much of it. Because I was just happy to finally watch TI again and wanted to enjoy the experience.

I saw several valid points of criticism primarily towards the newer talent in the scene i.e. Frankie, Sumichu and Avo+. But the way in which this criticism was delivered was just not right. I would even go so far as to say that most of the criticism this subreddit has for Valve is also just very harsh and comes off as hate. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been plenty critical towards Valve in the past, and will still be so in the future if I think its justified. I’ve also been critical towards production and talent crew. But I’ve tried to convey this in a little bit respectful and reasonable manner, at least over the past couple of years.

We can all sit in the comfort of our homes and type away on our keyboards what we think someone can do better. But how often do we stop for a bit and think how fair it is to criticize someone who’s arguably one of the best in the world at what they do? And what impact that criticism has on their morale and self-esteem? Everyone seems to have forgotten how much the negative feedback towards Ana hurt him all those years ago when he’d just started playing for OG. It is human nature for us to seek validation from other people, and in a community like Dota 2, it feels all the more important.

Remember, people were harshly critical of people like Lyrical, Moxxi and Ephey. But they’ve shown tremendous improvement for being relatively new to the scene and I’m happy that they were a part of TI10. Even though there were several hate threads/comments going around even now, most of what I saw was being heavily downvoted. Even Slacks and Kaci were hated on so much, getting called cringe and unfunny. But I can’t imagine TI without these two. Eventually, people just accept them because they know they’re good at what they do and have been around for long. But then, they move on to criticize those who are new to the scene once again.

Think about this for a second. Do any of you really think these people are happy when something goes wrong or they underperform? They’re on one of the biggest stages in the world, expected to deliver. The pressure is already on them. It is absolutely absurd to think Valve is ‘okay’ with a couple of teams not getting toilet paper or having to cancel tickets for live attendance or having delays due to production issues. These people, everyone involved in TI10, they care a f*ck ton and want it to be amazing. One of my favorite comments is by u/Vocal__Minority, and I think they perfectly describe why we should be so lucky to play Dota 2 and be a part of its community.

The difference between hypocrisy and not living up to your ideals

After SirActionSlacks posted his response to the whole drama, I thought I no longer needed to write anything like this. He basically said everything that was on my mind, and then some. But then, coincidentally, just a couple of days later someone makes a post about how they were banned from his stream and it reaches the top of the front page of r/Dota2.

There’s something that needs to be pointed out here. We all have ideals. And we all wish to live up to them, but never do. That’s the point of it, they’re ideals. We are human beings and we’re not perfect. But just because you can’t live up to your ideals doesn’t mean you’re a hypocrite. Slacks has been toxic in pubs, and so have I, and so have you, and so has probably everyone who’s ever played the game. There are several professional players who’ve been targeted and criticized similarly. Might I remind you of this post by u/Ortenrosse from a couple of years ago. His personal note at the end says it all.

It is stupid to think these people preach a message of positivity in the public, yet behave in a toxic manner while playing the game, all with a malicious glee in their hypocrisy. They’re preaching that message because they know they don’t want to be the type of person they turn into in a stressful game. Stop worshipping personalities by thinking they’re perfect idols. Adopt the good they do and learn to accept that they have flaws.

Moderation of r/Dota2

I’ve criticized the moderation team of the subreddit many times in the past, but mainly because of my posts getting removed. However, more recently, I’ve seen a trend in the way posts are removed or kept. It seems to have a seriously negative impact on what the community feedback looks like.

During TI10, multiple complaint posts about the same topic would get to the front page. But if there were multiple appreciation posts towards the same person/group, they’d get removed with the excuse of being a ‘duplicate. This isn’t just during TI10. I saw the same during the battle pass season, or other events, or after big gameplay updates.

If I had to guess what intent the mods of r/Dota2 had in mind, I’d think they want this subreddit to look as toxic as possible. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of toxic posters and commenters on there. But the way posts are moderated only makes it so much worse. And keep in mind, I’m not making this claim lightly. I’ve been reading, posting, commenting and interacting in Reddit for several years now. I’ve seen too many examples for this to be just a one-off case or a coincidence.

One thing that could be done is to have a single complaints thread for certain events, updates or tournaments. When the majority of the front page is filled with complaint threads, it looks like that is all that the community thinks. I don’t even know if this one change might happen, it would take the collective push from the people on the subreddit to make any change possible. What I do know is the current system in place is not right, and the people responsible for this system don’t seem to have the best intentions in mind. Something needs to change.

Final thoughts

To Frankie, Sumichu, Avo+ and every production and talent crew at TI10, I am glad you were part of this event that we waited for so long and I hope you return for future events.

I don’t know what internal discussions you had with other crew members at TI10. But if their response was “oh, its just reddit being reddit, you’re doing fine”, just to counterbalance all the negativity from the subreddit, then I don’t think that’s helpful. If you had to choose between an angry mob of people you’ve never met and a brilliant team of peers that you worked with, then its obvious that you’ll lean towards the latter. But understand that there was validity in some of the criticism, and you could do a little better.

All in all, I think TI10 was an amazing event, and my only disappointment was that it ended so fast. I can’t wait to see more from all the talent crew, both old and new, and even newer ones in the future. Dota 2 is too special to get bogged down by these silly things. I’m honestly so fortunate to be a part of it, because it really did change my life. And I’ll certainly stick to it right up till the very end. I hope you do too.

Thanks for reading