Dota 2's complexity only makes it more interesting, say casters Cap, SVG

Dota 2 is one of the biggest and longest-running titles in all of esports, having celebrated the 10-year anniversary since its official release back in 2013 on 9 July.

But really, you can say the game has been up for almost 12 years now.

Dota 2 was first announced way back in October 2010 and the first beta invites were sent out in August the next year, shortly after the conclusion of the first-ever iteration of The International (TI), the game's annual world championship tournament.

The game can even trace its roots all the way back to 2003, when the first Defense of the Ancients — which is what the Dota acronym stands for — mod for WarCraft III was released.

Dota 2's sprawling history is filled with countless patches, reworks to the map, heroes, items, and mechanics; way too many changes to list.

In an exclusive interview during the Bali Major, Yahoo Esports SEA looked back on how Dota 2 has changed for both players and viewers with the renown casting duo of Austin "Cap" Walsh and Avery "SVG" Silverman.

Dota 2 is known for its complexity and very high barrier of entry. While those are two of the qualities that its loyal playerbase really loves, it is also the biggest factor that made the game less popular compared to its biggest competitor, League of Legends.

As a longtime Dota player, pro from 2014 to 2022, and caster/analyst since, SVG admits he considers himself a 'Dota purist'.

While many say Dota 2's complexity prevented it from growing bigger, SVG admitted that he was glad Valve Software embraced that quality over the many years they have developed the game.

"The game has continually been made more complex, which I think is cool, because I think there was definitely a route where Valve could have tried to simplify things about the game to make it more user-friendly or new user experience-friendly. And they basically just said, 'No, f- you, we'll make it even more complicated'.

Now the barrier to entry is impossibly high, which I think people have to understand too. But I think that's also what makes Dota, Dota.SVG

With Dota 2 only growing more and more complex over the years, SVG thought that has generally impacted the game in a positive way.

"I think the playerbase will become more casual, but I think the viewer experience becomes more interesting as well. And I think it continually ups the bar for the competitive scene in terms of how good you have to be to win a Dota game, how much more you have to do," added SVG.

When comparing how Dota 2 was when it was first unveiled to the world in TI 2011 to what it is now, SVG said the difference is "like night and day".

"If you compare what a Dota pro has to think about now in a game of Dota — or even us as casters as well — compared to ten years ago, it's like night and day. You go back to [The International 2011], there's like 20 heroes with 80 spells and like 20 items. And the most you're going to call in a teamfight is like, 'Oh, someone blinked Black Hole! Then they countered with Ravage, and they stunned them, and they right-clicked him down, he died'. That's a teamfight, literally, right?" recounted SVG.

"And now there's Talents, Shards, Tormentors, and all this weird, wacky itemisation that gets added every new month that is like half broken and doesn't even work properly, where you can [teleport] and where you can't with vision. There's just so much that goes on in a teamfight. I think any given teamfight probably has 100, 200 different interactions."

Cap, also known as Capitalist, added all the different map objectives players and viewers must take into account now is "pretty crazy" when compared to how it was before.

Case in point: Dota 2's massive 7.33 update released in April, which expanded the map, added new objectives, introduced the new 'Universal' hero attribute, and more.

"Now, every minute there's some new objective right? There's, I think the first is at minute five with Catapults? So, it's not until minute 11 that there's not an objective to think about, right? Because otherwise, it's just Bounty Runes, Power Runes, Lotuses, and Catapults all happening. And in minute 42, you get a whole bunch of it all at once. It's pretty crazy," said Cap.

As a former professional player, SVG went on to say that understanding every single interaction in a game of Dota 2 only served to hone their minds for games. That is something he was able to apply to his casting career too.

"One, as a pro you have to have the mental space to think about all those things to perform at the highest level, which I think is cool. Two, for the casters, it's also interesting because it pushes you to get better at casting. Otherwise, you're not going to be calling the right things or focusing on the right part of the fight," said SVG.

"And you need to understand all that's going on, so you can pick the right stuff to call out, which I think is also interesting that people take for granted.

Dota 2's 10-year anniversary came and went with no special in-game celebration, as Valve said they are "working on some fun stuff for it" that will be released on a later date.

When asked about what he wants that "fun stuff" for the anniversary to be, Cap said he wanted to see the return of Aghanim's Labyrinth, a rogue-like event game mode released back in 2020.

"I hold [Aghanim's Labyrinth] to very high esteem because it's a way for you to play Dota without actually committing to the competitive element and time commitment [required] of Dota. And there is no fear factor for people who haven't played Dota before or haven't played in a while," said Cap.

"You, know I hear this a lot. I know I don't experience it personally, but people say 'I get so much ranked anxiety. When I go into matchmaking, I get anxiety because it's a pretty heavy commitment.' You could do really badly and that's going to be a miserable time for 45 minutes."

For Cap, Aghanim's Labyrinth was probably the best marketing Dota 2 ever received outside of TI and its annual esports circuit.

"Actually I think Aghanim's Labyrinth is a good way to bring old players and new players back into an environment that is Dota-like and gets them thinking about Dota again. So, honestly, I think they should bring that back. I think it was one of the best marketing tools for Dota and one of the best new player experiences," added Cap.

Ever the Dota purist, SVG just wanted what almost every other Dota player looks forward to in a major update: buffs to their favourite heroes.

As a renown champion for support players everywhere, SVG wished for buffs to one of his favourite support heroes: Shadow Shaman.

"I think I'm too much of a Dota purist. I don't care about these custom games, I don't care about the cosmetics, I don't care about some fancy game modes. Who cares? You like a fancy game mode, that's what the Steam Library is for. Gabe has given you tens of thousands of games. You can go play something. Dota is for Dota, if they keep improving Dota, I'll be happy," said SVG.

"Just buff Shadow Shaman, that's it. Ten year anniversary, buff Shadow Shaman. I'm happy."

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