In a recent interview with Dino Lujetic, an organizer for Dota Pit, GosuGamers learned more about the lengthy Dota Pit League Season 3 and One Game Agency’s plans for next season.
Dota Pit is relatively new to the scene, and so far has strictly utilized an online format. Their first tournament was in March of last year, with a prize pool of $3000 and mostly tier 2 teams participating. Since then, the tournament has grown dramatically, with multiple top tier teams in attendance for the past two seasons and a prize pool of over $265k for their third season.
We asked Mr. Lujetic about One Game Agency’s recent decision to host a LAN final for their next event, as well as the many issues which lead to Season 3 lasting half a year. He replied,
"We have decided to work on Season 4 LAN event due to many factors. First of all, we would love to develop eSports in the Balkans region, while also, it would be kinda natural to become a LAN organizer once circumstances allowed us to do so. People have to understand that it takes time for a new tournament organizers to get to the point where they can host their first big LAN event, and we believe the time is perfect for our team to execute our first one. Also to say, we would love to thank everyone for all the feedback (online only, match delays, servers, LAN), and although Season 3 wasn't perfect event, we still believe you guys have enjoyed it, and we will work hard to make S4 the top DOTA 2 experience. Take my word, we took all the notes and will be addressing each of those issues properly. Once again, thank you for all the support and feedback!"
 |
In response to popular Russian-language caster Vitalii 'v1lat' Volochai’s criticism of Dota Pit and online tournaments in general, Lujetic stated: "Although V1lat continuously mentions Dota Pit, I don't take it personally. In fact, I respect every single tournament organizer and do still believe that the competition is good as it will definitely improve eSports and force us to work better and harder. In short words, I would like to wish the best of luck to V1lat and his team for the coming events."
Last season, an Evil Geniuses vs. Secret match was delayed for months, allegedly because the teams either did not schedule it or rescheduled repeatedly. The reason for this complication is unknown, but the pro community has often expressed apathy for online tournaments. Lujetic responded to this and other Season 3 issues:
"I think we learned a lot, we wanted to give teams freedom and flexibility but that is not always a good choice. Especially if you see the EG vs Secret game. But at the end we moved forward and finished the season 3. You must understand that we are still learning and the whole thing was done with 2 people (Ivan Marusic and me) with the help and feedback from the community and other organizators [sic] and even Pro Players and Managers."
Lujetic added that they will have a new ruleset regarding match scheduling next season, which he hopes will in turn shorten the qualifier stage to prevent these issues from repeating.
Dota Pit has a reputation of including high quality cosmetics in their ticket bundles, which have contributed to their relatively high prize pools for an online event. This past season’s bundle included a popular Pudge set. We asked if the organizers had any special plans for the next season’s compendium.
"I cannot talk about bundles right now, but we will have a good amount and quality as same, or better, as previous season. We have a good relationship with Workshop artists."
Pictured is the included Pudge set for the S3 compendium.
We inquired whether the organizers were worried about next season’s prize pool, and whether it would match Season 3’s. Evil Geniuses, the victors of the most recent Dota Pit League last Tuesday, took home approximately $126k in prize money after defeating Cloud 9 3-0. We also asked if Lujetic thought a lower prize pool would look bad for the growth of the tournament series.
"We might see lower, because I don't Know how majors will work at the end. But we will do our best to give the community as much as we can for the same price. The only thing we cannot foresee right now is the way Majors will have impact on Third party tournaments. Generally I like the idea of Majors it is good for the scene, team stability especially."
The problems in the scene concerning tournament scheduling and time crunches during certain parts of the year are well known. With Valve’s upcoming introduction of the Majors, we were curious of Lujetic’s opinion on the new system and how it would affect scheduling. Additionally, we wanted to know whether he saw the Majors impacting the participation of top tier teams in smaller events like Dota Pit.
"IMO teams will play on other tournaments besides Majors, top tier teams will attend Third party LANs with having a luxury to choose what LANs they prefer. Our job is to make as better LAN (tournament) as possible for both teams and viewers. So if we do as we plan we will be fine. Keep in mind we are new to the scene, but also we don't have legacy problems either. The major system is a “clean” start for all the tournament’s problems in the past."
Mr. Lujetic and One Game Agency are evidently aware that they must improve on the fiasco that was Dota Pit League Season 3. Their relationship with the pro community and the scene was put in jeopardy when Team Secret pulled out of the event. During the withdrawal, Secret manager Matthew 'Cyborgmatt' Bailey told GosuGamers, "Due to numerous delays with this season of Dota Pit we have unfortunately reached a stage where we have prioritise our focus on preparing for The International."
In the future, if Dota Pit does not ensure that their event does not run so close to The International or any of the Majors, they will likely encounter similar obstacles. According to the recently released trailer, the Season 4 LAN finals are set to begin on March 31st of next year in Croatia.
Image Sources: Red Bull, Hellraisers, Dino Lujetic, Dota 2 store
Source: Dota Pit
Credit to Eric 'ReiNNNN' Khor for interview
More content on GosuGamers
