Darer is back

Resurrected from the dead, one might say, after a news item in September last year, followed by six months of oblivion. Leaving the delayed release schedule aside, the moneyed promises of the project remain the same. Darer is currently in the midst of it's beta phase and opts for an official launch in May 2011. Given the rise of many excellent platforms such as DotAlicious or the Ranked Gaming Client in the meantime, in addition to the development of Valve's DotA being well underway, the only question left to ask remains: is all this coming too late?

If the money is real, then the organizers won't have trouble drawing the attention to themselves. The platform is not only offering monthly prizes for both players and teams, but promises to pay additional money for achievements within one season. Such a period lasts six months, starting at the 1st of July. Adding all these sums up, Darer is set to lose around €3.000 monthly plus another €14.000 by the end of one season. Not included is the Darer Opening Challenge with a supposed prize pool of €100.000.

How is all this feasible? Eligible for the prize money are only players with "pro accounts". These require a fee, which turns into Darer coins, once deposited. From this money, the platform takes an unrecognisable Rake to keep the system alive, in addition to advertisements and possible engagements with sponsors. The concept is bound to fail however, if not enough players deposit for the challenge. In a conversation with the organization, a leading executive stated, that Darer is willing to use the expected yields to pay higher set ladder prizes, instead of keeping the, due to the financial risk, well deserved money for themselves.



So much for the concept, but how far is Darer in terms of development? Once registered at the website, the client is available for download and the open beta is running. Similar to RGC and Garena, players log in at the client and find themselves in a lobby. Games are hosted directly by clicking the red Start-Game-button and reachable in Warcraft III's local area network. We experienced no lag in our test matches; a reconnection service is installed as well. Not working thus far is the statistic feature and depositing money, which is unavailable due to the beta phase.

The developers have time to fix the last bugs until the 1st of May, when the official launch is scheduled and the first monthly rewarded playing period starts.
No concrete time is set for the Darer Opening Challenge; the hosts reserved to determine a date and want to wait until most teams signed up and the platform gained more players.

Whether these efforts came too late remains to be seen. Time will tell if Darer is going to be successful. The time until DOTA 2 is getting short.

Links
darer.com - Community Homepage
GosuGamers.net - First Darer press release featuring a small interview with the owner
youtube.com - Darer Trailer by Gosucrew member Todor 'HU57L3R' Bradev