joinDOTA public beta on Monday

The beta version of the joinDOTA website will go live this coming Monday which coincides with the finals of the Farm4Fame 3.4.

Since the launch will just be a beta version, a lot of functionality will not be available until the site is fully up. What you can expect from the beta site though is constant shoutcast coming from veteran shoutcaster, TobiWan, as well as coverage of the competitive DotA scene.

As time goes on, more functionality will be slowly added to the website until the full site is up and running which is expected to be the end of July. Users that register on the site during the beta phase will be able to reserve their usernames for the future when the site is fully functional.

To give a little more insight to the joinDOTA website, we managed to get hold of the main man behind the project, Mooseman for a short interview. Read on to get all the lowdown on the project.

Hello Mooseman, lets start this off with the obligatory introduction shall we?
-"My name is Moritz 'Moose' Zimmermann, I live and work in Berlin, Germany and have been working for and building dota-league.com nearly for the past 6 years. I am 30 years old and I guess in gaming I might be considered an old-timer. Luckily not an ancient yet!"

How did you come up with the idea for joinDOTA?
-"The idea behind joinDOTA came to me probably a few years back when I first heard about DOTA 2. At Dota-League.com the websites´ beating heart is the Single Instant Game (SIG) that helped create the community around it, but this will be redundant in the future as DOTA 2 will have a matchmaking system included. So in order to be able to create a lively community website for DOTA 2, new ideas had to be formed. Broadcasting and shoutcasting in DotA was always great but didn´t have any structure and consistency. I made it my goal to create a website that offers both: a constant flow of tournaments as well as daily broadcasts (by TobiWanKenobi primarily and of course others soon) in order to create a smooth transition for the current community from DotA (classic) to DOTA 2. A new game, a new site."

Out of all the possible names to call this project, why did you settle for joinDOTA?
-"I chose a name which is easy to remember and to make the game and platform more accessible for a broad audience. We plan to provide every kind of content for DOTA 2 in the near future including hero- and gameplay video tutorials, video and replay archives as well as all sorts of other eSport content related to DOTA. So it had to be a name that describes the whole process around being part of a community. I think the name is quite catchy."

Throughout the years many organisation have either completely dropped their support for DotA or support it to a really small extent. Why did you decide to stick with DotA for so long when so many have transitioned to games such as SC2 and CoD?
-"They weren't real DotA fans then I guess! I just love DotA and the whole challenge of organizing events and tournaments even though it can be exhausting from time to time since it can become a huge load of work. There is just so many DotA players out there who are eager for more! But I can definitely say that I never get tired of it, especially now that DOTA 2 is coming out."

Will content for joinDOTA be free for all?
-"It most certainly will! Anyone is welcome to visit the site and get what they are looking for right away."

What kind of stream can we expect of the project? HD or SD Stream??
-"Our main purpose is to provide the DOTA community with coverage, so we will strive for the best quality streams for everyone. We are currently building a professional broadcasting studio in Berlin, so of course we will go for HD. But we will definitely not forget anyone with lower bandwith or distant routing and have an additional SD stream."

As we can see, broadcasting is getting more and more professional, what do you think joinDOTA will bring to the table that is different from the rest?
-"At university and in the past years I have specialized on video- and film production, so I bring in a lot of expertise to joinDOTA when it comes to creating a proper show format and studio setup. We want to spark daily interests in DotA and this can only be done with a professional production which takes broadcasting to a whole new level. Just as DOTA 2 will do."

Big projects require big backers, who is backing the joinDOTA project?
-"I started working as a project manager for the company Freaks 4U Gaming in Berlin in February this year and since then focused on the realization of joinDOTA. The team behind Freaks 4U has been working in the gaming and eSports industry for the past 14 years, so they bring in a lot of knowledge my project will benefit from. They have their own broadcasting service for more than 8 years now and with Tobi Wan having just moved to Germany who will be working with me on this project, we have a stable background to realize our plans for joinDOTA."

When can we expect the first stream to be out? And which event would we see being covered first?
-"We will actually launch a pre-beta version of the website on monday and kick off with a broadcast of the FARM4FAME 3.4 final between M5 vs GGNET. The full release of the website will be launched end of July/beginning of August and will have lots more features and community functions. We decided to release a slim beta of the site first to not keep people waiting, especially not Tobi Wan who is excited to get his broadcasts on the road again. While we are covering multiple DotA 1 events for now, we are looking at something exciting in the very near future."

You are already 30 years old this year, do you think you are too old to be still doing these kinds of things?
-"Now that you say it, I feel a slight ache in my back! Ok, I take back what I said in my first answer! I am an ancient!! At least you make me feel like one now :D . Since I have been working in the DotA scene for the past 6 years now it has become a real passion and there is no stopping for DOTA 2 now! joinDOTA has already become my next passion and I will do my best to make it as enjoyable for anyone as possible. Since it is one of my main projects at Freaks 4U, I can finally push it more professionally, also from the business side. Apart from joinDOTA, I of course have other tasks in the company which are not gaming related. I found a perfect balance between a great job and doing what I love most - organizing DOTA events. And seriously, one can never be too old for gaming!"

And there you go, all you need to know about joinDOTA from the (ancient) man behind the project. Besides that we have a personal statement from TobiWan about the project as well.

TobiWan's personal thoughts:
-"For so long it has been my desire to shed the restrictions of my day job to allow me to focus 100% on coverage of eSports but never at the expense of production quality and the benefits of the community, joinDOTA is the first project which I have truly believed in hence I have picked up my entire life to come to Berlin to work with what is already an experienced team. Most importantly, I know that with the support of the community we can turn joinDOTA into the most valuable resource that DOTA has ever seen."

Links
Facebook - joinDOTA Facebook page
joinDOTA - Official joinDOTA website