DotA 2 & LoL – which is better?
Nothing – Here the only correct answer to this question. Every time this topic comes up, it’s best to immediately imagine one of the camps as a square and the other as a circle. And so, the first ones say: “Look, what angles we have, what straight shapes! Not like your ugliness!", and the second answer: "What barbaric ideas of beauty do you have, not like our ideal curves?!». Slight exaggeration, things actually go something like this.
I myself play both. Both games are excellent representatives of the genre, and each has its advantages. But, more importantly, each has its own development path and niche. So there is no point in comparing gameplay. Yes, I’m not going to. I would like to talk about things on the periphery of these games.
Audience
Both games are fighting for the same segment of gamers. And, despite the glorious past of DotA 1 and Steam support for the second DotA, the numbers vary quite a lot: about a year ago, when publishing reports on annual activity, LoL was ahead of its closest pursuer – DotA 2 ~ten times (67 million monthly, 12 million daily, 7.5 million simultaneously against 7 million monthly players in DotA 2 and 700 thousand simultaneous online).
At the same time, in the CIS sector DotA 2 – undisputed leader, largely thanks to the activities Star Ladder.
It’s worth talking about the players’ mentality itself. It should be noted here that this is all a generalization, there are extremes here and there.
Of course, a lot depends on timing, type of game and even luck. At the same time, general directions can still be traced. If you like, LoL seems more “adult”. All this mom**ism, “ez win ez lyfe” and so on is purely a Doter “trick”. No, flaming and swearing exist in LoL, but there you can get a chat ban or even a temporary ban even for an extra “fuck” accidentally inserted into a sentence during the game. Why, for a seemingly not so terrible “easy” at the end of the game, you will absolutely get banned for several days.
Actually, it’s not very nice. https://queenvegas-casino.co.uk/mobile-app/ Attempts to humiliate an opponent, to devalue his achievements, especially after a difficult game. I I can’t Imagine how, after some cool roleplaying on a map, in Dota they will tell you: “Well played, man! It was a pleasure to play against you". But this is not uncommon in LoL.
Free to play
Both games are distributed F2P models. Both there and there, you can buy for real money cosmetic improvements that do not affect gameplay. And before moving on to a more detailed examination, I will remind you of an important thing: DotA 2 has Steam support, fan base since its predecessor (ancestors genre), and LoL may have been created by one of the “fathers” of Dota, but doesn’t have anything like that.
In LoL you can buy t.n. skins for characters that change the appearance of your hero and the visual component of his abilities. They are divided into price categories, they have weekly discounts, in the past some skins could only be purchased during special themed events (a la the World Cup, New Year, etc.n.). There are also skins for wards, profile icons, different sets and much more situational things determined by the LoL mechanics, for example, transferring to another server.
DotA 2 is quite different in this aspect. For starters, almost any thing (even Arcana for 2k+ rubles) may appear to you with some chance after the end of the game. The origins of such a system traced in Team Fortress 2. In the store you can immediately buy a set of things for a particular hero, just cosmetic elements: courier, interface style, commentator, etc.d.
There is also a trading platform where players sell parts of kits, kits and further down the list, choosing the price themselves. In addition to all this, there is an in-game opportunity to view tournaments. In the store you can buy a ticket to watch the tournament, a set that includes thematic accompaniment, or even compendium (DotA 2 know-how, which allows players to increase the tournament prize pool in exchange for in-game goodies). But that’s not all! It so happened that entire Internet portals dedicated to this system were formed around this system rates and exchange of items. This is a pretty interesting idea.
Competitive-scene
Tournaments, commentators, streams, etc. – it’s all here. And there is an immediate connection with the mentality of the players. To put it simply, LoL is more “serious” in this regard. But everything is in order.
Tournaments vary greatly. Let’s start with LoL, because everything is simpler here. There is the LCS (League of Legends Championship Series), where on a regular basis for two seasons every year (spring and summer) the cream of the LoL pro scene fight for tickets to the world finals. Games are held weekly on two game days, LCS is divided by region: NA, EU. The LCS has a smaller tournament underneath it – the Challenger Series, where the best teams from the Challenger tier (the highest tier in the game’s ranked system) fight for qualification to the LCS. The second largest tournament is ESL. First, a series of qualifying stages are held, to which many of the most famous teams from around the world are invited, and at the end a grand final is held, where the winners of the qualifying stages sort things out among themselves. Other tournaments are much smaller, many are amateur or semi-professional. After the end of the LCS summer season, the play-off stage begins for reaching the world finals – League of Legends World Championship, where the best teams from all over the world meet.
DotA 2 is very different in this regard. Inside the client, all tournaments are divided into three parts: “Premium”, “Pro” and “Amateur”. The first includes worldwide tournaments of varying duration and importance, where you can see the most famous DotA 2 teams. These tournaments often offer direct invites at the same time as free-for-all qualifying rounds. Almost the same teams compete in the Pro category, along with less popular and skillful teams. But almost anyone can get into the “Amateur” category, which makes this segment very tempting for beginner esports players. Stands apart The International, held once a year. 16 teams (11 are invited by Valve, another 5 are played in regional qualifiers) fight for the title of the best – and the bag of money – among themselves in the group stage and the subsequent final part with the Olympic system.
Worth highlighting separately Star Ladder, which occupies a huge place in the eSports environment. There have already been 11 seasons of DotA 2 and the twelfth is now starting. A huge number of matches, teams, a large prize fund and finals at the Kyiv Cybersport Arena – all these are integral parts of this tournament. The tournament itself is divided into three parts: Amateur (everyone can take part), Pro (the best teams from Amateur get here) and Star (the best of the best are collected here, who prove their compliance with this status). The tournament can be divided into two parts: online, where players play among themselves, and LAN finals in Kyiv.
Recently, Star Ladder has also been holding League of Legends tournaments, but they are comparatively smaller and have only just begun to gain momentum.
Commentators and streams these two games, despite many similarities between them, are very different. The organizers of LCS and ESL take a very professional approach to holding these events: weekly streams of game days, finals and qualifications, a lot of analytics and serious discussions, and what’s more, the same LCS is held at the eSports arena in Cologne, and tickets are consistently sold out in minutes. Sometimes “away” weeks happen, for example, two years ago one of the LCS stages was held in Moscow. The commentators themselves are hired by Riot Games and must meet their strict standards (there have been cases of firing). There are game commentators, analysis from their colleagues between games and a pretty hostess.
Against this background, it’s difficult to get used to the style of the same v1lat or Casper. Don’t get me wrong, I have no doubt about their professionalism and suitability for their positions, but that’s just different. If LoL commentators can be compared to football commentators, then on DotA streams there is an almost familiar attitude towards the players, almost direct contact with them via Twitter and the like. It seems like it’s more entertainment, than work. The English-speaking sector is a little more reserved. I don’t consider Asian tournaments and their streams with commentators, because.To. it’s a completely different matter in both cases.
Entertainment streams on the twitch portal.TV varies quite a lot from players. First, the numbers: the most popular League of Legends players have an average number of viewers that ranges between 30-60k, while similar DotA 2 streams barely reach 15-20. All famous LoL players try to stream on a regular basis. According to some reports, this brings in about several thousand and even tens of thousands of dollars a month. DotA 2 is different: infrequent streams from famous players, a relatively smaller number of viewers is compensated by frequent tournaments (one might even say daily) and in-game broadcasts.
About players I can’t say much, because they are quite similar. Both there are iconic players and teams, high-profile transitions from one team to another, scandals, intrigues, investigations.
Bottom line
Before something bad might start, for example, they’ll shower me with minuses and slippers, or, even worse, a fight will start, I’ll say this: I didn’t set out to prove the superiority of one over the other, on the contrary, I just tried to show that these things are not similar to each other, which means each will be to someone’s taste. Both LoL and DotA 2 are good games where we will bury many hours of our lives. Peace to all!
Well, etc.To. I just registered today, I can’t insert pictures, sorry, there will be a wall of text.