Preface
The reddit post that started it all:
https://old.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/9ejx74/any_interest_in_an_inhouse_league_specifically/
Seeing this community from start has been quite a ride. The original objective of the league has been success for the most part. A lot of people are better dota players now than they were 11 months ago. A few examples are DCruelty, Jung and Kubo.
Here’s what things have come to
We’ve had two seasons with varying degrees of success. Both the seasons are vastly different from each other. Season 2 was more difficult from administration perspective but it was more team based. I personally did not believe it would work but it did. And people enjoyed for the most part (hiccups always exist 🤷).
Lately, there’s been a lot of non-dota activity happening which dampens everyone’s enjoyment. A lot of people think it’s stupid or w/e while some are passionate about the community and so dont want it go to complete shit. Both the perspectives are valid. I’ll attempt to go through behind the scenes in what happens in admin chat, why we take this much time and other inconsistencies.
Admin bloopers
Managing a community and administrating a tournament can be a lot of work. From preparing signup forms to coming up with guidelines to organising it in spreadsheets and making sense of all of it takes time and effort. Since all the admins have other responsiblites like Work or School/College, everything gets delayed to whenever an admin gets some free time.
For the most part; NA and SEA have been functioning independent of each other. We were clostest during Season 1 when we shared the in-game ticket. NA admins managed signups and player sheets for both NA and SEA in season 1 and 2. Season 3 has a lot of dissimilarities between the regions. SEA had the freedom to come up with its own way of tournament. So we moved on from google sheets to a 3rd party site for tournament sign up. While we built our region on the foundations of NA, we add quite a bit of flair to it. For instance, we use a more fairer and, in my view, more advanced system for point allocation. (thanks dudante and pikacu for that)
Drama through the ages
It was inevitable to be honest. We have 700+ members, it is just bound to happen. Some of the drama I recall can be traced to something really inane. People still get passionate about it. Some spats have been resolved in a more mature manner than others. Like the one between jags and bre. Shit got a lot worse due to miscommunication before they decided to join a voice chat and talk it out. They both realized their mistakes, apologized and moved on. Pretty mature of them if you ask me. What’s not very mature is the bystander effect which seems to always happen when there’s some quarrel brewing. Even worse, thew bystanders fuel the fire.
Forbidden words
I personally dont police anyone over words that cause societal problems – nigger/nigga, chingchong, Buk-Buk, &c. At the same time, I avoid saying them all together because we live in a global community and there’s really no point bringing them up in context of dota. While an average person from South Asia and South East Asia doesnt understand why nigger is a word with such a dark history in americas (no pun intended); he doesnot have to spam it to be edgy or for ‘muh freedom of speech’. This is mostly because we dont want to go the 4chan/voat way and stay focussed on dota. Again, I am not speaking against people using these words; context matters.
Code of conduct
It does feel like that sometimes. People who are in their college and even in professional work environment settings dont act like it. They want an admin intervention for every little things. I might ruffle some feathers with this one but I feel it has to be said. More often than not, people seem to forget the person behind the screen. They attack the person instead of his argument. Trash talks and certain bm is fine ; infact, I encourage creative bm. At the end of the day, we’re all dota players. Learning to let go all the little things will not only make you a more peaceful person, it’ll also make you more ready for professional environments in future. Dont take anything personally.
Regarding the actual dota
Y’all suck. I do too. Lets accept that and play to have fun. One of the reasons I insist on playing forgotten game modes is to keep the environment more casual. When people lose, they are more likely to blame the game mode rather than themselves and their teammates. Flaming unnecessarily is a waste of time and effort. Dont make dota 2 your life. If you really want to, cease your activity in BDL and grind matchmaking to make it to top of leaderboards. You might want to read this blog by chessie.
In essence
Admins are people too, like yourself. Dont be a dick. Dota first. Be considerate. Have fun.
Learn lots. Don’t judge. Laugh for no reason. Be nice. Seek happiness
— Sean ‘Day[9]’ Plott
Disclaimer: I have not proofread the write-up and have taken several breaks but I believe this piece is legible.
