INTERVIEW:
Lari "D.Devil" SyrotaHi Lari. A pleasure to have you here with us. The Dota 2 community might be a little unfamiliar with you. Would you mind introducing yourself?
- "Hey! I'm Lari, also known as D.Devil – and I just started working for ESL, as a product manager for the RaidCall EMS One. My roots aren’t in the Dota 2 community; I used to run a somewhat successful German organization called hoorai a while ago. I’ve always tried to keep an eye on all relevant esports titles though, so I'm not exactly new to Dota 2 either."
I am sure you have been following ESL even before you joined right? It has never really focused much on DotA during its Warcraft 3 days bar a few small ESL Major Series. Would you know why was that, and what changed since?
- "Quite a few people here at ESL are avid DotA gamers themselves and have been following the competitive scene since its early days – yet, you'll understand that a commitment to Dota 2 that substantially benefits the community's growth and, at the same time, works out for the ESL, can't happen overnight. What we announced as the RaidCall EMS One is the result of lots of small steps and long-term-oriented thinking."
RaidCall EMS One is the result of lots of small steps and long-term-oriented thinking
Are those same DotA gamers responsible on the Dota 2 tournament organization, and are there any renowned names from the community who will be running the admin-side of the show? or will ESL start fresh with a lineup of all-new faces for this event?
- "Sure they are! Besides the ones who are passionate about the game but mainly get involved with esports in its entirety, you'll also find a few faces the Dota 2 community is familiar with – not only in the background, but in front of our ESL TV cameras as well. This being said, we are always searching for experienced and committed people for our admin staff. Anyone who's interested can find more information on the ESL website."
Going back, there were a lot of controversies surrounding the previous ESL DotA tournaments. Players have given testimonies that the prizes were paid after very long delays and that tourneys were relatively badly organized. What actions will ESL take to make sure this won't happen again?
- "It's unfortunate that people had negative experiences with the ESL in the past, but I can assure you that this won't happen with the RaiCall EMS One. We recently added some really experienced people to our team, specifically for this tournament. As for prize money, while there have been issues in the past we have paid out about 1.7 million Euro in the last year alone and more than 10 million Euro since Turtle was founded, so there is no need to worry."
That is good to hear. Now let's talk more about the tournament. It is reported that the tournament will be streamed via ESLTV. Right now, there is a big pool of Dota 2 casters. Who is your favorite, and who is the most likely pick to cast the ESL EMS One?
- "Actually, there are going to be some news regarding this very soon. We hired a new full-time caster for ESL TV and will disclose his name shortly. Besides that, there will be additional broadcasts by several of our partners. I can't provide you with more details yet, but I can assure you that the production quality is going to be pretty high!"
Oh wow. That is very exciting. Preference question - Where would you rather want the audience to watch: on the stream or in-game?
- "This should be obvious! We’re working very hard on setting up high-quality broadcasts for every single event of the RaidCall EMS One and we’d love to see that the effort was worth it. It should come as no surprise that the audience numbers on ESL TV will influence our evaluation of the tournament's success as well as increase our chances to bring additional partners onboard. This doesn't mean that we aren't happy about everyone who decides to follow the EMS One via DotaTV though! As long as the Dota 2 community enjoys what we’re doing, we’re happy, too."
The tournament format was particularly designed in order to foster the growth and the stability of the Dota 2 community- "The tournament format was particularly designed in order to foster the growth and the stability of the Dota 2 community. Thus, we made sure to develop a system that is open, transparent and, at the same time, makes a determined effort to bring the stars into the spotlight. With our system, the established top-teams will have to compete with success-hungry challengers from the A-Series if they want to secure their position as one of the eight Pro Teams – and they also serve as anchors for the purpose of creating a consistent storyline throughout the entire season."
Since you mentioned the A-Series, what exactly is it? What makes it different from a ladder or something of that kind?
- "Basically, the A-Series is a sophisticated league format in which the participants can pick their own match dates. Opponents are only assigned right before the match, and points are earned or lost depending on the teams’ relative ranking. Participants can frequently ascend or descend to another division which makes it possible for strong teams to get to the very top within a short time span compared to more traditional models. At the same time, the A-Series also offers a great experience to less skilled teams."
From the format, it appears that four American teams from the A-Series will have an auto qualification to the group stage while the European teams from the A-Series have to go through the cups. Why the advantage?
- "The RaidCall EMS One is a EU-based tournament in the first place, and its schedule was created with a European audience in mind. Nonetheless, we listened to the vocal feedback from the US community that felt excluded and decided to do something about it. Before we establish something that adequately caters to the American market in the next seasons, we decided on a temporary solution: While the RaidCall EMS One is still a Europe-centric tournament, US teams may also participate despite obvious disadvantages related to match dates and pings. However, having them participate in the regular season of the tournament, where a team has to play up to three matches a day, would not be feasible and might have caused substantial delays to our tight schedule – if the teams were able to participate at the said dates at all. Thus, the four American teams that have proven their skill facing European teams in the A-Series directly advance to the playoffs. In the future seasons, we are confident that we will be able to present you with another solution which features a component that is custom-tailored to the US audience."
It's not only in our interest to have the best American and Asian teams in our tournament, but also to involve the local Dota 2 fans."- "Yes, it's certainly our plan to involve other regions as well. Yet, you have to understand that when working on such a large-scale project, things take time. We don't want to rush anything as it's not only in our interest to have the best American and Asian teams in our tournament, but also to involve the local Dota 2 fans."
The community will be looking forward to that. All are probably itching for a tournament (other than TI) where Eastern and Western teams can compete together. Now, this league is considered quite a big event in Dota 2's calendar. Don't you think a best-of-one, single elimination format doesn't do it justice? What do you think about the double elimination format?
- "Fairness is a top priority for us. Yet, it's impossible to host a two-day online cup with 32 participants using Best of Three. We are convinced that, due to the nature of our tournament format, the impact of Best of One is minimal – after all, teams have four opportunities to earn cup ranking points and after that, a crisp group stage will bring the best teams to the top. Please keep in mind that the offline finals will be played with Best of Three. As for double elimination, it has multiple disadvantages compared to single elimination: It dilutes the storyline and decreases the entertainment value of each particular game, especially the grand final."
About the offline finals, it has already been released when it will be played. any news where it will be played?
- "Not yet! We'll announce the location of our finals when the time is right."
Are there any plans for Dota 2 to be included in the prestigious Intel Extreme Masters in the near future?
- "As I'm not directly involved in the Intel Extreme Masters, I'm not the right person to answer this question. IEM and EMS One are separate tournaments with different concepts – as for now, our priority is to create an extremely exciting RaidCall EMS One season. And then we’ll see."
That’s it for the interview. Thank you for your time.
