Arkosh Gaming roster has finally been revealed and is now competing in DPC 2021-22 Season Winter Tour in Division 1, but should we be hyped about it?
It is no big secret that the North American region has been lagging behind most of its counterparts in both competitive Dota 2 and viewership. Other than Evil Geniuses and their big TI5 championship win, the region has mostly stagnated at best, is dying at worst.
So what's a regional native and Dota 2 representative to do?
Arkosh Gaming
Arkosh Gaming was created to inject rivalry and interest by Jake "SirActionSlacks" Kanner in the NA region in 2020 but this year they are competing in Division 1 of the DPC.
The team was comprised of five anonymous players, all of whose identities were kept hidden as part of creating hype and mystery. Content was produced that was ominous and foreboding in order to drum up more interest. Themes of demonic worship were created to spur controversy.
Mostly, the team was not taken too seriously and competed in Division 2 of the NA DPC league. Perhaps because it was the brainchild of SirActionSlacks or because NA competitive integrity was already at a low, only a handful seemed to really put up much of a fuss about the special rules of anonymity given to them. (Disclosure: tournament admins and other teams did know what players were competing - usually).
But now, with the team competing in Division 1 is it the same? Are they the heroes to celebrate, bringing hype and interest to the region, or are they non-serious contenders that shouldn't be allowed to compete in the space that aspiring pros are aiming for?
Same region, different reception?
In 2015 a stack of top tier and known casters was formed in order to compete in various open qualifiers for the Dota Majors and The International.
Vegetables Esports Club, including Capitalist, Merlini, Maelk, and Purge competed in the open qualifiers for the Shanghai Major. Only one team from the Americas (Spoiler alert: Elite Wolves) would make it to the closed qualifiers. Veggies made it to 3rd-4th place before being eliminated.
Their run caused quite a stir at the time. While others thought it was fun to see the casters compete, others were furious about the fact this stack was eliminating teams and acting as 'gate keepers' since they weren't going to seriously play in the closed qualifiers. They were 'taking up space' or preventing aspiring teams from the chance to compete in the regionals, gaining invaluable experience and exposure.
Each time they competed, it was the same mixed public opinion sprinkled all over social media platforms.
Various iterations of the Veggies stack competed through the International 2017 open qualifiers with their best run being for the Boston Major in 2016 where they got knocked out of the NA open qualifiers by European team ProDota Gaming consisting of Ylli "Garter" Ramadani, Malthe "Biver" Winther, and Alexandru "ComeWithMe" Craciunescu. (Incidentally, that's a story of and for another time).
Fast forward a few years, the same sentiment still exists, with the same arguments and the same public outcry on the same social media platforms.
This year when the bumble bEE's spot which was retained by the former manager was given to a stack including four women and Hotaruz as a way "to highlight the broken slot system as experienced by BnY last DPC" the outcry was the same.
Despite them being in Division 2, they were accused of taking up space from more serious contenders and others that were hoping to be able to compete at a higher level.
Many felt the DPC divisions were designed to help serve as a pipeline to being pro and as a ladder to stepping up competitive play.
Protagonist or Antagonist?
What does make Arkosh Gaming slightly different than the other two examples is that they ARE all former professional players from the NA region that have spent years scrimming, grinding, and playing competitively.
It could be argued that although they are currently all Dota 2 talent, it doesn't necessarily mean that was where they WANT to be/stay or that they gave up their dream of competing.
And let's face it, their lineup is more American than Evil Geniuses'.
Arksoh Gaming's first match of the DPC 2021-22 Season Winter Tour is against Evil Geniuses tonight at 21:00 CET.
They will then play Wild Card Gaming and Quincy Crew on December 8th at midnight CET and December 12th at midnight CET respectively.
Arkosh Gaming
Andrew “Jenkins” Jenkins
Jason “Newsham” Newsham
Brian “BSJ” Canavan
Jaron “monkeys-forever” Clinton
Kyle “Kyle” Freedman
