At this moment, there are 385,000 people playing Dota 2, and millions more play it every day. Valve’s new documentary about the first major Dota 2 competition is a great peek at some of the players behind one of the world’s biggest games.
The basic idea behind the film basically boils down to “Dota 2 is a big deal“. The International is Valve’s Dota 2 tournament, and when it was initially announced, its $US1 million grand prize was the biggest cash prize for a gaming tournament at the time. Last year’s tournament contributed 25% of the profits from sales of a certain item to the pool, driving the total prize pool up to a whopping $US2.8 million.
So the game is big, and it’s in Valve’s interest to advertise that idea. The film has a distinct focus on how everyone believes that professional gaming (specifically Dota 2) will become the Next Big Thing. But to Valve’s credit, the film manages to not feel too much like a commercial.
Free To Play focuses on three players, Clinton Loomis a.k.a. “Fear”, Danil Ishutin a.k.a. “Dendi”, and Benedict Lim Han Yong a.k.a. “hyhy”. The film does a great job telling their stories and showing what each player went through to get to The International, each player making sacrifices to get there.
You can pick up the film on Steam or iTunes, or on YouTube at the top of this post. It’s also currently looping for a few more hours on Twitch, along with Q&A from the premiere.
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