Valve’s US$3 Million Dota 2 Event Is A Disaster

After you’ve fired your one of your hosts, Gabe Newell himself came out to give the production staff the flick and your flashy US$3 million tournament has been a shambles throughout, what more could go wrong?

If you’re a fan, it’s pretty simple. You’ve sat through the faulty cameras, lengthy delays, technical problems in-game and the awkward, stilted conversations on the panel. You just want closure. You just want to see teams win or lose.

Unfortunately, those who attended the Shanghai US$3 million major won’t get to see that live — because the delays are so significant that the venue had to close.


If you’re making a list of things that would mark an event as Pretty Bad, not being able to finish a day’s play in time is right up there. It’s horrendous for players, fans and organisers, costs money, takes more time and is thoroughly embarrassing.

Although that wasn’t the only embarrassing part of the event: after a long 17-hour slog, it soon eventuated that there weren’t enough shuttles to transfer the players, talent and staff back to the venue.



So people started walking.



People were getting lost even before the event finished, as Complexity Gaming’s general manager discovered.



Things are looking up somewhat though, with players and talent praising the tireless efforts of the production team chosen to replace KeyTV after Gabe Newell publicly fired them earlier in the week. Here’s a member of the camera crew who didn’t have the energy to keep going without a nap.



And while the event has a lot of money behind it, you might not know that from walking around the venue. Check out the VIP Room. It even has chairs!



At least they had the ability to walk around freely backstage though. One of the members involved in directing the English broadcast was given far less.



Problems with the venue aren’t just located to the lack of amenities, either. Complexity’s offlaner and captain Kyle Freedman went on a rant late yesterday revealing how vast the drop in experience has been from the Frankfurt major last year to Shanghai:



If you’re catching any of the matches from today, however, just keep this in mind:


What a nightmare.


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