Korb3n on Dota 2: “Viewer interest is also waning. That’s a big problem.”
Team Spirit manager Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov and carry Ilya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk spoke on the team’s podcast about the Dota 2 Tier 2 scene and the monotony of tournaments.
On the monotony of tournaments
Yatoro: I think the main problem is that everything is too monotonous. Every tournament... Basically, there aren’t any, you know, memorable tournaments. There’s ESL, BLAST, and Wallachia. Well, they’re essentially indistinguishable in terms of how they’re perceived, except for the name.
Korb3n: You mean from the viewer’s perspective?
Yatoro: Well, even for the players.
On Tier 2 tournaments and viewer interest
Yatoro: Well, it’s like the most normal thing is just to hold some random tournaments on the Tier 2 scene—like minors, so to speak.
Korb3n: Yeah, that’s fine too. Yeah, everything was cool: majors and all that. I don’t know, well, it’s just tough. Like, you need support from the publisher.
Yatoro: They hold all these EPLs and stuff like that, but it just doesn’t seem like enough.
Korb3n: Viewer interest is fading too. That’s a big problem. I mean, like, a really big one. Last year, only the International drew a decent crowd. Everything else was just awful. I’d say there was almost a 30% drop in viewership.
Yatoro on the Ideal LAN Tournament
Yatoro: My ideal LAN: a snack room with all kinds of cold drinks, a coffee machine, and a team—you play from the hotel, so you don’t have to spend an hour and a half driving through Romanian traffic. And a LAN with spectators. That’s it.
Earlier, Dmitry “Korb3n” Belov explained the decision to appoint Ilya “Illidan” Pivtsaev as Team Spirit’s coach, and Ilya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk discussed why a coaching change has a greater impact on the team than replacing a player.
Photo by Sebastian Pandelache, SC PGL Esports S.R.L.
