SVG and Cap shared their thoughts on the cosmetic sets in Dota 2’s “Dark Carnival” event

SVG: I like it. Basically, I’m a simple guy—it doesn’t take much to make me happy. I don’t like paying for all kinds of nonsense.

Cap: My experience suggests otherwise, but go on.

SVG: Well, you know, you’re not in every part of my life, boss. I don’t like buying really expensive stuff. I don’t like it when Valve spends too much time on some PvE mode that nobody actually plays. And I’m not a big fan of patches that completely overhaul the game, because I’m getting old. So it seems to me that there’s nothing like that here. So I actually like it. So I’m fine with it. Everything’s pretty chill, you know. I don’t get why people are complaining. I mean, they’re still giving you stuff 30 years later. This game should’ve died 10 years ago.

Cap: I don’t think there are many people complaining. In my opinion, most of the community is pretty satisfied. Personally, “The Fallen Crown” didn’t really do it for me to begin with. So “The Dark Carnival,” which is essentially just a new version of “Fallen Crown,” quite obviously using old assets from an event they’d already done and simply renamed it “Dark Carnival” and turned it into a version of “Fallen Crown,” doesn’t really inspire me. But, you know, if the community is happy, then honestly, that’s what matters—it at least stops their whining and complaining for five minutes.

SVG: You haven’t seen everything yet. You’re only on the first of three parts.

Cap: Well, look, here you said you don’t like that Valve is putting a ton of effort into a PvE mode that nobody plays, but it was in “The Fallen Crown,” and, as far as I understand, it’ll be in “The Dark Carnival” too.

SVG: These are much less time-consuming than, say, “Aganim’s Labyrinth.”

Cap: Maybe. But I strongly disagree here. It seems to me that these things are incredibly one-and-done, with the exception of “The Thorn Throne,” which was very good. All the other mini-games were extremely one-and-done. Take, for example, the Flappy Bird version in Dota 2. I mean, why are we even doing this? I don’t think the Dota player base actually uses it. Valve has data on how many users play it, but I can’t imagine that Dota 2 players play it very often.

SVG: But that’s probably exactly why they aren’t making PvE—because nobody plays that either.

Cap: You mentioned that you miss that festive feeling leading up to The International. Does the Dark Carnival give you that same feeling at all?

SVG: No, it’s a completely different thing.

Cap: But there are hats there. There are hats. They’re sold just like in the Battle Pass.

SVG: If I’m just playing Dota 2, I don’t even realize that TI is coming up in a month. Zero percent of that feeling. Maybe the lowest it’s ever been, to be honest. I think it’s actually harmful. It’s like it pulls you away from the pro scene and TI toward a more casual Dota, which is cool in its own right—I like that part—but it’s completely separate and different from what TI is.

Cap: Well, if that’s the case, it would be better to hold it closer to Christmas, and have nothing happen at all during the summer. Then the only thing on the agenda would be TI.

SVG: I really think this lowers my expectations for TI. Because you’re like, “Okay, we’ll just go play ‘Dark Carnival’ and goof around with friends,” and that vibe is the complete opposite of TI, where everything is serious. I don’t know. It’s really weird. I feel like something needs to change here. There should at least be some serious hype leading up to TI, not this: “Oh, by the way, The International is in China in a month, in case you forgot—and you’ve probably forgotten, because we’ve said almost nothing about it and done almost nothing to prepare for it.” Well, yeah, it’s already happening. There are qualifiers, but that’s about it. Did they even post a blog post this year announcing it or anything?

Cap: I think so. They had to—they needed to announce ticket sales and team registration for the qualifiers.

SVG: But other than that, nothing, right?

Cap: I see four posts: The International 2026, team registration, invites and qualifiers, and ticket sales.

SVG: Okay, maybe I’m just getting old. I’m just complaining. I don’t want to complain anymore; I want to enjoy life. Let’s look on the bright side.

Cap: The hats this year are really good. I really like the hats. I like the custom creeps and towers—I don’t use them, but they’re very well made. The idea of hero automatons is an interesting concept. And honestly, it’s a very profitable idea for Valve, because they can just churn out these hero sets. You could say that Ringmaster turned all the heroes into automatons, which means they can release a version of every hero like this and sell them for $16.

SVG: But you don’t realize where this is leading. If this catches on, we’re totally screwed. It’s a very slippery slope. Today you’re selling automatons, tomorrow—a crossover with Monster Hunter—and then the line blurs, and you’re already in some anime world with anime waifu versions of all the heroes. And you’re playing Dota 2, and everything there is pure anime style, as if I’m in Persona 6. Where’s the line, man? This is a really slippery slope. I just want to warn people about this because nobody’s talking about it. It seems like we’re already seeing it. I didn’t want to say anything, but we’ve already seen it with the Dark Willow skin. Everything’s already heading in that direction.

Cap: Remember when we talked about the draft and how Beastmaster was key for LGD Gaming? The most interesting part is that it was the upper bracket final. LGD brings out this Beastmaster who can flexibly play both mid and offlane. They advanced to the grand final and won the first and second maps with him. Then it went to a third game. For some reason, Playtime didn’t ban him, and LGD had the first pick—but they didn’t take Beastmaster. And, essentially, it was just a decision by kaffs as the coach. The whole team thought they’d be drafting Beastmaster because he was available, so they assumed they’d pick him. But he just said, “No, I’m taking Grimstroke.” And I thought that was pretty funny. How many coaches actually have that kind of authority—to just say, “No, it doesn’t matter what you think, we’re not doing it that way”?

SVG: If you’re truly a drafting coach, you have to have that kind of authority. And, in fact, you have to be that confident. If you’re just someone who listens to the team, then you’re not a drafter—you’re just a bot fulfilling their wishes. But you have to be able to say no to them and trust your own instincts, because your perspective is more objective and valuable than that of individual players—you’re looking at the game from the outside. That’s where a coach’s strength lies. I think that the more direct and controlling a coach is—if given that responsibility—the better the team will perform in the long run. Even if his ideas are individually weaker than those of the players—and this is almost always the case, and you have to deal with it, because a player always thinks he understands the game better, which may be true—his ideas are less valuable because he lacks an overall view of the big picture.

Cap: I’d also say that mixing in the ideas of all five players undermines the very concept of the draft.

SVG: But at the same time, it’s important to explain this to the team in a way that they’ll accept it, rather than creating a situation where everyone thinks, “My idea is better; I’d win with it—why aren’t we using it?”—that’s a more complicated problem. So I respect that. Although I still think he’s wrong, but the team won, so I guess they would have won no matter what.