Christie Murphy


Christe Murphy is a British writer.

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DOTA 2 = DAED GMAE?

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DOTA 2 = DAED GMAE?

Bleed Out

Like a stake to the heart of a pulmonary artery, DOTA 2 critics have been pointing to the games failing player numbers as evidence of the games ‘inevitable decline’ in recent years.

Nevertheless, YouTube superstar content creator Elwono, posting a video back in February of 2020, took on the critics of the acclaimed and beloved MOBA which has recently been embattled due to cancellation/delay of it’s biggest competition, the International (TI10) due to COVID-19, and the allegations of misconduct surrounding one of its most prominent commentators, Toby “Tobiwan” Dawson.

Elwono, referencing other videos made by some of DOTA 2’s biggest YouTube creators, Jenkins and the aforementioned Tobiwan, took on the now infamous ‘dead game’ meme surrounding DOTA 2. As well as the references to player base toxicity and long recognised problems in matchmaking due to higher skilled players resenting long wait times creating ‘smurf’ accounts to circumnavigate matchmaking rules in order to access and unceremoniously bludgeon lower skill brackets.



State of Play

Pointing to DOTA having hit a peak viewership of close to 2 million during last years TI19, combined with total hours watched reaching close to 100,000, as well as the near orbital trajectory of the International prize pool, which has increased from a meek 1.6 million to a breezy 34 million in just nine years, Elwono has fired back at the ‘dead game’ critics with revelations as to what he considers to be DOTA 2’s true state of play.

https://twitter.com/elitedarkw... order to battle back against the ‘dead game’ meme, Elwono has created the saveDOTA2withmemes movement, which he has carried to the DOTA 2 community and a large Youtube audience (270k subscribers) with his outrageously entertaining ‘Ranked Adventures’ videos. Some of which include such bizzaro strategies as building basher on the hero Dazzle, taking out de facto invulnerable towers by hacking Alchemist builds and much more.

Revenge of the Ancient’s

The meme has achieved a cult following, and made waves in the community, as have many of Elwono’s viewers and subscribers. The saveDOTA2withmemes movement has led to many people in the community, such as SEA Server Content Creator, Rizpol and WildSycther, as well as many others, taking to various social media channels to ask the question, ‘is it as good as DOTA 2?’ about topics as far-ranging Spongebob Square Pants, Star Wars, and much more. With some community members even going so far as to create accounts on rival MOBA game, League of Legends, in order to befriend members of LoL’s player base, before dropping the meme, ‘LoL is good but is it as good as DOTA 2?’ in an ingenious and apparently ludicrous attempt to poach player’s, or at the very least, get them asking questions about DOTA 2.

https://twitter.com/Daet_b/sta... Just A Pretty Meme

Not all fun and games is Elwono though, who is apparently a marketing wizard and analyst, as well as DOTA 2 content creator. In his video, ‘DOTA 2 is about to die,” which began the new movement and addressed critics, Elwono went in-depth into the matchmaking mechanics of DOTA, giving an analysis of the flaws, the smurfing issue and pointing to suggestions which could be made.

Only time will tell which side of the debate is right. But for now, the DOTA 2 community, as well as saveDOTA2withmemes movement seems, at the very least, to be making hay while the sun shines.