Home Gaming Even newcomers can prepare for Dota's International

Even newcomers can prepare for Dota's International

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TI4 prizes

The International 4 is almost upon us – starting from tomorrow the pre-events get rolling, building up to this weekend’s main events. There are a bunch of reasons to be excited for the tournament, especially since you can watch even if you have no idea how the game is played.

At the moment, the prizes are huge – the Second Place prize is equivalent to last year’s First Place. While the winners this year will be taking home a sizable $4.8 million, even third place will grab just shy of a $1 million. It certainly pays to play Dota 2.

There will be a variety of streams available for people to spectate The International in a range of languages. New features include Spoiler-Free DVR Broadcasts to ensure that if you watch after the fact the matches aren’t ruined for you, as well as a multicast – with multiple games going on at once during Phase 2 of the playoffs. This way you’ll be able to watch all the games at once, getting commentary on unexpected picks, big team fights and major plays.

However, the aspect that’s getting the most attention is the Dota Newcomers Broadcast.

New to Dota? Or maybe you play Dota but have never gotten interested in the professional side of the game. Welcome to the Newcomer’s Broadcast, an English stream happening alongside the main stream, featuring commentary aimed at easing people into understanding the exciting world of BKBs, tri-lanes, and counter-picks.

Don’t know what the different Heroes do? Not sure about how the items work? This broadcast should help new players enjoy watching the match without being made to feel silly for not knowing all the ins and outs of the game. I wish traditional sports did this – it was really hard watching cricket or rugby without someone with me to explain what was going on, and this newcomer-friendly approach is a fantastic idea.

Will you be watching The International? Starting tomorrow we get the Wild Card Playoffs. They begin at 9am California time, which is 6pm for us here in SA. You can also watch the Solo Championship and just generally get warmed up for the Main Events which kick off next Friday; there’s tons of awesome Dota to watch before then, so by the time the weekend rolls around you’ll know all the top picks and bans and be good to go.

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Last Updated: July 7, 2014

34 Comments

  1. Matthew Holliday

    July 7, 2014 at 10:32

    REALLY stoked for the multiple stream thing.
    newb streams look pretty fun, might just watch that to remind me about timings and stuff, touch base on basics.

    Reply

    • ToshZA

      July 8, 2014 at 05:27

      What me and my friends often do is watch different games, then talk about them afterwards. It’s actually quite cool, and if it sounds worthwhile we’ll download the replays.

      Reply

  2. Gerhard Davids

    July 7, 2014 at 10:34

    This is such a cool idea.
    We used to watch the normal matches and have to supplement commentating for friends that are new to the game.

    Reply

  3. Brendyn Zachary

    July 7, 2014 at 10:38

    I really hope they don’t put Ayesee or Tobiwan on the noob stream, their poor speakers…

    Reply

    • Willem Van Wyk

      July 7, 2014 at 10:50

      I watched a purge video this morning and he said he is apparently doing the noob stream.

      Reply

      • Brendyn Zachary

        July 7, 2014 at 11:27

        I watched Purge videos when I was getting into DotA so good move actually.

        Reply

        • Willem Van Wyk

          July 7, 2014 at 13:46

          Yeah definitely, I use to play DotA 1 for years and watched his vids to get my up to speed when I started DotA 2

          Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        July 7, 2014 at 19:51

        PFlax also just confirmed that he’ll be doing it with blitz and sunsfan
        so we can either expect a 4 man cast, alternating dual casts of purge + blitz & pflax + sunsfan or both casts running at the same time to cover the different skill levels.

        Reply

    • frikkenator

      July 7, 2014 at 11:07

      GREEEEEEETINGS AND SAAAAAAAAAAALLUUUUUUUTATIONS! Can’t friggin stand him. He has gotten better over the past couple of months though.

      Reply

      • Brendyn Zachary

        July 7, 2014 at 11:28

        He is a bit of a “big personality” kind of guy. I like him though. I just hope they don’t put LD or Sheever on the finals.

        Reply

        • frikkenator

          July 7, 2014 at 11:33

          I dig Sheever, but I think the finals should be Tobi and synderen/Lumi. The best casting I’ve heard was Tobi and kky from Na’Vi during the qualifiers. kky has an insane insight into the game, and he communicates it well. Much more so than any of the other pros.

          Reply

          • Brendyn Zachary

            July 7, 2014 at 11:35

            Hold up. You like Sheever?! You should tell her that, she gets so much hate from the community. I find her boring.

          • frikkenator

            July 7, 2014 at 11:37

            After the whole EU hub thing everyone loves her! Yea she used to be, but she has improved leaps and bounds over the last 6 months, it feels like most of them have. Maybe they have finally figured out this casting thing. I find LD quite boring though.

          • Matthew Holliday

            July 7, 2014 at 12:01

            Everyone appreciates her.
            but no one likes the sound of her.
            Theres something about her voice.

        • Matthew Holliday

          July 7, 2014 at 12:02

          LD and Lumi will probably be on the finals again this year.
          LD gets over excited sometimes, but atleast its no “BLACK HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE”
          although tobi got the TI2 finals, so maybe its his turn to host finals again this year.

          Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      July 7, 2014 at 11:58

      yellow this is purge.
      hello, Im Pyrion Flax and Im back here on Dota twooooooooooooo.
      HelloImSunsfanAndJoiningMeAsAlwaysIsSynderen.

      Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      July 7, 2014 at 19:53

      purge, blitz, sunsfan & pflax have all confirmed that they’ll be casting the noob stream

      Reply

  4. Rince&pop

    July 7, 2014 at 11:06

    If you don’t know the ins and outs you are a NOOB!

    Reply

    • hairyknees

      July 7, 2014 at 11:29

      STFU NOOB! 😛

      Reply

      • Rince&pop

        July 7, 2014 at 11:31

        Your face is a noob dik!

        Reply

        • hairyknees

          July 7, 2014 at 11:38

          ORLY? WANNA WEBCAM BATTLE?

          Reply

          • frikkenator

            July 7, 2014 at 11:41

            gg ff report hairyknees for being russian

          • hairyknees

            July 7, 2014 at 12:41

            Cyka!

          • Rince&pop

            July 7, 2014 at 11:42

            If I webcam battleed you, you’d know you’ve been webcam battled! Yeah!

          • hairyknees

            July 7, 2014 at 12:41

            You win this time! 🙁

  5. DrKiller

    July 7, 2014 at 12:47

    wow that is pretty cool indeed…

    So tomorrow the stress starts… “Will my prediction be correct or not??”

    Who do you guys think will win the Wildcard Playoffs?

    Reply

    • hairyknees

      July 7, 2014 at 12:58

      I have a feeling it will be VP 🙂 other 3 teams are pretty darn good though!

      Reply

      • DrKiller

        July 7, 2014 at 14:01

        Its funny because you are the only person who agrees with me!

        Reply

    • frikkenator

      July 7, 2014 at 14:03

      I’m hoping CIS as I’m a fan of Black^, but VP is looking really strong.

      Reply

      • DrKiller

        July 7, 2014 at 14:12

        CIS seems to be like the big favourite and everyone is voting CIS… but i dont know… I spent some time this weekend to read up on them.. Black is the only guy who played in the internationals before, and thats only because he was in Mouz’s team.. I’m scared to vote for them because I’m not sure if those guys will be able to handle the stress… VP on the other hand has been a consistent team for some time now… I’m voting for them

        Reply

    • Brendyn Zachary

      July 7, 2014 at 15:48

      My Compendium says Liquid but my heart says VP

      Reply

      • DrKiller

        July 7, 2014 at 15:52

        Your compendium and your heart should say the same thing 😉

        Reply

    • ToshZA

      July 8, 2014 at 05:24

      I think MVP will win the wildcard playoffs tbh.

      Reply

  6. Micheal Justin

    July 7, 2014 at 13:32

    Yup! I’m not an old dota2 player myself, so I guess I’ll take a look (although it’ll probably be explainations about last-hits, denies, etc…). It’s a good thing that they’re willing to get more people interested, and educated about the game!

    Reply

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