This fucker is still around eh? I remember him single-handedly sowing discord in c/politics around the time of the election with incessant pro 3rd party spam and insane tirades of sealioning - also report abuse if I remember right. Or at least taunting people into breaking rules and subsequently reporting them. I was amazed at the time that he was allowed to remain unbanned for ages in that sub when it was very clear what he was doing.

I mean… maybe? Those are nice things of course, but if I wanted to start using an alternative to TikTok I would never consider something without an algorithm. The whole point - for me at least - is to waste time eating digital slop served to you by an algorithm so that you don’t have to know what you want to watch when you sit down and open it up. If I already knew what I wanted to watch I wouldn’t be on an app like this, I’d be searching up the video or subject on another platform.

Still cool, and otherwise would probably have been broken. But it would have been cool to have a parry for all ability effects!

Stance switching is always fun. Can the parry block abilities too or just attacks?

The amount of April fucking 1st videos that would now be indistinguishable from normal videos alone makes the idea of upload date removal outright dangerous in my opinion.

Wait YouTube is disabling upload date and view counter?

Didn’t he burn himself out on Dota and quit?

They gave an explanation on Reddit, but I’ll quote the full thing here in case you don’t want to give traffic:

It just became too much. We spent 2 years watching TI over and over, on repeat. We eventually reached a breaking point, where we had to decide to keep going, and end up resenting the greatest tournament series in esports, or to aim for a clean break with a good ending. We decided to do the second.

But we also felt like we had told the stories we wanted to. Things were starting to get repetitive. I mean, just how often is there a point to me telling you about pushing at TI4 and Wraith Pact at TI11. I understand it would’ve been cool to get to every hero, and I think we could’ve done a better job at selecting exactly which heroes we made videos about (I would’ve liked to get around to Mirana), but ultimately, I’m satisfied with the results.

To me, things ending on their on terms is a blessing. I rather get to choose and be in control, than get swept away by external forces.

Thank you very much for watching the videos. I hope this explains our decision a bit better.

I think Valve is completely hands-off when it comes to pro Dota now. They single-handedly organised the first five Internationals, after which they slowly and gradually started offloading more and more responsibilities onto PGL. That’s why it’s been a slow process, TI6 for example (considered by many the best TI of all time) was still mostly a Valve event.

Dota 2 probably isn’t high on the list of their profit sources but I hope they’ll still give a moderate amount of care to it.

I don’t think profitability is a major factor, to be honest. Valve gets enough money from Steam to do whatever they want, and they’ve demonstrated many times over that they’re not primarily motivated by making money when it comes down to what projects they choose to undertake - or not undertake, for that matter.

I think they used to be really passionate about Dota, and that passion is just not there to the same extent anymore. Valve employees are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want, and over the years I assume the amount of people who want to be involved with Pro Dota has dwindled.

There still seem to be enough people around that still care about the game itself, at least. It’s still getting updates and new content, so there’s that.

I’m happy Liquid won, I think the old HoN trio deserve it, I think Nisha really deserves it and 33 is of course a great player too. I’m glad the Liquid redemption story vs GG gave us at least one memorable story and moment from this TI, which otherwise has felt fairly bland.

I’ve touched on it before but TI losing its magic is very sad to me. It’s been in decline for a few years already, but it’s more obvious now than it ever has been that Valve’s investment in Dota is just not what it once was. This was the first TI Valve was fully hands-off with - from now on its 100% a PGL product and I think it shows.

I miss True Sight, it’s one of the best things related to TI. I miss seeing more of the games in front of a crowd (they even seemed to filter out the crowd noise?). I miss the Lategame with Pyrion Flax aftershow. I miss player profiles and video archive snippets (patience from Zhou!). I miss the All-Star games, despite them being goofy and sometimes terrible.

TI is just another LAN event now, and that’s such a shame when you think about the heights of what it once was.

We’ll see. Liquid just potentially threw the game there on that Dyrachio bait. After all the Liquid - GG finals PTSD I would never count out Liquids potential of crumbling. Also, Naga late game is a scary thing.

EDIT: seems I was wrong, thankfully

I was rooting like crazy for Tundra as it would have been so nice for me to have two teams I like in the final and I could just relax and not care about who wins. And it would have been nice to have a break from Liquid vs GG. And you have to give it to Tundra, they did really well to almost salvage that third game. Very impressive display by Pure again, as well as the supports clutching save after save.

GG played well though, they’re good and they have been for a few years now. Can’t take anything away from them, I just wish they were more likeable. Much like Falcons I respect their skill but have a hard time rooting for them.

I still think they will win it as Liquid choking in a final against GG is such a tradition I think the psychological factor will be huge here.

It may be the case that it wasn’t sustainable, but I doubt money is the factor. I think Valve is just less invested in Dota these days. Regardless of what is the reason, I miss TI feeling more special. I’m the opposite of you I guess, I miss TI being a huge festival of Dota. I miss the huge installations around KeyArena and Kaci talking to people around the Secret Shop. I miss the shots of people watching the huge screens outside on the grass enjoying a festival atmosphere. I miss the goofy All-Star matches.

TI just feels like any other big LAN event nowadays, which is a shame.

Falcons are out, which makes me happy, but overall this was a fairly disappointing penultimate day of TI. I wish we had more even back and forth matches instead of straight 2-0s. Liquid continue to impress with Nisha playing out of his mind, they have to be favourites at this point. You can never count out GG though - especially in a final against Liquid - so I’m hoping it will be Tundra taking the second spot tomorrow instead .They’ve looked really good today and Topson pulling out Diffusal Sniper was an instant classic. Also blows my mind that Saksa isn’t on any team right now, winning TI as a stand-in would be quite something. Wonder where he ends up.

I also feel like the production is a little… bland? Maybe they’re saving everything for tomorrow, but the crowd and arena and action in between games has felt lackluster compared to the halcyon days of KeyArena TIs in Seattle. I miss stuff like The International Archive, Remember When or even the superb Support Support. And matching the energy of the crowd in, outside of and around the arena in Seattle is a tough ask, I suppose. But I miss the amount of signs and costumes and Kaci doing the rounds.

I hope there’s at least something in the cards for tomorrow.

Sad to see Falcons beat C9, I really dislike that team and was rooting for C9 against the odds. I think the games today were similar to yesterday, in that C9 were so close to being able to compete at this level, but again were just outplayed and out-executed in both teamfights and macro play on the map. Also have to say I’ve not been particularly impressed with DM, feels like he is a weak link on that team. No[o]ne also didn’t feel like he was hitting quite the same heights of performance as earlier in this tournament. Watson looked really good again, though.

Falcons are really strong though and I’m not happy about it. But at the end of the day you have to respect their skill if nothing else.

It really sucks because it just doesn’t feel like Dota is a global game anymore, sadly.

I’m afraid that’s just reality. I think as far as China goes, a big part of the decline is due to mobile gaming becoming the de facto most popular type of gaming there.

The pro scene also feels very different compared to say, 8-10 years ago. I can’t explain in words how much I miss The Summit.

A revival would only be the appropriate term for Chinese and CIS Dota, to be honest. SA, NA and SEA scenes seem to have actually developed the last say, five years. Just not enough to offset the downfall of China and CIS.

Agreed! I really hope they take it against Falcons tomorrow (though it will be a tall order). Liquid and GG are probably playing the best Dota right now (and have been for a while), but C9 is definitely the team I enjoy cheering for the most.

You’re right about game one actually, 33 being a complete menace on SK did steal the spotlight a bit, and again there were multiple fights were it felt like C9 were so close to coming out on top.

Liquid especially has a bit of a record of choking in finals/semi finals so it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Though I hope they at least put up a good performance this time, even should they lose.

Liquid ended up taking it 2-0 versus C9, but there were moments during the second game where it looked like C9 could almost hold their own. I hope they stay a bit longer in the lower bracket, I still really enjoy their drafts and gameplay.

Liquid though, woof. They look unbelievably good right now and Nisha looks in absolute top form. Is he the best player in the world right now?