International Dota 2 Teams – The Importance of Communication
With the international eSports scene flourishing, the competition is consistently adapting new styles and compositions in an effort to outplay and outsmart their opponents. When it comes to games like Dota 2, occasionally in order to change a team’s dynamics and playstyle, one must adjust the roster of the team, as certain players may not gel with one another; which is why teams who are not successful in tournaments such as The International, will often disband or undergo major roster changes in an attempt to find perfect team synergy going into future upcoming major tournaments.
Due to this occurrence, one may often observe competitive players venturing to other regions in order to join forces with a foreign entity, equipped with a chance to redeem themselves and take another shot at the championship title. Essentially, this mix and matching of various players from different regions offers a unique style as each individual brings their own knowledge and set of skills to the team; which can lead to game changing plays and compositions being produced, as each region typically has its own unique meta which is always developing and adapting based on what style has the highest success rate at the time.
In contrast to the former, there are also potentially negative implications of having an international team with individuals from a range of cultural backgrounds and various spoken languages. One of the domineering factors of this being that a MOBA, such as Dota 2, requires extremely precise co-ordination and communication as the game involves split-second decisions which can influence the entire course of the game. With this in mind, imagine a team sitting at their gaming house, shouting out directions in 2-3 different languages, some members not even able to interpret what is being said. This would create absolute chaos within the game, essentially destroying any bit of synergy the team has, and thus, the team spirit; this has been the reason for many roster changes and teams disbanding in the past.
A SEA of Hope
One of these culturally diverse teams hails from the South East Asian region and are known as Team Fnatic. Formerly the squad known as Team Malaysia, after their roster adjustments with the removal of Lee “kYxY” Kang Yang, Fadil “Kecik Imba” bin Mohd Raziff, and Siong “JoHnNy” Tait Lee; who were replaced by Dominik “Black” Reitmeir, Djardel Jicko “DJ” Mamputsi and Wai “Net” Pern Lim. Notably two non-Malaysian players were introduced to the team in the form of Black (Germany) and DJ (Philippines).
Black first tried his hand in the Chinese scene following a disappointing 2013 International finish with his former team Mousesports. He competed in the 2014 International with the Chinese team CIS which also had a disappointing result and ultimately led to him relocating to the powerhouse squad of VG. Black had made a name for himself by now as one of the strongest and safest safe lane carries around, however due to issues with communication amongst the predominantly Chinese VG, Black was eventually released from the team indefinitely (confirmed by iceiceice reddit AMA). On August 2015 Black then joined the newly reformed Fnatic team, with the hopes of finally settling into a squad and producing some successful results.
With individual powerhouses on the team such as MuShi- and his mechanical prowess to Ohaiyo and his insane playmaking ability, additionally with Black’s notable lane sustainability and solid consistency, Fnatic are looking to work around the possible language barriers and communication issues having a German player in a predominantly Asian team may come with, and make waves in the SEA region.
With the ESL Majors ongoing, Fnatic were hard pressed to work their way up from the lower bracket after going 0-2 in the Group Stage; although impressively taking a game from the world champions, EG. Their first and last match was against the entertaining and talented team OG. Mineski who also represented the SEA region, made it through to the upper bracket after impressive upsets over Team Alliance, and EHOME. In the end they were also knocked out by OG.
As these two teams continue to campaign the International Dota2 circuit they will look to wrench the South East Asian Dota 2 scene out of the grasps of the other regions, in an attempt to demonstrate that they are a force to be reckoned with.
