Gaming at Warwick: Dota 2 Society

In August, eighteen teams from over twenty nationalities came together to compete in the International 6, the largest gaming tournament in history. They were competing for a prize pool of over twenty million dollars, and the game they were playing was Dota 2. But what what is Dota 2? 

In Dota 2, two teams of five players are pitted against each other, with the objective to destroy the opposing team’s central structure (known as the ‘Ancient’) that lies within their base. The bases are connected by three lanes and waves of allied soldiers (known as ‘creeps’) spawn periodically to traverse these lanes and clash with enemy creeps to fight their way towards the enemy base.

Data 2 attracts some pretty large crowds, and even larger prizes. Image Credit: Wikimedia/Commons

At the beginning of the game, each player will select a single character known as their hero, which they will play with throughout the game. There are over a hundred different heroes, which leads to a huge amount of variation in the game. Each hero has their own unique skills and abilities, and as they kill enemy heroes and creeps they gain more experience to level up their skills. They also gain gold, which they can use to buy items to make their characters more powerful. The players have to use all these resources, and make the correct strategic decisions to take control of the map leading to them ultimately destroy the enemy Ancient.

Dota Society was set up only last year in order for members to develop their skills and meet others who are interested in the game. We have players of all different skill levels who play for different reasons and we open for anyone to join. Even if you have never played the game before, we have experienced players who would be very happy to teach newcomers so that they too can enjoy the complexity and variety of Dota. Dota also has a custom game scene, where players can utilise the Source 2 engine to create their own Dota related games to ensure there is always variety.

For those who are more experienced, we also participate in a number of competitive Dota tournaments. As mentioned earlier, Dota has a huge competitive scene with players who make their living off of playing the game. We took part in the UK Dota tournament King of the North last year hosted by the University of Manchester and took first place, winning prize money and gaming accessories. We are hoping to meet new faces too as we compete further in the future.

All this talk of ‘lanes’ and ‘creeps’ gets a bit confusing if you’re not sure what you’re looking at. Image Credit: Wikimedia/Commons

Every Saturday fortnight (starting from week 1) we host our Dota LAN in the computer science room. These rooms already have steam installed and have both high specs and fast internet speed, so you don’t even need to bring your own laptop. You just need to turn up from 7pm and we can get you logged into a computer and ready to play! We also order pizza and drinks to keep us up throughout the night.

On even-numbered weeks we meet up at the pub for drink or food and a catch-up. This is a great opportunity to meet others interested in Dota in a social setting.

During big Dota tournaments, we also book out viewing rooms where we gather together to watch the big games on a big screen.

If any of this sounds interesting, we would love to see you. Our first event will be on Saturday 8th of October. We will be at Socs fair on Thursday 6th of October, so please come visit us and sign up!