Ouroboros

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About Ouroboros

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  1. I am quite surprised that there are so many people here saying they watch pro Dota without playing it, I'd be interested to hear what it was like getting into it / why you stuck with it until you had a better grasp on what was happening. I have almost 200 hours played on Steam now and I still feel like I don't really have much of a clue what is going on when I watch pro games, especially when they involve lords I've not played with myself (which at this stage is still like 3/4 of the total pool). The experience I go back to is American Football, as I started watching that about 5 years ago with pretty much zero clue about even the basic rules of the game, and even then I felt like I could at least follow the bigger moments and the general flow of the game even if the smaller intricacies were lost on me. Conversely with Dota, the big teamfights that often end up being the pivotal moments in games are among the most complex and chaotic to watch. One thing I think that would definitely help new viewers would be slow motion replays of these key moments so that the commentators can go back and individually point out the various moving parts and why they were important, which for me seems to get lost in the excitement and confusion. Having watched a few more pro games I have definitely come around on some of the points that were made earlier though, namely that differences in Dota broadcasts from broadcasts of other sports aren't necessarily a bad thing. All sports have their unique foibles that often provide a link back to their early grassroots development, and I think things like player nicknames in Dota and the more relaxed announcing style are great examples of that. I know Ayesee mentioned that he tries to avoid swearing due to his professional broadcasting background, but as long as it's not excessive not having that restriction can actually add something to the experience; I was watching a TI4 qualifier that Ayesee was actually casting I believe, and one player did an especially sick Rubick play (that even after playing back a few times I didn't fully understand what had happened, but oh well), but the co-commentators reaction was something along the lines of "holy fucking shit". Given that they hadn't been swearing constantly during the rest of the game, it drove home the genuine surprise and excitement that people who watch this stuff for a living can still have from just seeing a great play, and that's infectious. Certainly better than Joe Buck commentating the crucial play of the Super Bowl like he's reading a telesales script.
  2. To be fair both of those guys actually legally changed their names to be allowed to have that on their jerseys by the NFL and NBA respectively
  3. I should clarify, when I said "stupid gamer handles" I meant specifically the really dumb ones, not nicknames in general. I think it's a bit weird when it gets extended to the commentators and analysts being known by their nicknames, but I understand why it's like that and I don't have a problem with it.
  4. Great episode, and really interesting to hear Aaron's insight into the emerging world of professional Dota. As someone who is new to the game and has only watched a handful of pro games (the Free to Play documentary actually got me interested in Dota to begin with) I definitely agreed with a lot of what he said about making the broadcasts more accessible by simply being more professional; as someone who had never watched any esports before but watches loads of sport in general, I was both surprised by how slick and professional the presentation was at The International 3, but also the odd detail really stuck out and just pulled me out of it, stuff like the stupid gamer handles and the odd caster or analyst not maintaining that level of professionalism (protip: if you want to be taken seriously as an actual sport, maybe stop using the word "rape" to describe a sick play). But it is an incredibly young phenomenon and with people like Aaron who clearly have the right idea and care about the future of the scene this stuff can definitely improve. As was also mentioned though, I think the bigger problem is that the action itself can be just so incomprehensible to someone who hasn't played a fair amount of the game; I've played about 100 hours now according to steam and I still don't feel like I really know what's happening in a pro game. Another thing that struck me with the comparison to sports, most popular spectator sports are ball sports where the ball is the focal point of the action; anyone who has the most basic idea of the rules can at least follow the ball and know they will see most of the crucial action, in Dota you just don't know what you should be looking at. My final point also on the comparison to other sports is I think people need to be careful not to focus too much on American sports, especially when using that comparison to try and create a frame of reference for new viewers. As a British person who watches the NFL religiously and a bit of NBA too, American sports share a whole host of terminology and organisational mechanics which were initially pretty alien to me when I first started watching them, and since I get the impression that Dota is very much a global esport I think casters need to be aware of that. To be fair I've not heard Aaron cast enough games to say that he does that too much, and in the podcast he did mention using the term "hattrick" to describe a triple kill so I'm sure he is at least aware of it. Anyway thanks again for the cool show and the cool guest!