Riyadh Masters used to mean something
byu/Morgn_Ladimore inDotA2
Its a Dota2 shitpost of a previous post where OP was complaining about the lack of hype and prestige for T1.
Some of you might not agree with me but man, Riyadh Masters used to really mean something.
Year after year, we see the prizepool drop. I remember when it used to be a staggering 15 million. 15 million! It was almost enough to make me forget about the fact that the tournament is run by a brutally oppressive regime that imprisons and executes dissenting individuals. While watching those epic games, I barely thought about that journalist they killed on embassy ground and chopped up into little pieces with bone saws.
From 15 million at its peak, to a measly 3 million this year. 3 million. What a joke. That's not nearly enough money for me to ignore the fact that the Saudi government very recently executed a journalist for criticizing the regime. Or that they sentenced a female fitness instructor to 11 years in prison for advocating for women's rights. Or that they imprisoned a teacher for years for writing a blog critical of the royal family. Or that much of their wealth is built on a foundation of brutal slave labour.
You can also tell it has lost that old-school human rights violating charm because teams aren't even bothering to put out vapid statements anymore about how they really care about progressive ideals, but will still attend because money. Where is the hypocrisy? The virtue signalling? This is not the Riyadh Masters I fell in love with. It feels like they don't even care about sportswashing anymore.
I don't know, I guess I'm just...disappointed? We're not even important enough to pander to anymore. Maybe the pro scene really is dying, like all those innocent people locked up in Saudi prisons on trumped up charges.
Not sure I'll even watch this year.
TI used to mean something
TI used to mean something
byu/NoSwimming6937 inDotA2
Some of you might not agree with me but man, TI used to really mean something.
I remember when I started playing Dota it was the absolute best time of the year (not to discredit all the in game events we used to get). But u mean seriously I used to log on after school and build a fantasy team, try to predict all sorts of things in my compendium. There was a prize pool which was epic to track and follow throughout the months leading up to TI there was in game UI thematics revolving around TI.
After the compendium times came battle pass times and I know the dota community is the definition of the grass is always greener, but man I had no money back then but still managed to think it was so cool and still got the free rewards.
Some of you enjoyed the crown fall event I honestly thought it was super boring I don’t really enjoy reading all the stuff and just played the roll and got 2 arcana’s which is super cool, but literally anything to create hype for the biggest competition in E sports would be nice ?? Just anything to remind people that TI is just 2 months away, if I didn’t just check liquidpedia I wouldn’t know TI is right around the corner.
Obviously the games not dead but if there’s one event during the entire year which means enough in Dota 2 to garner some types of in game events or count down or hype or anything it’s TI. I feel like TI has been boiled down to a smaller event which doesn’t really matter as much anymore, largely because of the prize pool which is one thing, but even more so because of lack of in game content. Last year was alright but I honestly don’t think I ever looked twice at any sticker or player card I got. The voice lines were nice though but seems like that won’t be the case this year.