My experience at BLAST Slam 4 as a Dota 2 esports journalist — A full breakdown
Patrick Bonifacio
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In 13 years of being an esports journalist, I’ve never once felt particularly valued as a member of the press in the Dota 2 scene. I attended The International 2014 (TI4) as a journalist, but it never felt like Valve facilitated interview opportunities. I got a grand total of two, and one of them happened only because I was able to pull a player off to an empty part of the stadium for a quick, impromptu chat.
Fast forward to TI11 in 2022 which I went to as a writer for Hotspawn, and nothing much had changed. It was still the same system as at TI4, and I didn’t get to talk to a single player the whole tournament. It was at that point that I really began questioning whether or not things would ever improve in this regard.
So, I’m sure you’d understand why I was initially wary of flying to Singapore for BLAST Slam 4. I had not done face-to-face interviews in over 10 years, and I was ready to be disappointed once more at the lack of interview opportunities. But this time, things were very, very different.
The interview experience
I have to hand it to BLAST: they killed it in terms of media support for their first arena-based Dota 2 event. Instead of just throwing members of the press to the wolves, they actually scheduled interviews on request. I can’t stress enough how helpful this was, and how it made getting interview appointments much, much less intimidating.
Image credit: Shaun Lee, BLAST
After all, it’s hard not to feel like you’re simply bothering teams and their managers by calling them personally. I know it’s just me doing my job at the end of the day, but it’s still not great for a budding journalist to get on anyone’s bad side. Just the fact that I could talk to someone from the tournament organizer to get interviews was a massive boon, and helped me prepare substantial questions well ahead of time.
Knowing all that, I departed from Manila on November 4th confident that I would get to talk to the players I asked to sit down with, and that I’d have plenty of relevant questions to throw at them when I got there. True enough, BLAST’s media day went about as smoothly as I’d hoped the next day, with me getting five interviews right off the bat before the tournament had even started.
In order, I had the privilege of chatting with the following players inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium:
Out of all of them, I definitely enjoyed talking to MoonMeander the most. I really had to keep my cool in front of one of my favorite gaming personalities of all time, but overall, I think I did pretty well for someone who was freaking out internally.
I’ve been following MoonMeander since I was in my senior year in high school, and it took every ounce of my concentration to not just stumble over all of my words and choke. And, well, I still did anyway, but what can you do (other than your best) when you’ve not had a chance to do this in more than a decade? Still, with BLAST’s help and the preparation I’d done beforehand, I came away from media day satisfied with the results.
Into the arena
With most of the heavy work out of the way, it was time to enjoy some Dota in the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Since I had already been here before after attending TI11, I didn’t have to get my bearings inside the venue, and I was able to just sit down and find some good spots for some video footage and photos of the crowd and arena.
Image credit: Shaun Lee, BLAST
Speaking of the crowd, the first day didn’t attract a huge audience, which I expected. It was a Friday afternoon in one of the most overworked countries on the planet, so it didn’t really come as a surprise that not many were there. Things visibly improved on Saturday and especially Sunday, though. Regardless, the famous Southeast Asian Dota atmosphere was palpable, and something that you just have to be there to experience yourself.
Getting up close and personal with the stage was less pleasant than I’d hoped; the big screen was far too close to the front row in the VIP section. By the end of each day, I could feel the back of my neck complaining. BLAST did what they could given that they also had to maximize the available space on the first floor of the arena, but yeah, it wasn’t ideal.
As for the press room, I had little to complain about. There was a projector inside showing BLAST’s own live stream, and it was plenty comfortable for those that wanted to get their work done. There was a more-than-adequate amount of refreshments, too. The only thing that I felt could have been better was the food for press crews. Each day, we were only given Subway sandwiches. It’s certainly not nothing, but BLAST absolutely could have done better in this department.
Image credit: Shaun Lee, BLAST
Getting interviews during the event proper was a breeze. For those not in the know, BLAST employs what they call the Mixed Zone in the backstage area of any arena-based LAN that they host. Players are required to walk through the Mixed Zone after each series, and are encouraged to take interviews with members of the press.
This made it a cinch to secure post-match interviews with the likes of Melchior “Seleri” Hillenkamp and Matthew “Ari” Walker. I even got to talk to some talent like Natalie “NatTea” Mahoney and Quinn “Quinn” Callahan. And for the first time in my life, I felt like an actual reporter in the field. It made for a wonderful experience as a journalist, and I’m hoping to attend more editions of BLAST Slam in the future just to work the Mixed Zone again.
Absolute cinema
By third day, fatigue was starting to creep in. I wasn’t exactly working super late nights at BLAST Slam 4, but running around getting as many interviews as I can while getting videos and photos of the event made for a tiring weekend. My energy levels were manageable, but I was starting to feel some exhaustion towards the end.
Image credit: Shaun Lee, BLAST
The grand finals made it all go away. We got five full games in the best-of-five championship match, with the final game in particular being a serious contender for game of the year as far as Dota 2 is concerned. The atmosphere was absolutely electric, and the Singapore crowd did not disappoint.
I even got to witness history right there, in the arena. Games 4 and 5 had the same exact drafts and bans, in the same order. That has never happened in a tier 1 grand final before, and it was cool to see both Falcons and Tundra lean into it for the fans.
Just the third day alone reminded me just why I do this for a living. Games come and go, but Dota is truly forever, and such a scintillating grand final match punctuated that even further. And while it hadn’t been that long since the last live event that I attended as a journalist, BLAST Slam 4 restored a lot of my passion for being boots on the ground at actual tournaments.
Huge thanks to BLAST for accommodating me, and to Hotspawn for sending me to Singapore in the first place. I left the Lion City with my heart full, and my hopes high for the future. Hopefully, this is the first of many for me under the Hotspawn banner.
Patrick has been playing Dota since the dawn of time, having started with the original custom game for WarCraft III. He primarily plays safe lane and solo mid, preferring to leave the glorious task of playing support to others.
