Is Esports World Cup Dota 2 the new show in town? Nah, TI still better

The grand final of Dota 2 at the Esports World Cup (EWC) concluded just two days ago, with Team Spirit claiming their second title at the event — the first one being Riyadh Masters 2022. Their victory over the hometown favorite Team Falcons made them the first ever two-time Dota winners at the EWC, which goes hand-in-hand with their two International titles.

Aside from lifting the trophy at the end, they also bagged a million dollars for their efforts. The prize money in particular has had the Dota 2 community at large asking the question: is the EWC now more important and more prestigious than The International itself?

“Beautiful Doto”, as they say

Before I get into the details of the Esports World Cup itself just as an event, I need to get this out of the way: the quality of the games on display was simply immaculate. From the group stage down to the elimination phase gauntlet bracket, all the way up to the playoff semifinals, the Dota being played at the EWC was some of the most exquisite I’ve seen this season.

Sure, most of the best-of-three series ended in 2-0 sweeps, but the both the tactical and mechanical aspects of the games were truly worthy of being called high level. I guess that’s what happens when the eight best teams in the world right now all collide in a sudden death bracket where the lone survivor wins $1 million, so there’s that.

Spirit ended up being in a league of their own versus everyone else by the end of it all, but the rest of the matches showed us just what Dota looks like when played at the absolute peak of skill and strategy. Hell, even when it wasn’t, like when teams would just fumble huge leads versus strong comeback squads like Spirit and Tundra Esports, the tenacity and resilience required of said squads to turn things around was always emblematic of what it takes to win and win often in this game.

A watered-down experience from there

Unfortunately, that’s where my admiration for the Esports World Cup ends. The rest of the event wasn’t anything near The International’s level, from the production issues at the start of the group stage to the frankly disturbing vibe of the Team Falcons “fans” that would show up in droves every time they played.

Tackling the production issues first, there was a point at the beginning of the group stage where the broadcast streams had zero audio for 40 to 45 minutes straight. Silencer really just cast his ult over the whole stream but for way longer than what a $3 million Dota 2 tournament should ever experience.

Sure, the Shanghai Major back in 2016 will probably forever be the most notorious example of things going horribly wrong on the part of the event organizers, but considering the kind of money involved in the EWC, there’s just no excuse here. The Saudi Arabian government is richer than God; they should figure it the f*** out if the event is supposed to be worthy of the name they put on it themselves.

Soulless encouragement.

Now, onto the very obviously paid actors that are the people in the Team Falcons cheering section. Where do I even begin? This part of the crowd is the least organic I’ve ever seen in more than 10 years of covering Dota 2 as a journalist. Whereas the other side of the audience at least had people wearing different outfits, the Falcons side was filled with people wearing what are likely freely distributed Falcons jerseys.

The celebrations just seemed weirdly coordinated. They constantly did football-style chants even during long, drawn out technical pauses, which no one else in the history of this game has ever done. Not even the Chinese delegation at TI does this, and so it makes the Falcons counterpart at the EWC feel like a bunch of zombies.

Those that weren’t just part of the cheering squad happened to be important members of the organization as a whole. Falcons co-founder and EA Sports FC player Mossad “Msdossary” Aldossary was seen in the stands leading the chants during some of their matches, but honestly, his presence there did little to make me feel better about what I was seeing.

It didn’t help that they would boo in unison whenever stage hosts like Neal “Tsunami” Khanderia or Ghassan “Milosh” Finge would interview coaches or players from opposing teams. In fact, during the interview with Tundra Esports coach David “MoonMeander” Tan, that’s exactly what the Falcons fans did when he was asked about the Arena of Blood bug that allowed Falcons to turn the first game around after being down 10,000 gold past the laning phase.

At least Spirit were able to shut these guys up in the grand final when they completely demolished Falcons 3-0. The fact that it was a clean sweep did mean that we were all robbed of a potential classic between both teams, but for me, I’m okay with it if it means that the crowd never gets into it. Which they didn’t, because about the only real thing they did was to be dead silent as they realized they had nothing left to cheer for.

The International still hits different

All in all, this adds up to an atmosphere that still can’t hold a candle to The International itself. TI magic is just something else entirely, and a $3 million prize pool (or even $5 million in the case of last year’s EWC tournament) isn’t going to change that. No matter how low the prize pool gets at TI, it always feels like teams try much harder there than any other event during the season.

It’s no surprise, of course. The prestige associated with the Dota 2 world championship is just on another level. There’s nothing quite like hoisting the Aegis of Champions at the end of a long, hard-fought journey just to get to the grand final. Teams might not earn nearly as much anymore as when TI10 shelled out more than $40 million in total prize money, but the optics don’t lie. The International > Esports World Cup. Enough said.