u/ShoppingPractical373

Whenever this sub tries to explain the downfall of chinese Dota, it’s always “league of legends,” “wings curse,” “matchfixing,” or “gaming laws.” But nobody ever mentions one of the biggest reasons (because of course many of yall never actually engaged with the chinese community), that is the mobile game Honor of Kings.

For SEA frogs this is the Chinese equivalent of mlbb, made by tencent (the same company that owns riot games btw). In fact it is the most profitable mobile game in the world, with 1.68 billion USD annual gross in 2025, surpassing roblox.

And the local esports scene is massive too. The national championships had 60k live audiences, filling up the entire beijing olympics arena shown in the picture above. They can literally field entire academy teams where the players are all around the same age as Satanic. When the game is installed on every 15 year old's phone everything looks so easy, yeah?

I don't see how dota2 can compete with this. Even the league scene is struggling to keep up.

My man will not miss TI on his home soil. In fact he will be at the stadium as the biggest xg hatewatcher we've ever seen. Oh do you guys really think you're making it to the ti finals without me? Let's see who's the real evil genius.

This was from his stream last night (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2836821926, 5:29 onward):

"I feel like no team has identity, maybe Falcons with ammar and malrine. Like what about BB or OG? What's special about them? They just play normal stuff. There's no special teams to follow. Except Falcons I guess. Falcons has a lot of hatewatchers and fans. I would say they are the only team that has some personality. Other teams are just the same. Also when it comes to picks they have some special heroes. Maybe its just the meta that forces people to play the same. Or its just people aren't creative enough to try to figure out something else. People are lazy"

I don't necessarily agree with his take because we do see interesting teams like falcons, vici and lgd even if these interesting teams aren't winning all the time. Still I think something's off rn.

Data compiled by datdota

Mars in 7.41 compared to other offlane heroes:

• Is the second-least played in pro games
• Has the lowest winrate (39%)
• Has the second highest number of deaths (axe is first lol)
• Has the lowest KDA and GPM
• Deals the second lowest damage per min (despite being a hero who's identity is to "burst" someone)

This is from a sample size of like 400 games so take that for granted

Here's a cgi promo shot from 2019. Can the next shanghai ti capture the same magic?

Context is doinb stream.

Translation: "According to inside sources, several Korean orgs are looking to form Dota 2 divisions for next year’s EWC. However, they are unlikely to field Korean rosters. They might follow a model similar to LGD’s by buying out existing teams. Maintaining a Dota 2 roster is relatively cheap, and EWC offers a big prize pool which can be lucrative. This is especially true for Korean orgs, which are already backed by rich parent companies."

Also I noticed that Rune Eaters (shown in picture) are already sponsored by KIA, the Korean automobile giant who's also the parent company for the org Dplus KIA.

For SEA fans, will we be seeing a return of T1 to the Dota2 scene?

Other notable teams to watch out for:

Czechia: Saberlight and Boom

Romania: w33 and bone7

Lebanon: omar gh noob

France: Ceb

Belgium: davai

UK: teaguv (lol)

Peru: playtime + tailung

Australia: kpii, ana

Also philipines, Thailand

Do you recognize each of these pictures?

And half of them don't even have gunpla kits. I want them NOW.