League of Legends’ Clash tournaments are everything I’d like Dota’s Battle Cups to be
Competitive games like League of Legends, Dota 2 and Overwatch are at their best when you play them… competitively. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of fun to be had tooling around in casual play — relaxed environments are great for hanging out with friends, or just being silly. It’s how I spend 95% of my time playing those sort of games. That other 5% of the time though? Those comparatively brief periods where I’ve been playing with a full team of people who I know, all on voice coms, all trying their hardest to secure a win? Those are the times when those sort of games have truly shone as games.
Note that you can take part in a 4 team bracket on any day, but you’ll only have a shot at that full 16 team bracket if your team starts competing on day 1.
Got all that? Great. Now for why I reckon it’s an improvement on Dota’s Battle Cups, and why I’m hoping Valve might emulate Riot’s more involved tournament structure later down the line.
Here’s the first big problem with Valve’s take on how to run automated tournaments: nearly every Battle Cup match I’ve played has been a stomp. That’s probably got a lot to do with the way I tend to play in teams with uneven experience levels — because just like Clash, the matchmaking pits you against people that are all as good as your best players. It’s a system that penalises teams like the ones I play in, but I can see why both Valve and Riot feel it’s better overall than an aggregate score. A big enough skill difference can allow one player to run away with a game by themselves, and it’d be no fun to get matched against those players if you’re playing in a low MMR tournament.
There are a couple of other neat aspects that I haven’t mentioned yet. One of those is the way every champion which would have to be bought is unlocked, though I doubt many people will want to pick champions they’re not familiar with. More significant, then, is the ‘scouting phase’ before each match, where you get to see a screen that lists your opponent’s stats and top picks. It’s possible (and advisable) to do that in Dota 2’s Battle Cups, so that you can ban particular heroes or figure out which players are the scariest or more vulnerable members of the enemy team. It’s a fiddly process though, and I like how Clash formalises it into something more streamlined.
The multi-day structure also means its possible you might encounter teams you previously met, which gives a chance for spicy rivalries to form. That Akali and Camille roaming duo that tore your team apart a couple of days ago? Now’s your chance for revenge. click more details
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