Today is a day where e-sports has established itself as a part of the entertainment landscape which can attract global crowds and shell out millions of dollars as prize money.
Games like Hearthstone, League of Legends and Counter Strike Global offensive have already had prize pools above the million dollar mark.
Dota 2 however, is a whole other animal that has reached a maximum of $24 million for one event, more than 90 percent of which was crowd-funded.
It’s safe to say that even though it might not have the most number of active players, it is currently the top e-sport out there and anything that happens in the world of Dota usually starts a trend.
A couple of years back, coaches weren’t really a big thing in Dota 2. It was only when the top teams added the position to their ranks and improved on their results that everyone began to contemplate the benefits of having one. It definitely caught on.
Currently, every team has a coach, may it be a scene veteran who still has a sharp mind but not the reactions, or an active player who just hasn’t found the right team to play with for the season.
If you look at football or soccer, you realize that a coach has an active role, communicating with players, changing tactics and what not.
But in Dota, the coach has always had a relatively passive role. Once the players walk onto the stage for a match, they were on their own, until now.
On Friday, Sept. 15, before the start of the new Dota 2 season, Valve announced that coaches will be allowed to be with their teams in the drafting stages of a game.
What is the drafting stage? In Dota, every team has to pick five heroes from a possible 113. What heroes are picked plays a big role in how the game goes.
The key is to secure the heroes required for your strategy and force your opponents into a corner, but it’s trickier than it sounds as they’re trying to do the same.
Until now, it was up to the five players to do the drafting. The coach will bring a calm-headedness to the table that may result in much closer drafts.
This is one of those small changes that have a big effect on the game. What remains to be seen now is whether the other e-sports will follow suit.
