Clinton Loomis (Fear)
Danil Ishtin Dendi)
This was a very interesting documentary to watch which is all about the competitive gaming industry and how it effects the gamers lives and everything that goes into those final moments in order to win, now, a substantial amount of money. 10 years ago the competitive gaming industry didn't exist and just wasn't a thing, you would perhaps play to win a beer or a mug of coffee but it didn't really stretch beyond there. But this all changed when the internet was starting to introduce online free to play games, especially in the form of Dota 2.
This was a game of momentum where each team has five players and go head to head against another team to create this 5v5 death match. The main objective is quite simple, and is to destroy the ancient, which is like the opposing teams object to guard, and everything else in the middle is just pure game play that fills up the space where you can do anything. Dota 2 brings together the five players and you must work together as a team in order to succeed and this really unites people all around the world. You get many people that play for fun, but crucially they are there for fame, success and power above anything.
Gaming fills all competitiveness that a person has, much like sport does and this is something that Fear really wanted to do. He wanted to just play games, much like he had always played sport growing up, and really his mum believed that he would grow out of it, but this wasn't the case. He knew it was going to be difficult juggling gaming and education at the same time, and this can put an enormous pressure on relationships. Dendi from Ukraine used to dance, sing and was in a lot of musicals before finding video games, and Dota 2. He got a computer in 1997 and his family did everything to try and get him off of it, until they gave up and ultimately made it his choice.
In the beginning of competitive gaming the prizes for winning these tournaments where very low and remained about $10,000 and there was always a lot of scandal associated with managers and companies when they raised the bar to $50,000 and no one ever believed that it would go above there, but there were companies over time that ended up raising prizes to around $250,000 in the end. But then, in 2011, it was announced that the prize for winning 1st place in a Dota 2 tournament was going to win the team $1,000,000 and this completely turned everyone upside-down and they knew that they had to enter for a chance to win the grand prize, especially in Eastern countries in Asia. Over in countries like Japan and China, competitive gaming is seen as a sport and gamers are treated like Rockstars. They are very good at what they do and have so far dominated events like these as it means so much to not only them but their families as well.
But this was not the case for Hyhy. He got a lot of grief from his family about gaming as they believed that he would go to university and become rich and famous that way, and not through this competitive gaming industry. 1 day before the event the teams from all over the world start showing up and you can see from the audiences that attend that these events are huge.
Fear's team start off well in the tournament and do well at defeating the Chinese teams in the first rounds. The Chinese have incredible control and concentration throughout the tournament as they know it is something that is important to them. Hyhy also believes this, but sacrifices a lot to be there as he is missing several of his school exams to be there to win that all important prize money.
Its quite clear when watching this documentary, especially during the parts when the gamers family are shown, as you can see that they want to be happy but there is always that look that says I really wanted you to go out and get an education. This I can imagine is hard to deal with, much like it is in the sports industry. If you don't win, you don't take home any money. You can see that they are not the richest of people, Fear having an old monitor stacked on top of two books to make it the appropriate height for him to play, but it is the success of winning that really strives to bring them to these competitions and knowing that they can get that money at the end which makes them want to do it even more as they can help themselves and others with it.
Back in the competition and Na'vi, Dendi's team is up against Hyhy's team to earn a place in the grand finals, and Dendi comes out winning, but they do still have a shot later on. But Fear's team do not come out so lucky and get eliminated and take home $25,000, still a reasonable prize for coming 7th. He's disappointed but quickly comes to realise what he got out of the event and can now take that on board and do better next time with the support of his family as they come to see how good he actually is and start to be proud of him.
In the final day of the tournament and Hyhy's team are up against Ehome, a very strong Chinese team, who end up knocking them out and they take home $150, again a very nice amount of money for coming 3rd. Hyhy took out of the experience something quite different as he had a lot of disappointment that day with not only loosing in one area, but also by not going to his exams as he thought he could win here, he has to retake them and finish school, something that will definitely effect his studies.
So Dendi is the only one still left and his team have made it to the grand finals in which they are up against Ehome. Going in they started off quite weak, but managed to come back strong in the late game to secure that victory by taking a risk that was definitely needed. All of the odds were against them as a team winning as they seemed like the most unlikely victors, but they proved a lot of people wrong that day and managed to secure their team $1,000,000.
Fear now lives in San Francisco and captains US-based team Evil Geniuses. He no longer trains alone. And after the tournament he bought a new desk.
Hyhy is now pursuing his Masters in Business. He pays for his university expensives through his tournament winnings.
Dendi has become one of the most recognised gamers today. He has more twitter followers than the Ukrainian nation soccer team.
Its a strange concept the fact that these people will pretty through away there education to do this, but it proves that you can do anything if you want to enough and prove that you can do it. These gamers have been doing that for many years and it has just taken that long for them to find a use for there skills, which in turn could happen to anyone in a weird kind of profession like this, and is really only achieved through hard work, determination, and not necessarily thinking about the rest of your family until you have got what you want.
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