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National DOTA 2 trials taking place this weekend

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The South African national trials for the official DOTA 2 team are taking place this weekend at Wits University in Gauteng and 60 players across the country will be representing their 5 respective clubs.

This is in preparation for the upcoming Test Match against the Romanians, who are currently ranked 3rd in the world.

However as is usual when the MSSA is involved there is a bit of controversy surrounding the trials and subsequent team selection. The trials kicked of with an online competition section that started on the 6th of April and then the top players would be selected to take part in the national trials.

Those top players have now been chosen and in a sign of the growing power of the DOTA 2 section of the community a full 60 players have been selected to enter the trials.

DOTA2players

So so far so good and a huge congratulations to the top 60 DOTA 2 players in the country. For those of you who think you are better but didn’t enter because of your personal issue with the MSSA then shame, these are the top 60 players that are recognised in the country.

But no that’s not why everyone has their knickers in a knot this time. The thing that is annoying people now is that the official trials apparently need to take place in a single venue and since 21 of the 60 are in Gauteng the trials are taking place there.

So 39 players have to make their own way to Wits University by this weekend. These 39 players were only given a week’s notice and to put that into perspective, the cheapest flight I can find landing on Friday and leaving on Saturday from Cape Town is currently R1661. Throw in another R600 for accommodation and an extra R500 at least for food, and you’ve got an expensive weekend. 

So a Cape Town clan of 4 is going to cost close on R10 000 to attend the trials with no guarantee of any rewards; that’s a bit steep in my poor opinion.

There is a silver lining though, if your Capetonian side wins then the test match will take place from a venue in Cape Town so that’s something. I’ve asked Colin Webster for some feedback on why all players have to be at the same venue for the trials and will update this article if we receive a response.

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Last Updated: April 30, 2013

16 Comments

  1. Admiral Chief Erwin

    April 30, 2013 at 13:40

    No MattyFig?

    Reply

    • Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew

      April 30, 2013 at 13:51

      Aw 🙁

      Reply

    • Matthew Figueira

      April 30, 2013 at 14:08

      No ways XD Im not good enough! Started a new team though 🙂 so hopefully with some hard work we will be able to contest with the big guns!

      Reply

      • Admiral Chief Erwin

        April 30, 2013 at 14:09

        So are you calling your old team crap?

        Reply

  2. Slade Boender

    April 30, 2013 at 14:07

    No schedules? Game ID’s? Mew /:

    Reply

    • NoxvilleZA

      April 30, 2013 at 17:10

      The games haven’t been played, there’s no way you could get game ID’s pre-generated.

      I think the format will be 4 or 5 round Swiss, so the draws will only be available probably on the day.

      Reply

  3. Matthew Figueira

    April 30, 2013 at 14:09

    I don’t understand why they can’t just do it online. Sure its nice to have a meeting of the players, but I say the 21 here can go to the Lan, and the rest participate online if they cannot afford to fly up here.

    Reply

    • NoxvilleZA

      April 30, 2013 at 17:13

      It’s because of potential cheating (or so I’ve been told). They could just have sanctioned venues in each province, and people could play with their team online from these venues.

      Reply

      • Matthew Figueira

        April 30, 2013 at 19:36

        Yeah its a bit odd… I just think its unfair to those who don’t stay in JHB and now have to run around making provisions to get here and such 🙂

        Reply

        • NoxvilleZA

          May 1, 2013 at 02:28

          Yeah sure, but if the Cape Town qualifier was held earlier, and
          considered, it’d be fine. It’s weird how the top teams have to travel
          the most.

          Reply

  4. Henry Wilken

    April 30, 2013 at 15:08

    I’m guessing this is only for guys with teams. If so… I think they should try and change the trials in such a way that alone walkers like myself have chance to try out.

    Reply

    • Matthew Holliday

      April 30, 2013 at 15:26

      ofcourse its only for guys from teams, its not like the battlefield ps3 selections, where they selected individuals from teams, the winning team is the team that will represent south africa.

      maybe in the future teams will be selected out of individuals, but not yet.

      Reply

    • Matthew Figueira

      April 30, 2013 at 19:35

      Yeah I also think individuals should have been chosen. I mean, if for example the Bulls/Stormers/Lions/etcetcetc were the best team in the country, it doesn’t mean they would also be the national squad. They choose individuals to make the best team possible.

      Reply

      • NoxvilleZA

        May 1, 2013 at 02:31

        Stop comparing eSports to traditional sports. There are some similarities, but they are inherently different. Considering how the MSSA can barely choose the best team, asking them to choose 5 individuals is just a non-trivial matter.

        Reply

  5. NoxvilleZA

    April 30, 2013 at 17:08

    Yeah, the Western Cape qualifiers are also only in August (and Durban are also later in the year), so it’s a bit of a no-brainer that the trials are in JHB – with another 3 invited teams from Cape Town there’d be a majority of Cape Town players and the trials would be in Cap Town. By my count there are 24 Gauteng players, and there would be 27 if there was a Cape Town qualifier before they actually did selection: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjozEYKV4Y1KdGFjWEtZbS1YOEhKckdjN2tVWmhTNnc&usp=sharing

    The top 4 teams all participated in the qualifiers, but Energy eSports and Immersion.Bashers will definitely not be attending, Bravado definitely will be attending and ROCCAT.Verve are in the process of organizing their attendance (and should be confirmed later today or tomorrow). Given more warning of the event, all 4 of the top teams would likely have been able to attend.

    Reply

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