South African Dota 2 players have been buzzing all morning after a reddit thread confirmed that South Africa will have local Dota 2 servers. Not long after, MWEB GameZone announced that they will be hosting these servers.
The South Africa region will be added to the region selection screen with Update 2 and we can expect to have a really good ping.
“This is another level reached in our ongoing mission to improve the online gaming experience for local players,” says Desmond Kurz, Online Gaming Manager at MWEB. “Local Dota 2 players will now have the opportunity to create new play strategies that are not apparent at the high pings that they are used to playing with on EU and US servers.”
Ping is something South Africans have been struggling with when playing online games on international servers, so an improvement on that is much needed for a better gaming experience. I don’t really find that playing with a 200 latency on European servers in Dota 2 bothers me at all, but it sure would be nice to have a 5ms latency, which is what MWEB got from their local offices.
Impact on the local community
I won’t say it was extraordinarily horrible playing the first Dota with the local community on Twilight, but it was extraordinarily horrible. All the old school Dota players know that Twilight wasn’t exactly a friendly place, and we all know that we don’t want to repeat that. So this time, I’m hoping things will be way better. Having regional servers for our country means that we’ll be able to play games with mostly South Africans without having to organise with friends or through channels, so if we don’t have local gamers swearing at each other all the time, this might become a very successful community for all of us.
Last Updated: March 14, 2013
Matthew Holliday
March 14, 2013 at 13:41
phew, we should have 2 or 3 days befor there are more russians than south africans on our server
but that will be 2 or 3 days of bliss
excited!
curious to see how much the community has improved in general, compared to the europeans.
time for SA to solidify its own meta game, our do gaming league team picks have been… unorthodox to say the least. would like to see a bit more consistency from them.
with the replay and tournament systems in place, it should be pretty easy to stay in touch with the european and american meta game while being able to play our own one.
Tarisma
March 14, 2013 at 13:55
The thing is some of those unorthodox picks have been fairly effective.
Matthew Holliday
March 14, 2013 at 14:10
unorthdox is not a problem, but unorthodox plays are useless when there is no local meta, because every play from every team is unusual.
wanting the local meta to stabalise is not a bad thing.
DeWet Lombard-Bovéy
March 14, 2013 at 14:19
Hi Matthew, The thing is for South Africa to create its own meta. We cant use normal consistent picks. The DGL picks are designed(in first division and premier) to be picked and played on the 200ms latency. Were most of the strats thrive. For us to have our own meta and own gameplay. It will be with different strats and different picks. For example. The picks and bans of EU vs Aisa (defence vs G-League) is completely different.
It is good for SA to have unorthodox picks/bans. That means we are well on our way to creating our own style of play. Its left to time to tell if our style can match up against EU US or Asia.
🙂
I agree hoping the local meta could stable is a good idea. But look at the first division and Premier. It has started shaping itself into a gang/aoe teamfight strat. having the Gyrocopter. running furion offlane. having that nyx pickup if possible. Running aggro trilanes. Certain trends have started happening for which I am glad. I think it will shape itself a lot more with local servers being used as DGL servers. the drafts will change quite a bit for the lower divisions. but for first and prem I think not a lot will change. Just some smoothing out.
🙂
Matthew Holliday
March 14, 2013 at 14:32
thats exactly the point, our metas picks and bans should be consistant/standard for us, but unorthodox to international to international.
i still see our premier teams being described as having a very chinese or european meta.
would love to hear our casters commentating on and about the local meta
I guess it will pick up once the local tournaments get more exposure, i can watch every match from the TPL or star ladder purely because theres a big button that says “WATCH NOW”
while having to remember when and who is playing in the DGL, in order to watch, is a bit difficult sometimes.
DeWet Lombard-Bovéy
March 14, 2013 at 15:12
That is very true. But I do think that in a year or so we will have SA tournies up there in the WATCH NOW section 😛
The problem is the DGL is a league and not a tournament. It stretches over more months than a tournament. and only 1 game per week per team. If they change the structure then it might be viable. The problem is we need big sponsors for that.
One thing I have noticed. SA games tend not to be long games. IE full asian meta. We like playing the Asian meta but tend to push through faster. and have a average pre 30 min game. even if the game was a rough one. So in short I think SA meta is a asian style draft that plays more mid game.
Just my thought on our style of play. 😀 Our team does play Asian style alot more than anything else. As I find it easier to contend with local teams with an Asian draft.
NoxvilleZA
March 15, 2013 at 12:09
Leagues can easily be put on the in-game calendar. We’ve approached Valve about this already.
Local meta’s evolve because of isolation from other teams & regions. Some of these meta’s are better than others (metagaming at it’s core is recursive), and this is apparent when meta’s collide (such as at international events). I don’t see why South Africa should necessarily create it’s own metagame, or why that’s inherently better than following any of the other very strong and consistent metagames that exist in NA/EU/SEA/China.
Admiral Chief Erwin
March 14, 2013 at 13:52
I stopped playing since Saturday, filthy Euro/Russian community. I’m glad I can start playing again this weekend, WITH BETTTTTARRRR PING……muahahahahahahahaaaaa
Kobus Nel
March 15, 2013 at 15:48
Might just join you there 😛
ElNicko
March 14, 2013 at 13:53
so when are us League of Legends players getting our own servers ??
Graeme
March 14, 2013 at 14:58
Now that would be awesome 🙂
gnusmas
March 14, 2013 at 17:14
do the dota 2 thing.. same game just higher skill required.. once u get going (ignoring flames ofc) its actually fun
Richard Kuiper
March 14, 2013 at 13:55
Only going to play local tournaments and clannies on local servers. If we all play on local servers our level of Dota will never increase.
Matthew Holliday
March 14, 2013 at 14:15
No, but having a few games with 9 other people that dont say “blbl xaxaxa” is pretty appealing every now and again.
Yolanda Green
March 14, 2013 at 14:24
I can honestly say that playing on EU servers doesn’t really boost my skill, specially when you have 3 complete newbies in your team and get hammered by a clan stacking against you… I probably have a chance to better myself in one out of every five games 🙁
Eric Viljoen
March 14, 2013 at 14:32
Indeed. It’s frustrating to play with a drow, babysitting her, letting her last-hit on creeps just for her to end up with a yasha and treads or even worse… auto attacking
Yolanda Green
March 14, 2013 at 14:35
and just try playing a support hero to a team that fails…
Richard Kuiper
March 14, 2013 at 14:46
I only play with a team of 5 people, otherwise it is just not worth it. Since playing on EU my skills have been boosted 10 fold. Playing on the EU servers was the best thing to ever happen to me.
Tarisma
March 14, 2013 at 15:19
i know the feeling, Dazzle FTW.
Yolanda Green
March 14, 2013 at 15:20
Worst.ever. And Dazzle can be such a win hero >.<
Tarisma
March 14, 2013 at 15:30
I know right, had such a fun game last night Dazzle and Axe in a lane. Was crazy
Matthew Figueira
March 14, 2013 at 15:23
Not only that, try playing a carry in a team that fails 😛 ermagerd! LOSE LOSE all the way if you are the lone wolf :'(
gnusmas
March 14, 2013 at 17:12
just play cm.. takes a while to get started but worth it in the end IMO. still get same amount of noobish acts on twilight gaming..just the match up system that is causing the perma russians in all the games
Tarisma
March 14, 2013 at 14:03
some names on twilight spring to mind when i read “wasn’t exactly a friendly place”
Matthew Holliday
March 14, 2013 at 14:12
Go Ganymede!
Eric Viljoen
March 14, 2013 at 14:33
Gany se ****(ouma).
Paul Fouche
March 14, 2013 at 14:06
hahahaha now we will see the true colours of south african gamers…
vloeking each other and demoralizing new comers .. been there done that… burnt the T shirt
Eric Viljoen
March 14, 2013 at 14:33
We aren’t that much worse when you compare us to the US players. They’re either really mellow, or really elitist.
Edwin le Roux
March 14, 2013 at 14:07
Lets hope it becomes a friendly environment for new players.
Paul Fouche
March 18, 2013 at 10:56
whaha doubt that
Weanerdog
March 14, 2013 at 14:10
Wouldn’t play any online games on local servers, the high ping is my only excuse for lack of anything resembeling skill.
Sir Rants-a-Lot Llew
March 14, 2013 at 14:11
This site is just full of good news today 🙂
Valshen
March 14, 2013 at 14:44
Oh yay, can get sworn at in Afrikaans a lot more now. Bit worried about playing 5ms games for a night then playing 200+ the next evening, will see what happens.
Richard Kuiper
March 14, 2013 at 14:47
That was my only concern.
Matthew Figueira
March 14, 2013 at 15:22
But Garth, I never swear at you in Afrikaans! 😛
Yeah it will be an interesting adjustment. Its going to feel SOOOOOO good going from 200 -> 5ms. If its the other way though, the lag we have gotten used to is going to feel like a freaking anvil of DOOM!
Tim Leeroy Jenkins Sterne
March 14, 2013 at 15:17
i do think the skill level overseas is higher. but im sure with a local SA server maybe it will entice new guys to play. Shows that RSA is coming up in the online community 🙂 catch you online (and please dont pick Drow thats just a buzz kill)
Tarisma
March 14, 2013 at 15:19
and riki
Yolanda Green
March 14, 2013 at 15:21
or Zeus the kill thief 😐
Matthew Figueira
March 14, 2013 at 15:22
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!
Matthew Figueira
March 14, 2013 at 15:24
Going to be able to play juke heroes a lot better now hopefully ^
jGLZA
March 14, 2013 at 16:08
Guys its PC, it will never be a friendly environment.
Weerwolf
March 15, 2013 at 08:32
You guys reckon the cap usage will be a bit less intense? Stopped playing dota 2 since it used about 100MB for a 45min game. How is the cap usage these days?
Oethman Khan
March 15, 2013 at 09:23
aaaah man, how am i going to break the dota 2 addiction now!!
Kobus Nel
March 15, 2013 at 15:17
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4fwbaUiJJ1qkqwol.gif
Alex Rowley
March 16, 2013 at 15:29
I hope that this brings more support for other games to host local servers. It would be great to play planetside 2 or guild wars 2 with out the lag.