What does crypto’s presence look like in the Dota 2 scene?
Dota 2 is one of the world’s biggest games and it also has an awesome esports scene that can boost the game’s relationship with the crypto industry. When you look at Dota and its main developer, Valve, you can see that they love to innovate.
Valve is the company responsible for Steam which is the biggest PC gaming platform in the world. They also created Half-Life which was a game-changer for the gaming world because it proved a narrative can be told through a first-person shooter lens. That game also spawned Counter-Strike which has been the standard for tactical FPS games for a long time.
Pivoting back to Dota, the game has been the trendsetter for the MOBA genre. You can see the likes of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth serving as follow-ups to the genre as well. People behind Dota have always been looking to innovate with their groundbreaking esports scene and game mechanics. Let’s look at the crypto industry’s presence in the Dota 2 market.
Esports teams are entering the crypto space
Across the esports world, there have been teams that have joined the crypto space. TSM is a team that comes to mind because they partnered up with FTX which is one of the world’s biggest exchanges with a landmark $210 million naming rights deal.
Evil Geniuses, one of the top teams in the world, also partnered up with a crypto-focused entity in Bitcasino which is one of the top online casino platforms in the world. Here are three of the most popular Dota teams that have joined the crypto space.
OG
In 2020, two-time The International winners OG launched a long-term partnership with blockchain mobile app Socios.com. Powered by $CHZ, OG and Socios worked together to create technology to develop and engage with the OG fanbase. Thus, the OG Fan Token was created.
This was met with speculative excitement because OG was arguably the biggest team in Dota history. Team captain and co-owner Johan ‘N0tail’ Sundstein talked about how the organization saw Socios as a strong partner. He said, ‘Socios.com is an exciting and innovative way for us to offer our fans new experiences, a means to engage with the team they love, and a part to play in the decision-making process of the club. We are proud to be the first esports partner of Socios.com in shaping the future of entertainment, alongside big sports names such as Juventus, West Ham United and Paris Saint-Germain’.
Socios themselves talked about how esports was an avenue that they wanted to explore for a long time. They recognized that esports was an awesome world to enter and they did it through OG which is one of the biggest orgs in the world. You should expect even more growth from the rest of the Dota esports scene.
T1
Mostly known as a League of Legends org, T1 entered the Dota 2 scene and they have become a focal point of the Southeast Asian scene. In terms of performance, they have been one of the best teams in the region alongside Fnatic and TNC Predator.
In the crypto market, T1 has partnered with Swappable to promote an NFT series that details iconic moments in Dota history. That is a meaningful partnership because it respects the game’s esports history but also honours the game for its amazing moments.
Team Spirit
As the latest org to win TI, Team Spirit’s reputation has grown bigger over the past year. This has led big-time firms to talk to them about partnerships. In terms of the crypto market, they struck a partnership with Bitget, a Singapore-based crypto exchange.
Bitget CEO Sandra Lu talked about how this is a strong partnership. She said, ‘Team Spirit has exactly the sporting spirit that we appreciate. What unites us is a passion for exploring new areas and innovation. We believe that this collaboration will help introduce more people to the crypto industry and bring esports representatives closer to the investment opportunities provided by the world of cryptocurrencies’.
There are even more partnerships that we can see in Dota with examples like Fnatic’s link with Crypto.com among others. It further proves that the crypto industry is looking at esports and Dota specifically as good spots for them to invest in.
Crypto changed esports betting
There are numerous platforms around the internet where you can bet on Dota 2 matches. This will be a huge part of the Dota pro scene’s growth. The crypto market has mixed well with sports betting over the years. Esports is quick to follow with the plethora of games that are available on the platforms.
It has become a normal talking point that cryptocurrencies are used in betting platforms now. Since esports is the competition that people look at when thinking of innovation, this was an easy market to breach for crypto-based betting platforms.
Esports betting is at an all-time high in Dota because they have a good schedule for their pro matches. It also helps that The International is the biggest esports event in the world which draws so many eyes to the product.
There is a lack of NFTs in the game
While you can still release non-fungible tokens related to Dota, you can’t connect the NFTs themselves to Steam. Valve updated its rules which promptly kicked out blockchain and NFT-based applications and games. This is similar to Epic Games and their decision to not touch NFTs.
A top NFT-based game, Age of Rust and its devs talked about how Steam was not agreeing with the NFT concept. The devs said, ‘Steam’s point of view is that items have value and they don’t allow items that can have real-world value on their platform. While I respect their choice, I fundamentally believe that NFTs and blockchain games are the future’.
Crypto can still be the future
With more innovations, the crypto market will look better in the future. While Dota and Valve are not directly involved with crypto, you should expect the scene around the game to be more receptive. The pro teams and fan bases have proven that they support the crypto market and it will thrive with better perspectives.