Dota 2's rapid growth in South Korea. League of Legends losing popularity in Korea.

[IllegallySane]

Small note in the article: For those that don't know, 2 billion won in Korea is close to 2 million dollars. $1.89 million to be exact. Nexon Korea seems to be incredibly generous here.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Dota 2 in Korea getting huge
Dota 2's rapid growth in South Korea

Incheon, South Korea - The launch of the Dota 2 beta in Korea has generated a lot of hype among the Korean gaming community. With Nexon's pledge of 2 billion won in tournament prize money for Korean Dota 2 tournaments, Dota 2 has gained massive attention in the mecca of professional gaming.

League of Legends losing popularity in Korea
Due to the problems with the Korean servers for League of Legends, thousands of Koreans have expressed discontentment with the status quo. Multiple complaints have been lodged by Korean internet cafe owners against Riot Games Korea for charging them during server outages which continue to go unresolved. The server issues coupled with LoL Korea's inaction against paid ELO boosting services have made thousands of KR LoL players ready to make a switch to Nexon's Dota 2.

Dota 2 Nexon Starter League
Dota 2's first Korean tournament drew in thousands of gamers from all over Seoul and the interest has been getting huge. The studio where the finals between Eye of Tiger and FXOpen was held couldn't accommodate everyone due to the huge turnout so the GOMTV offices had to be opened in order for them to be able watch on television.

The sentiments that Dota 2 KR will overtake both League of Legends and Starcraft in Korea once it is officially released have been growing and professional teams have taken note. Various Korean professional Starcraft and League of Legends players have started practicing for the next big thing in South Korea - Dota 2.

Source



My thoughts: WELP. Does the fact that LoL servers in Korea are crapping out at around the same time DotA 2 is being heavily introduced in Korea seem way too coincidental? Riot needs to nip this in the bud quick before they lose more LoL fans to DotA 2. The article also lacks hard facts to back up some of the claims. Is it indeed true Korean LoL servers are bugging out horrendously? Otherwise from this article, I'm just happy DotA is getting such a strong start in South Korea. Being hosted by Nexon worries me, but on the other hand it's Nexon Korea rather than Nexon America.

[Fiel]

It's a new game there and it's flush with money. All of the fanfare there is based upon hype and no substance. LoL has a dedicated following. Dota could be a flash in the pan at this point for all we know.

[Corn]

I never knew Nexon owned Dota 2 in Korea.

[Dudewitbow]

I never knew Nexon owned Dota 2 in Korea.

valve works closely with nexon in korea as a whole. I mean they do have counter strike online and its sequel.

[Five Second Pose]

My thoughts: WELP. Does the fact that LoL servers in Korea are crapping out at around the same time DotA 2 is being heavily introduced in Korea seem way too coincidental? Riot needs to nip this in the bud quick before they lose more LoL fans to DotA 2. The article also lacks hard facts to back up some of the claims. Is it indeed true Korean LoL servers are bugging out horrendously? Otherwise from this article, I'm just happy DotA is getting such a strong start in South Korea.

It does bug out sometimes from what I've seen, yes.

It's a new game there and it's flush with money. All of the fanfare there is based upon hype and no substance. LoL has a dedicated following. Dota could be a flash in the pan at this point for all we know.

Dota 1 was big, but I don't know if that was in China or Korea.

[Words]

It does bug out sometimes from what I've seen, yes.



Dota 1 was big, but I don't know if that was in China or Korea.

China. Still big in China. I was reading some Korean players in the Nexon Starters League also played Dota1 for a long time but it seems to be the case for only a couple of players in 2 or 3 teams.
From what I read it seems that most of the Korean teams were moving from other games to Dota2, hoping for sponsors and all that. Out of the 8 teams in the tournament quarter finals, only 1 team said that they were doing it just for fun with friends and not that interested in taking it too seriously.
I kinda agree with Fiel, who knows what will happen but I think having Nexon Korea sponsor will help Dota2 getting big there.

[Malthe]

Dota 1 was big, but I don't know if that was in China or Korea.

Dota1 wasn't big in korea in itself, but there was a clone of dota1 which was very similar called Chaos.
It is VERY VERY likely that fans of chaos are very easily drawn to dota2 since fans of chaos already know about dota1.

So saying the hype has no substance is a bit silly seeing there is a playerbase that is familiar with one of the many dota clones that existed in WC3, it just so happens that in korea chaos got larger than regular dota1.

Regardless, Nexon is big in korea and koreans are quite a band-waggoning folk when it comes to games. I want to see what it looks like in half a year before i create an actual opinion about this.

[Words]

It's a new game there and it's flush with money. All of the fanfare there is based upon hype and no substance. LoL has a dedicated following. Dota could be a flash in the pan at this point for all we know.

That was the case for Diablo 3 or SWTOR and those games had an insanely dedicated following.
The fact that Dota2 doesn't have as many followers as LoL might not be that much of a big deal.

[byakugan]

Korea is the homeland for professional gaiming, and when you have a company giving nearly 2 million dollars as tournament prize in a game that is similar in a lot of ways to those that they already play OF COURSE YOU'LL HAVE THEM ALL JUMP IN FOR THAT MONEY.

Its like Capcom giving a 1 million dollar prize and several thousands to the top 10 players in a Street Fighter tournament. People from other fighters will jump in too.