This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

　　Korean Dota 2 has, as of late, taken several steps towards becoming a more serious contender for competition outside of their own home country. With team StarTale travelling to Poland for the RaidCall EMS One grand finals, MVP Phoenix winning the Nexon Sponsorship League with the reinforcement of Jimmy ‘DeMoN’ Ho as well as being provided with both amateur and professional tournaments by the game’s publisher in Korea, Nexon, Korean Dota is looking healthier than it ever has previously.

　　But it’s not all fun and games either, as teams are still in a period of extreme instability and prize money outside of the Nexon Sponsorship League is scarce, coupled with being an internet-broadcast only via Gom eXp should also speak volumes of how much the Dota 2 scene in Korea has left to grow. With all this said, I aim to take a brief look at how the scene has evolved since it’s inception in early July this year, what might lie in store for the advancement of the community and also what might be standing in its way.

　　To start off the tale of Dota 2’s adventure in Korea, I think it’s important to look at how esports in Korea originate and grow, the best example to use for this is to look at the first game Korea accepted as an esport; Starcraft: Brood War.

　　

Those early days:

Today, with the market being more crowded than ever in terms of active esports titles, it’s very easy to look at Brood War as an omnipresent esports giant in Korea. The biggest prizepurses, the biggest sponsorships and the biggest audiences in esports history have all been the game’s stripes of honor until recently. What it achieved in a time when esports was nothing but indulgence of the absolute fringe side of gamers was astounding and it makes it all the easier for us to look back and think that this was always the case.

　　It’s therefore important for us to look at the people who laid the foundation for what we know today in esports and also make their subsequent suffering known. When Brood War was being broadcasted on Korean television, it came at a very crucial time in history as Korea entered the 21st century in an incredibly rapid pace. Technology was at an all time low in terms of pricing and the new generation were hooked on the thought of entertaining themselves via gaming. This led to the subsequent construction of an incredible amount of PC Bangs (Lan cafés), where the youth found its new favorite interest in the conflict between the terran, zerg and protoss.

　　Originally being broadcasted on a childrens TV network Tooniverse, the interest for BW grew and more and more players aimed to have their shot at becoming a celebrity through this new form of entertainment. The fans were there, and from Tooniverse, OnGameNet was born, and a golden era of esports had officially started. It is here the importance of viewing history from an objective standpoint becomes even more important, as players like Lim ‘BoxeR’ Yo Hwan, Hong ‘YellOw’ Jin ho and maybe most famously Guillome ‘Grrr..’ Patry made the outsider green of envy as they basked in the well-wishes of droves of fans and the untold high end parties they were invited to.

　　In the meantime, for every Grr…, BoxeR or YellOw, there were a thousand players who had tossed away chances of attending prestigious colleges, work and years of their time for nothing to show. Even massive names in esports were not exempt from instability in esports, as YellOw famously experienced a time in his prime where he found himself switching teams, only to find himself without a banner to fight under after a rather short while. This example in particular is just to show that being the best doesn’t matter when you’re breaking new ground, anyone can fall further than they imagined possible if the circumstances are right.

　　This is all the more important to bring up in the case of Dota 2 given its huge international exposure which makes it easy to assume that it’s thriving everywhere around the globe. The first generation of Korean Dota 2 pros are currently part of a scene far from the days of Starleagues and stability, and their dedication in being willing to construct and usher more people in to their scene when the pitfalls of the industry are ever so obvious is one that shouldn’t be ignored.

　　

Korea and Dota:

Jang 'Moon' Jae HoKorea has never been a nation as enthralled in the world’s most popular mod as their neighbouring nation China. In a time when Warcraft 3 and Dota dominated the Chinese nation, BW was still the flavor the South Korean audience enjoyed all the more. WC3 was present in Korea, the most successful WC3 player of all time Jang ‘Moon’ Jae Ho was even Korean. But despite this, the domestic scene in Korea was still not stable and became practically dissolved in 2005 following a scandal in the 'Prime League' WC3 competition aired by the video game-dedicated broadcasting channel MBCGame.

　　The maps utilised in the tournament had been edited without any players being notified. The changes that were implemented changed the stats of units for the orc and night elf race, providing an extremely unfair advantage to any player who played as orcs. Following this move, WC3 in Korea became an even bigger niche than it had previously been and the game’s purveyors in the country found success in their neighbour China and the European scene.

　　Chaos OnlineWith WC3 not returning to the airwaves, it makes sense that Dota competitions in Korea at the time were almost exclusively WCG qualifiers and never branched further in the country's competitive realm.

　　This is not to say that Dota wasn't present in Korea, in fact it was very popular among the youth, but not in the shape or version we in the west are familiar with. Instead, Korea firmly embraced the Dota Chaos map-series, whilst the map used amongst competitions in the west utilized the Dota all-star version of the custom map. The all-star map series featured as a kind of digital octagon, where all types of different heroes that were present in all kinds of different Dota versions were imported and pitted against one-another.

　　Dota chaos came to be after the lead developer and creator of the Dota map, Eul, stepped away from programming the game after the release of The Frozen Throne, when battle.net’s custom maps could be easily edited. This lead to a Korean Dota-enthusiast known as ‘Chogosu’ translating the official Dota map in to Korean, and subsequently started adding new features to the game that were not in line with the development of the All-Star project. Dota Chaos has since been released as a stand-alone game which is still incredibly popular in Korea.

　　How.kr at WCG 2010Beneath the scandal that was the MBCGame situation and the already established Chaos, All-Stars in Korea never took off like it did in its Western counterparts. It was however still present in the Korean scene, with a number of small teams who performed amicably in the face of the lack of resources devoted to the game, one of the most famous Korean WC3 Dota troops were the fearsomely named “xtreme Dota Team”, who managed to qualify for one of the incredibly stacked MYM PriDe online events, where they beat the Russian powerhouse Virtus Pro to qualify for the tournament.

　　Aside from xDT, one of the more potent Korean teams was TOFU, where the member most fans today would recognize in Korean Dota was Taewon ‘Park’ March, who was interviewed for the purpose of this piece. The interview will be featured further down on the page.

　　All this leads us in to the current state of Dota 2 in South Korea, where looks might be deceiving, but possibilities may be even greater.

　　

Dota 2 in Korea:

The first teams in Korea to become properly established in Dota 2 were FXO Korea, Virtual Throne and Eyes of Tiger. These teams had nothing to compete for for the better part of three months as the game had still not been released through the Nexon client yet. At E3 2013, the announcement from Nexon finally came; Dota 2 will see a Korean release date within the year and the publisher will contribute a total of 1.7 million dollars in prizes throughout the year in the forms of the Nexon Starter League, aimed towards amateurs, and the Nexon Sponsorship League where the winning team would receive a total of $93.000 in prizes from Nexon themselves.

　　This set in motion the climb to the top for many of the teams, whilst none of them were firmly established due to the game still being so young a clear favorite and top-contender emerged almost instantly: Team FXO. Containing Dota veterans like the aforementioned March and Yongmin ‘Febby’ Kim the team lead an incredible campaign against any domestic opposition.

　　Due to the training environment the sponsorship with FXO gave them, and the guidance and experience players like March could offer, their performances were unrivalled by any other Korean team and FXO won the first offline tournament organized by Nexon with a flawless 8-0 record in maps, which garnered them $8.000 and front-row seats at the years edition of The International.

　　Upon their return to Korea, FXO were still in firm command over their home nation, and looked to sweep the upcoming Sponsorship League. Gliding past all their opposition and even being granted a forfeit in the semi-finals due to their opponents, StarTale, arriving late at the venue, victory looked certain and the hefty prize purse of $93,000 couldn’t have been closer.

　　A week before the finals of the league, it was announced that FXO had pulled out of sponsoring their Korean esports initiative. Following this development, the team returned under it’s original banner fOu (abbreviation of ‘for Our utopia’). There was still no clear favorite besides fOu in this scenario, especially considering the fact that their opponents in the final would be the team that elluded their semi-final appearance.

　　But StarTale came like a shot in the dark at the invincible roster. With a breakout performance by StarTale’s Noah ‘MP’ Pyo on his Invoker, the series ended in four maps. The torch had been passed on in such a rapid succession that fOu themselves probably didn’t even notice.

　　Following this development March transitioned over to MVP who were planning on creating a sister-team to their already established Dota-roster. His former team would attempt a daring move and recruit the American/Korean Dota 2 personality William ‘Blitz’ Lee. With this new line-up the anticipation grew among the non-Korean audience and the fOu team once again looked solid even though the young American was untested. But in a rather unfortunate twist of events, MVP Phoenix (MVP’s new Dota 2 team) had also found themselves a man short, and the organisation matched that of fOu’s by bringing bigger, and more American firepower in the form of Jimmy ‘DeMoN’ Ho.

　　Blitz's take on facing up against DeMoNFate, it would seem, deemed it necessary for these two teams to face each other in the first round of the next season of the Sponsorship League. The series became a clean 2-0 sweep in favor of MVP Phoenix as DeMoN trounced his fellow American in the midlane whilst the rest of MVP made short work of the other members of the opposing team. The power-balance of Korean Dota 2 shifted drastically in less than a months as two new teams in the shape of StarTale and MVP Phoenix took turns in disposing the kings of old.

　　With fOu’s financial situation being all the more clear now as the team disbanded mere weeks ago, it might seem obvious as to why everything crumbled so quickly for them. It might’ve taken two teams to truly step up to take them down, but down they went, and hard.

　　MVP Phoenix went on a path of destruction through the rest of the tournament until they reached the grand finals. Where the contestants from the lower bracket had stepped up their game immensely once again as team 5inQ, who MVP Phoenix had destroyed 3-0 in the quarter-finals, came back with a hunger only the 1st place finish could sate. The series went the full distance, and MVP Phoenix became the winners of NSL Season 2 by the skin of their teeth.

　　

The Future?

So here we are, the tournament's have concluded and 2014 is upon us. What's safe to say is that Dota 2 in Korea is now one of the largest potential markets the game has ever reached, with all the infrastructure set in place it's up to the teams to utilize their resources as good as they can. But many questions are still present, and I have listed my biggest question marks for the future of Korean Dota 2 below.

　　

Tournaments?

What will the future hold in terms of tournaments? OnGame Net, the largest video game channel in South Korea broadcasted a number of showmatches that featured a wide array of international talent like Team DK, fnatic and Alliance. Can this be the break that Dota has looked to receive after so many years in the shadows in the country where esports matters the most? After all, the teams who win the Sponsorship League, the only decently-sized tournament in the country are not eligible to participate in following seasons. (add the example of OGN broadcasting similar styled showmatches for LoL before they decided to start broadcasting it)

　　

Who will stay on top?

fOu looked unstoppable for several months but were swiftly overtaken by StarTale, since then it's hard to say who really is on top of the Korean scene. Will MVP Phoenix remain dominant now that DeMoN has left the roster? Will 5inQ, the NSL season 2 2nd place finishers remain consistent?

　　Or will Korea become a stop for people with more experience? A months dedication for the opportunity to lay your hands on a massive amount of prize money sounds like a no-brainer, which leads me in to the next question.

　　

Korea, first stop for an easy buck?

Each season of the NSL will feature a smaller prize pool. Whilst it will still be a ridiculous amount of money for the 1st place finisher, we’ve already seen what kind of results foreign influence yields upon the outcome of the tournament. Are we to expect more situations like Team Zephyr, the new team spearheaded by the aforementioned Blitz, that simply travel to Korea to attempt to win the NSL with far more developed talent than most Korean rosters can muster?

　　"Their professional environment has proven many times before - in LoL and Starcraft 2 - that it is simply the best"

　　- Dominik ‘Black’ Reitmeier on the topic of Korea in an interview with GosuGamers.

　　China set the standard for professional Dota in the late 00’s, they’ve nurtured it and molded it in to a machine far beyond anything the west has been able to replicate. For the longest time, any Dota player who wanted to make it realized that they had to adapt to their practices. But in a rather ironic twist of fate, China’s eastern neighbour is what’s on any international talents mind right now when it comes to Asian Dota. Let us hope it’s for the right reasons.

　　

Interview with Taewon ‘March’ Park:

As readers of the article may have noticed, the name ‘March’ has shown up multiple times throughout the article, and that is no coincidence as much of this article was supported by his claims and narration of his own personal involvement in the Korean scene. What follows here is an interview with the very accomodating Taewon ‘March’ Park where items such as how he came to join FXO, his role as one of the first generation of Dota pros and who the best team in Korea is, are discussed.

　　This interview was conducted a week before the recent NSL S2 finals.

　　onGamers.com: I’d be keen to know how you came to join FXO in the first place.

　　Taewon ‘March’ Park: I was connected to FXO by Ryoo ‘Select’, since he had stayed at the FXO house previously. I knew him as a team mate from my Dota 1 days.

　　onGamers.com: How big was FXO’s investment in to the Dota 2 side of things, given that the scene was still so small during the time of your signing?

　　March: The team was rather small, so we weren’t offered a lot. Which is why players eventually started going their separate ways.

　　onGamers.com: Do you feel like StarTale have replaced you in that regard then and taken the title as the best Korean team?

　　Team StarTaleMarch: StarTale caught up to us and improved a lot for sure, with having Febby on their team now, I think they’re even stronger than they were with Gandhi. But I’d still say that our team could beat them.

　　onGamers.com: How do you yourself view the Sponsorship League as a player in one of the more established teams? Do you think it will always act as a massive payout to the already strong teams?

　　March: That’s definitely a risk, but the tournament already has a rule set in place so that if you win the league once, you’re not allowed to re-enter it, which would solve a lot of problems. But overall, I think it’s up to us who are part of the 1st generation to perform well and encourage the growth, us showing that we can live off of it does that to a lot of fans.

　　onGamers.com: After the game’s official release in Korea, the Dota 2 subreddit was filled with pictures of advertisments for the game. Is the game gaining ground rapidly in the country? Is the impending classification of video games in Korea as an “anti-social stimulant” hindering the growth of the scene?

　　March: Not fast enough! But yeah, it’s growing and I know that at least one new team will be created soon. On the topic of the regulations, I really just don’t get it. China always supported their esports scene, and Korea has the world’s most successful scene out there, why people chose to not see the value in it is just really weird.

　　onGamers.com: You’ve been involved in Dota for quite a while, could you tell us a little bit about if it was possible to make a living off of it in the mid-2000’s and how well Korea has done in the game?

　　March: Playing it for a living was impossible, it just wasn’t big enough. Plus I decided to travel to Canada and study so I wasn’t around all too much in the scene until I returned home earlier this year. When I did play actively, I played in TOFU and we played pretty well when we stuck together. Actually, Korea was pretty impressive consistently throughout the Asian World Cyber Games tournaments organized for Dota; we placed top 8 in 2007, top 4 in 2008 and finally got in to the top 3 in 2009. How the teams pulled it off without any support is impressive.

　　After I played with TOFU and I moved to Canada, I played with that famous Nirvana.int roster that included Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis, ‘Puppey’, ‘DeMoN’ and Kuro ‘KuroKy’.

　　onGamers.com: Since you bring up DeMoN, I feel like I have to ask how the Korean crowd are receiving his antics and general style of play.

　　March: He’s bringing next-level Dota to Korea, and so far people love it!

　　onGamers.com: So what are your hopes for the future in Korean Dota 2?

　　March: I want us to have at least one or two teams who can compete with the elite teams in 1 year, and then I want Korea to dominate The International!

　　Image Source: ttdt.vn, joinDota.com, esl.tv, gosugamers.net, wcg.com, mmorpgworld.blogspot.com