How Lack of Professionalism and Sportsmanship Contaminates and Harms Dota 2.
For centuries, professionalism has been a key component of every single occupation. Likewise, sportsmanship has made sports more popular and influential. As the world progresses and more professionalism is required, the Dota 2 scene seems to have abandoned professionalism and sportsmanship to focus on other things.
Not long ago, a big debate was started on esport and is still ongoing today; Can we think of esports as a sport? According to the Oxford Dictionary, sports are defined as activities that involve skill and physical effort and a single competitor or a team competes against another one to entertain the public. Traditionally, sports required human interaction and nothing more but, as technology has changed the world, different types of computers are part of traditional sports. So, where does the difference between traditional sports and esports lie? At the end of the day, it’s all about professionalism and sportsmanship.
First of all, BY NO MEANS DOES THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTS TO DEFAME OR BELITTLE COMMENTATORS, ANALYSTS, OR PLAYERS OF THE DOTA 2 SCENE. Second, it is necessary to point out that not every person involved in the scene lacks professionalism and sportsmanship. In fact, everybody loves Sir Action Slacks’ frivolity and Peter ‘PPD’ Dager’s saltiness, and other behaviors which make the Dota 2 scene unique. Moreover, it is very important to differentiate between entertainment and lack of professionalism. Professionalism and entertainment go hand in hand in many aspects and are intrinsically linked. However, many get caught up in the entertainment and forget the importance of always being professional.
Let’s discuss professionalism and later compare professionalism in traditional sports and in esports. YourDictionary defines professionalism as the behavior that makes an individual stand out from the ordinary. Those who want to be professional commentators or analysts of traditional sports are required, in most cases, to have a bachelor’s degree in journalism, communication, broadcasting, etc. People who major in those degrees will know how to handle the pressure and how to be professional but entertain at the same time.
In the Dota 2 scene, commentators and analysts are empirical and many of them have made the jump to the ‘big stage’ without any previous knowledge of journalism, communication or broadcasting. However, none of this matters in the end because professionalism is a behavior and not a know-how.
Professionalism is about how a person can make himself/herself look more formal and stand out from the ordinary, not about what you know. It is totally O.K. to make a joke once in a while but there is a huge difference between an analyst panel and a stand-up comedian. Therefore, minor aspects such as dress code will have a big impact on people’s perspective on esports. For example, you will never see a Tennis commentator or analyst wearing a black suit with SpongeBob socks. Perhaps, if commentators and analysts in Dota 2 were able to balance entertainment and professionalism, the scene would be taken more seriously by the fans, other commentators and analysts, and even the world.
On the other hand, we have professional players. In traditional sports, there are all types of players, from very well-mannered, to those who constantly appear on the first page of local newspapers. Those who tend to be more erratic become more popular on social media for the wrong reasons, but those who are educated and more elegant are highly respected and become role models. Regardless of how popular, for the right or wrong reasons, these players might be, when it comes down to sportsmanship they strive.
Of course, they are not perfect by any means, but even when players from traditional sports have made a mistake, they will ask for forgiveness in most cases. Players are aware that their reputation and their team’s reputation is at stake. For that reason teams and players work hard to build a positive reputation and create value. A professional team’s reputation is the most treasured thing, and teams take it very seriously. From time to time we see how a team has fined a player for misconduct, and usually, the parent organization also fines and penalizes teams and players for any wrongdoing. For example, Wojciech Szczesny (former Arsenal player), was fined by his club for smoking in the showers after a soccer match and Edwin Cardona (Colombian player) was fined and penalized by FIFA for a racist gesture with his eyes in a match vs. South Korea.
Unfortunately, in the Dota 2 pro scene, this matter is not taken as seriously as it should be. We constantly see players insulting each other on social networks, and in some cases, such insults have led to physical confrontations. We constantly see players using bad language in their streams and many other types of wrongdoings. What is most alarming of all is how the parent organization, Valve, as well as the teams have given little importance to this matter. For example, we have seen on a live stream how a “professional player” spilled a drink on the head of another “professional player” who was mocking him and NOTHING was done about it, not even a slap on the wrist. Teams of players who have been part of such confrontations have also looked the other way and, as of today, no player has received a fine or penalization for his misconduct. No matter how little they like each other, you will never see Kevin Durant spilling his soda on the head of Russell Westbrook during a live show.
Once again, the purpose of this article is to bring some awareness to all the involved parties and, in advance, apologies to all those who feel hurt by this article. The idea is not to hit on people’s nerves but to bring some light into a much controversial but fundamental topic, for the greater good. Valve, teams, organizers, broadcast stations, and fans try really hard to make the scene better every day, but they have forgotten about some very important aspects. If we want the Dota 2 scene to be taken more seriously, we have to start taking it more seriously ourselves. Hopefully, one day we will see people being more professional and viewing the scene as not just a “game.” Meanwhile, we will keep seeing traditional sports commentators and analysts dismiss esports as a sport.
