British eSports presenter Paul Redeye Chaloner recently said he would like to see an African region appear in Valve’s DPC system. Chaloner explained that the Dota 2 developer should help teams from there make it to the world stage. In his opinion, the region already has a good infrastructure and enough strong players. For those interested in exploring more about sports betting options in South Africa, Hollywoodbets mobile provides a comprehensive platform with a dedicated mobile app. It should be noted that there is no African pro scene as such. Absolutely all professional cybersport organizations in this region, which have DotA 2 rosters, are located in one country – the Republic of South Africa. All other countries combined account for only a dozen or so players, who are constantly mixing into different packs to participate in various online competitions or WESG. There are no organizations for them at all. Thus, when talking about African professional Dota, we mean the scene of one single country – South Africa.
State of the Dota 2 Scene in South Africa
South Africa is home to about ten cybersport organizations at various levels. Many of them periodically close and reopen their DotA 2 rosters. For example, on the website of eNergy eSports team, which less than a year ago took top places in local tournaments, now there is absolutely no mention of Dota division. In general, CS GO is much more popular in this country, and there are even women’s teams in this discipline. More to the point, even professional Call of Duty squads quantitatively dominate over Dota squads.
After the discontinuation of Dota divisions of organizations such as XTC Gaming and Energy eSports, only a few full-fledged organizations remain in the region. The most successful one is White Rabbit Gaming. Bravado Gaming and eXDee Gaming can also be singled out.
LAN tournaments are very rarely held in the region. The competitive component of Dota in South Africa is mostly online, and this applies to both regular tournaments and individual events. In the CIS, pro players have already forgotten how to play at a Dota LAN tournament as part of some gaming or youth festival. In Africa, however, it is still a common occurrence.
Challenges and Potential of African Dota 2 Players
At the same time, LAN tournaments can be held at a pretty good level, with the usual spectator booths for players, a stage, and a big screen. For example, one of the biggest South African tournaments – VS Gaming Dota2 Cup – was held this way. It was organized as part of an electrical engineering and computer game exhibition.
The audience in attendance, however, is relatively small for the biggest DotA 2 event in the region. And here, we must remember that fans of “defense of the ancients” on this continent are not spoilt with such events. Therefore, such a meager number of people at the most significant tournament in the region, which is also combined with a gaming exhibition, demonstrates the sluggish interest in DotA 2 in South Africa.
With few exceptions, African teams have never played competitive games against teams from other regions, so it is difficult to assess the level of players from South Africa. At the last WESG, the best team from South Africa, White Rabbit Gaming, managed to win only one Bo1 against Romanian mix W33. A mix from the other end of Africa—Egypt—also won just one Bo1 in their group.
The level of play of African players can be judged based on their position in the solo MMR leaderboard. But here, it is essential to consider that the best African doters rarely play on their servers, preferring to look for games in the European or Asian region, where their ping varies from 130 to 180 ms.
So, if you study the Dotabuffs of African losers, you will notice that almost all of them have a win rate of 75% or more on South African servers. On European or Asian servers, it has already dropped to the usual figure of 50%. At the same time, African players have yet to achieve significant success on the servers of more vital regions. Even adjusted for the high ping, their results seem relatively modest. I couldn’t find a single pro who is in the top 500 in Europe. However, South-East Asia has two representatives of South Africa in the top 300 in the rating.
However, even such results are more of an exception than the rule. Still, the bulk of African high-level players who play for one or another organization occupy positions from the top 1500 to the top 3000, and some do not even have the Immortal rank.
