After iG’s big win at the International this year, and their subsequent party, it wouldn’t be a huge leap to imagine that Dota 2 might become a bit of a big deal in China. That’s exactly what’s happened, with pop stars and snooker players all starting to pay attention to Valve’s latest title.
JJ Lin, a mega-star within China and the whole far east, with 15 million followers on Weibo and a name the majority of Chinese people know, put up a post on Weibocalling for people to play with, along with a screenshot of the game (shown by dota2.sgamer here). Ding Junhui, an international snooker player, responded saying that he’d join in when he got home.
It’s pretty basic stuff, but it’s the starting of something much grander: the game spilling over into the mainstream in a way that means that people should get a working knowledge of the game, just because they want to join in with their favourite celebrities. And if they’ve got that, it’ll only be a small step to spectating a game. Get enough people doing that, and Dota will be well on its way to being a viable Esport for those who play it professionally.
Now we’ve just got to wait for the same thing to happen in the West. I’m not sure I can ever see Lady Gaga say on Twitter that she fancies playing a bit of Death’s Prophet.
Thanks to Dotaland.net for spotting the messages.