It’s been some time since we’ve covered more broad topics than writing and fiction. Partly because the whole point of somewherepostculture is to create a repository for our own musings and explorations of the written medium and partly because we’re not very exciting people. However, today begins the first of a series of four regional qualifiers for Valve’s The International tournament. Those who have been browsing for awhile know of my fondness for Valve and their little game called Dota 2. Those who haven’t, well, I am fond of Valve and their little game called Dota 2.

This year, Valve has made the lead-up to the annual tournament and possibly biggest e-sport event a little different. Prior, they had teams fight for a coveted Wildcard position, inviting around ten teams to fight for the chance to get to the other-wise “invite only” competition. This proved to be so successful that Valve has opened the slots this year for five teams to battle each other to get a chance at the $3.8 million dollar and growing prize pool.

That’s right, there is $3.8 million dollars on the table for these teams.

E-sports, as ludicrous as its name may be, is a very new and often misunderstood competition. Yes, they are video games. Yes, people play them professionally. My sister struggled with this when she was first introduced to it because of our preconceived notions of athleticism, competition and the way technology historically interacted with our lives. Personally, I see this sort of event as a glimpse of the future. No longer are the ideas of virtual arenas and cyber-athletes the sort of idea regulated to science fiction visions of possible technological achievements. We are living in a transitory age where the established sport industry is being demonstrated that a physical interaction on a field not only is an unnecessary component but also an outdated one. The advent of the Internet and the gross amounts of money to be made through offering spectators a chance to watch people devoted to mastering the complexities of their games as created a seemingly sustainable enterprise which shows only signs of becoming larger.

I, for one, am excited to be a part of this landmark movement and draw inspiration in how technology will change the face of society and our way of life with each successive invention.

Though, mostly, I just enjoy watching the game being played. Which is weird since I used to loathe watching games being played. I could not understand how people got excited over football teams and matches. I found even our national sport to be rather dull when enjoyed from the bench. I always enjoyed playing the games but the activity of passively observing simply seemed a strange and pointless activity. Now, I understand the appeal. The one thing I really like about e-sports is the interesting connection between spectator and players. I can’t think of any other competition which is boosted and funded by the willing participation of its audience.

The International, in that regard, is both a new and exciting event. As the sole tournament sponsored and run by Valve – the creators of the game – the tournament is available for free in the game client itself. The only tickets to be bought are ones for physical admission to the arena in Seattle where the event will occur. I will not, obviously, be attending but I don’t see that as a missed opportunity because of I can enjoy the commentary right in the game itself rendering the need for visiting moot. It’s the sort of thing I can easily see transitioning to the realm of virtual space and exploration should virtual reality technology develop and catch on with the public. No, the interaction provided for the fans and teams is that Valve offers a digital book for sale which has challenges for the purchaser to attempt and predictions to make with the promise of free items when certain milestones are reached. Furthermore, twenty five percent of the purchase goes directly to the tournament’s prize pool itself.

This creates and easy excuse to rid oneself of the guilt over purchasing an item which will never have a physical component. You aren’t just buying this imaginary book but you are making the livelihood of your favourite teams and players easier by increasing their rewards for placing well in the tournament. It provides the spectator the feeling they are directly impacting the players and the production just by watching and participating in the event.

Clearly this is a valuable idea as the community doubled Valve’s initial 1.6 million starting prize pool in a mere two days. Reaching a prize pool of 4 million dollars seems a very real possibility and its kind of impressive and exciting to see how passionate the audience is for this game. It’s the sort of passion realized by fans who paint themselves and dress in their team’s memorabilia but realized in a space where most of the people involved may never meet face-to-face. I’m glad Valve is the company behind this enterprise since they have a history for innovation and ingenuity unrivaled by their peers.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is, the American qualifiers are on for the next three days followed by the South East Asia, Chinese and European qualifiers. I’m going to be watching quite a lot of Dota so my posts may not be of interest to many of you who come solely for short fiction and writing topics. I’m sure my lovely co-contributors will still provide their quality content but as I’m currently in Dota 2 fever, do not expect a lot of other culture commentary from me in the meanwhile.

If you are interested in Dota 2 and the International, I suggest you check out the official website at blog.dota2.com. Streams of the tournament are found on twitch.tv under the Dota 2 category. They should be easy to find since they’ll all say American Qualifiers and are the ones everyone’s watching.

Game on, team!