Ninjas in Pyjamas, an organisation well reputed in the esports scene, have decided to disband their Dota 2 team due to various financial reasons and the unstability of the game's professional scene.
It is a grave day for the Dota 2 professional scene as Ninjas in Pyjamas have announced that they are releasing their Dota 2 roster permanently, for now.
The reasons are evident as many other esports organisations have been facing the same problems and have released some of their rosters.
The unwelcoming financial burden due to the pandemic which led to many esport events being cancelled, the droppping economy worldwide and hinderance to work have affected major organisations. In similar fashion this year, the NA scene was hit very hard and now the plague seems to be spreading towards the EU/CIS regions too.
Similar Dota 2 articles: Gocr4zy release NA Dota 2 roster, EG only team to have an organization. Bad news for the already notorious scene.
Valve's ignorance of the pro scene
This being said, Valve also has been mostly ignorant for the scene until recently and NiP do not seem to have the patience or finance to wait for the next year's DPC. Valve after gaining around 120 million dollars has done almost nothing for the scene. No funding of tournaments, no league announcements or even updates on the DPC.
Due to the extreme backlash and the declining player-base, Valve finally sent an update patch, which was often the post TI patch. The developers also have started releasing update news on their official blog. Valve needs to do something big for the professional scene as the players and their organisations seem to be running out of patience every second.
This year has taken a massive toll on what was already an unstable ecosystem. With the indefinite postponement of the DPC and The International, we find ourselves on an increasingly unclear path to financial stability within the game. We’re seeing a high concentration of talent in the EU region, meaning that the cost of keeping up is markedly higher while revenues are dwindling. Ninjas in Pyjamas is one of the most iconic teams in the world - competing for the biggest trophies is a core part of our DNA, and the road to that through EU is simply not viable at this point. Because of that, we have decided to shut down our DotA2 department in its current format, and rethink our strategy and regional presence completely.
A special thanks goes to our players who have worked hard to improve, and taken positively to all our ideas on how to rethink the current way of approaching DotA2. It’s an incredibly talented group of players who I have no doubt will go far. I wish them the very best of luck.
Jonas Gundersen, COO at NiP explains why they are disbanding. Source Article
Will Valve continue with this ignorance of the scene and make yet another TF2?
A new hero is set to release during the start of december as mentioned by the devs in the recent blog update. With Dota 2 professionals not receiving attention from Valve, will Dota 2 still be a growing esport? The game itself seems to be running on veteran players who have stuck through thick and thin with the game since its beta.
Unending Smurfs and boosted accounts plus the toxicity of the community has been a major obstacle for newer players to be well received by the game. The game in itself is not forgiving as it has one of the steepest learning curves in gaming. Developers have talked about the new overwatch system, however we do not know if this will only be enough to stop unfair matchmaking and cheaters in the game.
Major sponsors have dropped out and the lack of tier 1 tournaments and The International being cancelled, orgs are conflicted to supporting their rosters as the margin for profit is particularly low. Is this the beginning of the end for Dota 2?