China’s once-thriving Dota 2 community faces a decline as top players flee to the Southeast Asian (SEA) server, seeking tougher competition and shorter queue times.
Given the number of talents that each region developed over the years, the leaderboards continued to grow in size, some even housing over 5,000 players compared to China’s mere 1,400.
The shrinking player count of the Chinese region has been a worrying topic for the community in recent years, which caused top players to take action. Considering the level of internal competition lowered in China, existing pros found the solution in migrating to a nearby region, SEA. A higher number of players and relatively low ping made the SEA server a hot destination for striving Chinese players, as it’s also home to some of the highest-ranked players in the world.
China isn’t the only region that’s battling with this situation, North America is a close second. While China was considered one of the most passionate Dota 2 regions in the world, NA was more aware of the approaching danger. Regional pros often found themselves struggling to find ranked matches and even created in-house leagues that would allow them to play competitive matches to keep their skills sharp.
Like Chinese players, high-level NA players also started playing ranked matches in other regions, like Europe. Some even decided to region-hop for the 2023 DPC season. With some regions thriving and others starving, this could become a more common occurrence for players looking to keep up with the international competition.
Published: Feb 12, 2023 04:42 pm