Free to Play

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In August 2011 a tournament

featuring the popular

online strategy game Dota 2 was

held in Cologne, Germany.

It offered the largest prize pool to date

attracting professional players

from all over the world.

Yes, it is actually confirmed.

1.6 million dollar prize pool!

I'm double-checking to make sure

they haven't changed any details

since they told us last time.

1 million in US dollars for First Prize.

That is for the winner.

1 million dollars for winning Dota!

It's going to be huge. Dota2.com

The tournament tab is up, too.

Our website will actually change

for the next 24 hours as well...

The day I transformed into an adult was

the day I started playing Dota.

Its times like, when you

go up on the stage,

you represent your country for something.

You get the prize.

It's the amount of satisfaction and achievement

that nothing else can give you.

It's something I definitely

don't regret ever doing.

Gaming is simply the proudest

thing in my life.

It can be called "gamer," but for me,

it's something different.

One way to forget about pain is to do

something that you will be in completely.

So

computer games.

For me, it was

everything.

This is my career.

I've chosen to do it for so long.

Success in my eyes is always based

on how other people see you.

In the eyes of the public,

it's up to them.

It's important to be doing things

that you love and you really appreciate.

Because that's your passion, man.

You should really work for your passions.

Ok, guys, you have 7 minutes

to set everything up

and then we go.

This is the first time I really

wanted to take something seriously

and do something good for my life.

FREE TO PLAY:

10 years ago, competitive gaming

wasn't even really a thing.

You would play for fun

against your friends.

Maybe you would play for a cup of coffee or

whatever you wanted.

When I started playing,

we'd been fighting for

24 bottles of beer as a first place.

I'm not joking.

From there, though, online happened.

And, all of a sudden, you weren't

just trying to be the best on your block.

Now you're trying to be the best

in the world.

And that opened up competitive

gaming to a whole new landscape.

And one of the games really

leading the way is Dota.

Dota is sort of a combination of football

(or soccer for the Americans)

and Chess.

This is probably how I would try

to explain Dota

to someone who's not familiar with it.

At least, that's what I did to my parents.

Dota is a game of momentum.

You as 5 players

try and battle against the other

5 players for momentum.

Every single player controls one unit.

And the main objective of the game is

to destroy the final enemy building

which is called the "Ancient."

Everything else that happens

in the meantime

is your amazing filler of a game.

You could play 100 heroes

in conjunction with 99 other heroes.

It's just nonstop possibilities

and it's so much fun.

And you know, it's like the same

map every single time

but it literally never gets boring.

I would say Dota is a way of life.

When the prizes started coming

I was like, well we have tournaments

so obviously some people are going

to come and say,

"This is a great game. Let's play it.

Like, let's put money in it."

And it started progressing each year.

Those at the top level,

they just do like lots of

calculations in their head.

Something like "A Beautiful Mind"

where you see like all kinds of things.

And using all this information

make your next move.

I see it in a lot of ways

similar to basketball.

Just like a 5 on 5 game

where you kind of have to work together

and utilize each other's strengths and

synergizing everything together.

The teamwork, and the trust,

and the sacrifice

those are all true for every

single team sport.

Dota is a game that unites everybody.

It doesn't matter what country

you're from or race you are.

It's kind of like a bond that is shared

and when you're part of this

tight-knit group of people.

It's like having a second family.

That's something you never let go.

Everyone's searching for something.

Fulfillment.

Fame.

Satisfaction.

It gives you the ability to

become someone else.

A someone who is powerful.

Who can take down 5 opponents.

Express their creativity.

Break the rules without actually

getting arrested.

All of these reasons are

in there somewhere.

The player himself might not even know.

He might not even understand it himself.

But it's there.

Medford, Oregon

Gaming fulfills my competitive need.

I'm a very competitive person.

When it comes to sports,

I consider gaming a sport.

So I use my competitiveness

and I fuel it with Dota.

So it fulfills that side of me completely.

Fear's one of the best

in America, if not the best.

He has a lot of experience.

He's one of the old hogs, basically.

And he's generally just a calm guy.

So, in my opinion, that's his strength.

Really good basketball player.

I remember my coaches watch him playing

and just talk about picking him up

the next year when he came in.

Always had nothing but good things to say,

but he wasn't picked on the team.

The reason was, yeah, he just

wasn't tall enough, I guess.

So, I know that, yeah, he found the game.

He got really devoted in that and stuff

and just found something else that worked.

I was your typical parent.

"Clinton, you're spending too

much time playing computer games."

"You need to go to school."

"You need to go to college."

and he would tell me,

"I want to be able to play

games and get paid for it."

Now he said this at a very young age

before Dota ever came along.

And I thought, well, you know,

he's going to grow out of it.

He's going to get sick and

tired of sitting there

in front of that computer and playing.

Never did. Never did.

Singapore

In Singapore the families actually

put a lot of stress on us

in terms of our education.

I would say it's been tough on me

trying to juggle

both studies and gaming at the same time.

My grades have dropped for

two years already.

And my parents have treated

the gaming as the cause of it.

I mean there was this phrase that

they used. They said,

"Gaming will be the death of you one day."

He's a great player and a great captain.

I would say he's the top player

in Singapore.

Easily.

My parents and my family,

they don't actually speak much

of my gaming career.

They don't tell their friends

and my other relatives

that I'm actually that good at my games.

All along they have only been

bragging about my studies.

Because I used to be an "A" student.

Yeah, they go on and on. And

And it seemed like that was the only thing

they could ever be proud of.

Actually, there has only been one person

that has always been very

supportive of me gaming.

And that was my ex-girlfriend, Huayan.

She's from the female Dota team

in Singapore.

There are a lot of things

that we share in life.

So many things.

In my case, it felt really good,

you know, to have someone

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