Tag: CESA Dota

Concordia’s Esports team remains winless this season

Concordia’s Dota 2 team couldn’t fight a strong opposing attack by the University of Washington on Oct. 21, losing 2-0 in a two-game series.

The team’s loss this week was mostly due to the pick and ban. Picks and bans—known as drafting—happen before every match in Dota 2. During this time, teams choose which players they want to ban their opponents from using, then both teams choose which hero they will use in the game. This is an intricate part of every match when a lot of planning and strategizing is needed.

“We got outdrafted,” said Concordia team coordinator Michael Di Feo. “Sometimes we get lost in our picks and bans and we don’t know what to do.”

Concordia fell behind early on. Two minutes into the match, Concordia’s Clockwerk, a melee hero, suffered for overstepping into enemy territory. Two opposition heroes pinched him into the lane leading up to the University of Washington’s base, landing a stun and earning the first kill of the game.

Concordia did get a return kill three minutes later when a Washington player roamed too far down the bottom lane towards Concordia’s base. Yet, the game spiraled out of Concordia’s hands shortly after. The University of Washington fought back quickly, securing a double kill in the map’s middle lane. From then on, the Concordia squad lost most of its momentum, losing the game within 19 minutes.

The second match of the night didn’t fare much better, with Concordia lagging behind from the get go. The match had a start similar to the previous one. Within the first couple of minutes, Concordia was down one kill to none. The University of Washington continued to push forward throughout the match. They took over multiple towers in Concordia’s lanes, gaining leads in all three lanes. In the end, the University of Washington pushed down the middle lane to eventually win the series 2-0.

“We need to work on rotations,” Di Feo said, adding that the team did a better job the previous week against the University of British Columbia.

The team has their next game in two weeks. They will be playing against Arizona State University on Nov. 4 at 3 p.m. Until then, Di Feo said they will work on communication and their pick-and-ban system.

Despite only playing together for a month, team coordinator happy with start

The Concordia Esports Association (CESA) Dota team had their first Collegiate Starleague (CSL) match of the season, losing 2-0 to the defending champions, the University of British Columbia, on Oct. 14.

Dota is a five-against-five battle arena-based game. The objective is to break into the opponent’s base before they get to yours. The game’s map is more complex than that though. There are three main lanes (top, middle and bottom) which lead to the opponent’s base.

In each lane, there are two towers behind one another which shoot at your character, called a hero, when you get too close to the tower. There is also a jungle between the lanes. In the jungle, there are different creatures which, when killed, give the hero experience and gold to unlock in-game abilities.

This was the first time in three years that a Concordia team competed in the CSL Dota

tournament. The current roster has only been playing together for about a month. Despite the odds against them to beat UBC, the defending champs, the Concordia squad managed to put up a decent fight in the first match of the best-of-three series.

“Everything was going well in the early stage with the rotations [of the first game],” said team coordinator Michael Di Feo after the game. One of the team’s best plays came

in the early minutes. Two of the Concordia players managed to grab the first kill on an opponent by punishing UBC’s overly aggressive style in the jungle.

The UBC player was trying to secure his own kill when he moved too far forward, not noticing the second Concordia hero in the area. He was then “shackled up” and swiftly killed.

Even though UBC fell behind because of these small mistakes, they managed to chip at the Concordia defence and, through solid play, ended up taking the first game.

“[During the second match], things fell apart from the start,” Di Feo said. “[There isn’t] much to share except we got completely outplayed.”

The CESA Dota team is now looking ahead to their next match against Washington Esport Dota on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m.

Main photo courtesy of Concordia Esports Association.