Steam is chock full of amazing games. It has over 122,000 by some estimates and is the central hub for video games of all kinds. But even in that sea of infinity, there is one game that I keep coming back to, one that I’ve had an on-and-off relationship with since 2013: Dota 2.
When I was a kid, I had no idea Valve was making an upgraded Dota. For me, Warcraft 3 was everything, and I would spend countless hours on Garena (RIP) enjoying all sorts of custom games. The most notable ones I would play were Custom Hero Survival, Hero Siege X, various TD maps, Angel Arena in all of its editions, and, of course, Defense of the Ancients.
Of these, I was definitely the worst at Dota, but having grown up in an environment where it was the go-to game of every single cyber cafe in my small town, I was thrust into playing it whether I wanted to or not.
I would eventually grow accustomed to it and, lacking proper teammates, play against the AI in various bot versions of the map, because joining Garena games for Dota would result in my being immediately kicked for not knowing how much a Blink Dagger costs.
I was a kid, 10 years old, and simply wanted to enjoy the map at my own pace, playing Bloodseeker on the safe lane and not knowing what to even do. I couldn’t learn the keybinds and used my mouse to cast spells and items, making my gameplay painfully slow and, naturally, totally inefficient and uncompetitive.
None of that would stop me, though.
Eventually, League of Legends came around, and by 2012, I was fully immersed. I quickly learned the ropes and used my knowledge of Dota and Warcraft itself to master the gameplay. I was still rather crap, mind you, but improving and learning how to actually play a MOBA on a competitive level.
Not long after that, Dota 2 was released in full and became free to play, leading me to immediately abandon League in its favor. That wouldn’t last too long, and I would then start my on-and-off relationship with Dota, meandering between it and League (among other things), while sticking to the easier, more streamlined title cooked up by Riot.
Fast forward several years, though, and I would have completely abandoned League. I quit and never looked back, taking a breather from MOBAs overall. But I would always come back to play some Dota every now and again, enjoying the game as much as I did when I first picked it up during the Garena days.
That would eventually produce a love for the game that I never knew I had, one that made me realize that it wasn’t MOBAs that I hated, but rather League of Legends itself.
The game, which I almost exclusively play with one of my best friends, carried me through thick and thin. It helped take my mind off things, allowed me to escape, and worry about something else for a while.
It’s something that soothes me despite all the rage and tilt in games, a source of laughter and fun, a game where I can apply strats and tactics without losing my mind as I would in CS or League.
Not only that, but it exists for me in some middle ground between competitive and casual gameplay, particularly because of its wild builds, metas, and strategies, not to mention its community, which is an amalgamation of the most curious minds out there.
I have no clue what it is exactly about Dota that attracts a certain kind of player, nor what specifically produces the experience that it does, but I can’t stop playing it or coming back to it no matter how long a break I take. I used to talk this tame talk regarding League, but not only do I not have a desire to go back to it, but I actively avoid it, even if my friends constantly invite me.
But Dota? All it takes is a single message, one Instagram reel containing angry Russians and ludicrous builds, one morsel and atom of the game, and I’d be immediately fired up, ready to take up Slardar and bash my enemies to death.
It’s a gift, that game, one that keeps on giving.
And I’ll always look forward to returning to it.
