Dota 2 legend Johan “N0tail” Sundstein has responded to claims from League of Legends player Doublelift in which the latter stated that LoL is a harder game. N0tail is one of the most renowned e-sports players in the world, with over eight years of experience in competitive Dota and two consecutive world championship wins at The International 2018 and 2019.
The MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre has long been dominated by two games: League of Legends and Dota 2. Although both games share notable similarities such as three-towered lanes and five players, a few key differences set them apart. The general consensus mostly agrees that while LoL is the more popular game, Dota 2 is more complex. Dota 2 is so complex in fact that Elon Musk’s company OpenAI used the game to test critical thinking and team based cooperation in its own general purpose artificial intelligence.
N0tail’s comments on the skill ceiling of Dota 2 come by way of his official Twitter. These comments are in direct response to those made by LoL player Doublelift, first reported by Dot Esports. In talking to viewers on a recent livestream, Doublelift said,
Of course Doublelift drew the ire of many Dota 2 purists in saying LoL was a harder game. One of these players was obviously N0tail who spoke candidly in disagreement. N0tail suggests that while Dota 2 games are structured into three distinct stages: laning phase, mid-game and end-game, LoL games typically just stay in the first stage. N0tail’s assertion may have some factual basis as well, as the “Outlanders” update for Dota 2 introduced distinct neutral items for different phases of the game. All this being said, for all the differences the two games have, there are a dozen similarities, which makes the entire argument against one another needless.
“I’d say Dota has more to learn than League when it comes to build diversity, champion pool diversity, [and] map plays… but mechanically, no—there’s a zero percent chance Dota has more mechanical skill ceiling than League.”
Perhaps it’s optimistic to think that the petty hate between LoL and Dota 2 players will ever end. For as long as the two games have existed, LoL players have lamented turn speed in Dota while Dota players have ridiculed a perceived ease of skill in LoL. It’s hard to move past these contrived arguments when two professional players are adding fuel to the fire, especially when one is the recipient of the highest grand prize in the history of e-sports. For now, the players will have to co-exist in a world big enough for at least two MOBA’s.
Next: Team Liquid’s Dota 2 Team Leaves Organization
Dota 2 is available now on PC and Mac OS.
Source: N0tail (via Twitter)
