Debate of the best MOBA game, is it LoL, DOTA 2, or something else? [Battle #3]

[Bahz]

UPDATE:
We'll be postponing the winners announcement to Dec 30th, the winners for Battle #3 will be posted up on ROG Website


The third battle is a new type of battle; it’s a “debate.” Share with us your thoughts on which game title you feel is the true champion of MOBA games. The obvious choices are LoL (League of Legends) and DOTA 2, but is there something else that belongs in this discussion?

This battle begins on December 8th 2016 at 8:00pm (UTC+8) and ends on December 22nd 2016 at 8:00pm (UTC+8).

Don’t just share your choice, tell us why and prove it with your passion for the game! Only one submission for this topic but you may discuss and debate with others to earn additional entries for the grand prize draw.

See prizes and complete rules below:

Biweekly battle topic prizes

1st Prize – ROG Goodies Box (filled with a ton of exclusive ROG swag)
2nd Prize – Mafia 3 Game Code (digital game code)
3rd Prize – Mafia 3 Game Code (digital game code)
4th Prize – Mafia 3 Game Code (digital game code)

Grand Prizes (draw will take place between January 5th 2017 – Janurary 11th 2017)


Rules

• Provide your answer on which game title you think is the best MOBA game and provide your reasoning and facts to back it up. Only entries that meet these criteria will be considered a valid entry.
  
• Limit one entry per person for the biweekly prize draw but no limit for additional entries for the grand prize draw
  
• Additional qualified replies/comments will earn you additional entries for the grand prize draw. All additional qualified replies/comments on this thread or the other 3 battle topic threads will be accepted as additional entries up until January 4th 2017
  
• Qualified replies/comments must have substance and not 1-2 word replies and are helpful in carrying forward the discussion. The eligibility of each reply/comment will be determined by our ROG forum admins.
  
• Winners will be announced on the ROG website 4 days after the conclusion of the battle (December 30th 2016).
  
• 
  

For complete rules for this campaign, please visit the official campaign thread:
https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?88630-ROG-Forum-Battleground-Community-Campaign-OFFICIAL-T...

[najirion]

Not really a huge MOBA gamer but I know for sure DOTA2 wins this. Not really about the gameplay or from which publisher the game came from or graphics whatsoever but because of the community that supports the game, the volume of professional esports athletes involved in the game, the number of massive tournaments with massive cash prizes come are from DOTA2. Statistics shows it...

1) Highest Paid eSports Athletes come from DOTA2
2) DOTA2 is said to have awarded over $91 million USD vs $36 million from LoL tournaments.

Just look at the recent Boston Major, a DOTA2 tournament with $3,000,000.00 prize pool. The community support, huge fan base, supporting tournaments and volume of professional athletes involved in this game makes it the best today in my opinion.

[danzzal]

I also would like to include the comparison chart here. I know it's quite outdated in term of number of players and number of playable characters, but it's still useful for comparing MOBA games.



1. Number of characters
From the chart, another major advantage of playing Dota 2 is that all of the characters are playable and completely free. This means that, countering certain characters is extremely easy as you can pick anyone without paying. Other MOBA games you need to pay to unlock the characters. Lets say your enemy pick character A which only character B can counter, but character B is locked and you need to pay to unlock him instantly. It's seems like semi-"pay to win" for me (not completely "pay to win") if you know what I'm saying. This makes Dota 2 is much better. You can play the "full" game, and delete it if you didn't like the game without paying anything. Of course you can use in game currency but that would consume lot of time which might be unfavourable to some people like me.

2. Number of players
For the number of players, I think LoL is still leading. I have no idea why the majority of people in this thread prefers Dota. Statistically there should be more people voting for LoL :confused:. This one LoL wins.

3. Number of tournaments
If I'm not mistaken, Dota 2 also have lower number of tournaments organised compared to LoL. But, I would go for Dota 2 in term of tournaments organisation. Even they have lower number of tournaments compared to LoL, their production value is extremely high. I'm not sure about the other MOBA games.

4. Number of maps
Dota 2 only have one map (the terrain is customizable though). For me it is better since it make the game much more consistent. It also make the developer to fix any bugs related to map easily since there's only one map. Everyone including the professional players will have to play the same map.

5. Penalty for death
One more thing, the penalty for death. The toughest one is Dota. You not just giving the enemy experience and gold, you also lose gold when you die*. This make the game harder and make you to play much more cautiously. As I said, I like difficult game, so this one I would give it to Dota 2.

*You can however not losing any gold by using all your unreliable gold pool. This one is another mechanics that I won't explain here since it might took long essay to explain 😉

So, overall, Dota 2 is better for me.

[DJFulcrum]

danzzal wrote:
I also would like to include the comparison chart here. I know it's quite outdated in term of number of players and number of playable characters, but it's still useful for comparing MOBA games.



1. Number of characters
From the chart, another major advantage of playing Dota 2 is that all of the characters are playable and completely free. This means that, countering certain characters is extremely easy as you can pick anyone without paying. Other MOBA games you need to pay to unlock the characters. Lets say your enemy pick character A which only character B can counter, but character B is locked and you need to pay to unlock him instantly. It's seems like semi-"pay to win" for me (not completely "pay to win") if you know what I'm saying. This makes Dota 2 is much better. You can play the "full" game, and delete it if you didn't like the game without paying anything. Of course you can use in game currency but that would consume lot of time which might be unfavourable to some people like me.

2. Number of players
For the number of players, I think LoL is still leading. I have no idea why the majority of people in this thread prefers Dota. Statistically there should be more people voting for LoL :confused:. This one LoL wins.

3. Number of tournaments
If I'm not mistaken, Dota 2 also have lower number of tournaments organised compared to LoL. But, I would go for Dota 2 in term of tournaments organisation. Even they have lower number of tournaments compared to LoL, their production value is extremely high. I'm not sure about the other MOBA games.

4. Number of maps
Dota 2 only have one map (the terrain is customizable though). For me it is better since it make the game much more consistent. It also make the developer to fix any bugs related to map easily since there's only one map. Everyone including the professional players will have to play the same map.

5. Penalty for death
One more thing, the penalty for death. The toughest one is Dota. You not just giving the enemy experience and gold, you also lose gold when you die*. This make the game harder and make you to play much more cautiously. As I said, I like difficult game, so this one I would give it to Dota 2.

*You can however not losing any gold by using all your unreliable gold pool. This one is another mechanics that I won't explain here since it might took long essay to explain 😉

So, overall, Dota 2 is better for me.

It is great that you have added more perspective to this, many MOBA games are an unknown territory in my books. Though I have played both LoL and DOTA 2 in the earlier days, it has changed to keep up with the times and each respective community’s demands. I have touched Smite, but have never played HotS. Now that you have made the comparison, it is odd that DOTA 2 has taken such a great leap in this thread’s poll, but more understandable why the game speaks more to this community going through every post in this thread. Just by listening here I will rather get back into DOTA 2 than LoL.

[miztrniceguy]

I would say League of legends

[unicul]

Dota 2 - because it was my first ROG that i understand it and play it!

[Bahz]

This discussion has heated up and it seems like LoL has kind of caught up a little bit to DOTA 2, however it seems pretty clear cut which title is viewed as the best MOBA game.

I've seen some posts where there's no real answer, please note if you didn't clearly state your choice and provided your explanation then it won't count as an entry towards the biweekly prize draw.

[Obi-Juan]

Maybe it's because I'm a Blizzard fan and relative MOBA noob, but I found HotS to be the most accessible MOBA. I felt so lost in DOTA and LoL. Having a familiarity with the Blizzard lorehelped me get into the gameplay. Also, regardless of how you feel about the game, you have to admit Blizzard puts out a polished product.

[HiVan]

So far, DotA is still winning. Apart from LoL and DotA, however, who is winning between Smite and HotS?

[Bahz]

HiVan wrote:
So far, DotA is still winning. Apart from LoL and DotA, however, who is winning between Smite and HotS?

DOTA 1 and Smite is mentioned quite a few times

[HiVan]

Bahz wrote:
DOTA 1 and Smite is mentioned quite a few times

Funny you mentioned DotA 1, in our country a lot of people still plays it. In fact, there still are tournaments being held for DotA 1 :eek::D