A Competitive DoTA 2 Match Lasted Over Three Hours

[Steven Bogos]

A Competitive DoTA 2 Match Lasted Over Three Hours

This is why I don't have time for DoTA 2...

MOBAs like League of Legends and DoTA 2 have a reputation for taking a long time to finish each game, but this latest record-breaking competitive match from the DoTA 2 competitive season really takes the cake. A qualifying match between competitive teams Cloud9 and SFZ last Friday managed to stretch on for over three hours, coming in at a whopping 200 minutes of play time.

While it would be madness to ask you to watch the whole thing, be sure to check out the highlight reel to the right, which shows the trench-warfare-style plays from both teams, as neither would commit to the full-scale make-or-break push that would allow a victory. When that moment finally did come, however, I'm sure there was a massive rush from both teams to the bathroom.

The match breaks the previously set record for longest DoTA 2 round - a 125 minute long match between Team Dog and 4FC. Because of the games ludicrous length, it also managed to inadvertently shatter a whole bunch of other in-game records, such as most last-hits and highest net-worth [https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/2zqjdl/cloud9_vs_sfz_becomes_the_longest_game_in/].

Many players would agree that an average DoTA 2 game lasts around 40-60 minutes, so these kind of extraordinarily long games while somewhat of a rarity, are quite possible.

What do you guys think of MOBA game length? Should the developers take a more heavy-handed approach to reducing game length, or do you like the idea of these epic long matches?

Source: Destructoid [http://www.destructoid.com/record-breaking-competitive-dota-2-match-lasts-over-3-hours-289381.phtml]


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[Kanova]

Long matches are cool, shows the game is balanced.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I like the long game length personally. It makes me feel really invested in each game. I'm pretty sure it's part of the reason Dota (and other MOBA's) are so endearing.

Can be a pain sometimes obviously, I wouldn't want to play a single game for more than an hour usually, unless the game is really fun with plenty of back and forth (unlike the above game this whole article is about).

 

[SomeLameStuff]

When that moment finally did come, however, I'm sure there was a massive rush from both teams to the bathroom.

Actually, there was already a short pause mid way for the teams to take a piss break =P

I actually watched the entire thing live. It was absolutely ridiculous, but the casters made it extremely entertaining!

It's the longest competitive match, but the longest game was a pub match that went on for 4 hours.

 

[Isalan]

When that moment finally did come, however, I'm sure there was a massive rush from both teams to the bathroom.

Actually, there was already a short pause mid way for the teams to take a piss break =P

I actually watched the entire thing live. It was absolutely ridiculous, but the casters made it extremely entertaining!

It's the longest competitive match, but the longest game was a pub match that went on for 4 hours.

Haven't watched it yet (trying to find 3 hours in my schedule) but I heard that ODPixel and Purge did a cracking job casting that monster. From what I hear it turned into a total buyback war, which can be a chore to watch, but the source engine is always good for causing the map to explode if the game goes too long, so this game must have had some spectacular graphics bugs.

 

[shintakie10]

And that's why I play Heroes. Longest match ever would barely hit 40 minutes, and most average only 20. Tryin to play even a short game of LoL clocked in at 30 minutes, and I lost. Really really discouragin there.

 

[Erttheking]

Reminds me of all those times in lore that they talk about fights that last for days.

Kinda cool.

 

[War_Dyn27]

And that's why I play Heroes. Longest match ever would barely hit 40 minutes, and most average only 20. Tryin to play even a short game of LoL clocked in at 30 minutes, and I lost. Really really discouragin there.

This game was absurdly long. Dota 2 games rarely go longer that an hour, usually about 30-40 minutes.

 

[The Wykydtron]

When that moment finally did come, however, I'm sure there was a massive rush from both teams to the bathroom.

Actually, there was already a short pause mid way for the teams to take a piss break =P

I actually watched the entire thing live. It was absolutely ridiculous, but the casters made it extremely entertaining!

It's the longest competitive match, but the longest game was a pub match that went on for 4 hours.

I thought those old Season 2 games in League took the piss but those DOTA casters must have been great. The one legendary pro League game that turned into ward killing trades because neither team wanted to fight without PERFECT vision of the Baron/Dragon areas were awful, you could tell the casters just wanted it to end already. It singlehandedly started a thing where the crowd cheers whenever a ward gets destroyed that haunts us even to this day. Both teams were like "one lost fight means we lose so we should never fight" BOTH teams. I should find a video of it

Spoiler: Oh here we are

The DOTA game would at least be fun to watch there since I assume the warding stuff wasn't as godlike important as it was there. At least they would be fighting... Maybe it's just me though, we don't ward down in my DOTA games. I just pick Venge, buy courier, max Vengeance Aura first, wonder about what the fuck to even build past upgraded Ring and Power Treads (forever set to Strength, naturally,) pick up my Licence to Feed at the level 6 mark and win game.

And I like the long game times, you can pull out the words "no we have better lategame, pls no surrenderino" when your team is 0/20 with no towers left at the 15 minute mark.

 

[Vigormortis]

"Oh, wait. Is...is this it? This is it! THIS IS IT! This is the final fight! This is where...oh. Never mind. Cut the music. We're resetting again."

That cracked me up each time. What an absurd match. Fantastic to watch, though. At least, until Cloud9 threw it in the end.

 

[zumbledum]

What do you guys think of MOBA game length? Should the developers take a more heavy-handed approach to reducing game length, or do you like the idea of these epic long matches?

well if every game was that long might be a problem from a logistical point of view but game length is largely irrelevant to pro matches what matters is is the game fun to watch?

Long matches are cool, shows the game is balanced.

so every short match is a sign its unbalanced? i dont see how game length leads to a comment on balance i would think it has more to do with how easy it is to defend vs attack and a buyback mechanic offsetting the natural game ender of death timers.

 

[Grumman]

Long matches are cool, shows the game is balanced.

No, it doesn't. League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm and DotA 2 all have approximately the same range of win rates (Removing the top and bottom champion for each game you have 41.47-55.13 for LoL, 43.9-57.2 for HotS, 39.67-56.28 for DotA2) but DotA 2 takes twice as long to play a game, even for a comp stomp vs. bots. This does not mean that DotA 2 is more balanced, only that it does not allow players to leverage a winning position to actually end the damn game. It does not automatically mean the losing team has any chance of turning the game around, either, only that DotA 2 lets them drag their defeat out longer.

 

[Bindal]

Long matches are cool, shows the game is balanced.

so every short match is a sign its unbalanced? i dont see how game length leads to a comment on balance i would think it has more to do with how easy it is to defend vs attack and a buyback mechanic offsetting the natural game ender of death timers.

It does. It does not mean the GAMEPLAY is balanced or unbalanced but the current match is. In a very-well balanced game, a match can still be short because the two teams are very uneven in terms of their abilities, allowing one team to steamroll the other. Of course, two equal teams in a match were one side is heavily favored will obvious result in a similar curb stomp.
But if both counter each other (e.g. a complete team of monkeys playing the way more overpowered side while an organized and trained group armed with nothing but sticks), it can already cause a balance, resulting in long matches as the matches are overall balanced and even.

Also, of course "short" should be taken in relative terms to how the game is played. A match of Counter-Strike is by default always shorter than say, one in Battlefield.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Why is long battles a bad thing? If you're gonna become competitive at this game you can't afford to not be able to play for 3 hours in a row minimum. Most of those people play for closer to 13 hours in a row than 3 hours in a row.


I don't even play these games (my competitive flavor is 2D fighting games) but despite that I can still see why the proposition of the developers potentially taking a "heavy handed" approach to change this reality is beyond horrible and it makes me question the intelligence (or perhaps comprehension of what it entails to be competitive) of the author.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

This is better news that the stories about the guy that was found dead in front of his computer at home or at some internet cafe, after playing LoL, DOTA 2, Starcraft or WoW non-stop for days.

 

[Pinky's Brain]

Just put them into a sudden death arena after X minutes.

 

[Silence]

Typical C9. Trying the same thing over and over again.

The music is pretty funny. And the game breaking after a time.

 

[MonsterCrit]

Having been in a 2 hour match m'self I can easily believe this. When you have evenly matched teams and teams that know how to use their heroes. Yes.. them matches can get stalemated. It becomes very dicey to balance offense and defense at the same time. One slip up and bam.,..


Should developers take heavy handed steps to fix that? No. Why? Because that's the truth of high-level play.

 

[RandV80]

neither would commit to the full-scale make-or-break push that would allow a victory.

So if this is supposed to be a 'real sport' now what it needs are proper coaches who will drill they're squads into safe but stifling defensive plays. One team will win the big prize under these methods and soon every team will be doing it and this sort of game length the norm... and suddenly watching game isn't quite so exciting anymore.

 

[Me55enger]

neither would commit to the full-scale make-or-break push that would allow a victory.

So if this is supposed to be a 'real sport' now what it needs are proper coaches who will drill they're squads into safe but stifling defensive plays. One team will win the big prize under these methods and soon every team will be doing it and this sort of game length the norm... and suddenly watching game isn't quite so exciting anymore.

The reason for the game length here was ultimately the hero compositions, and as the number of potential compositions are a very large number, the chances of these long, attrition based conflicts are rare.

I think it was initially a case of the AM not being able to toe-to-toe with the bristle, after which it came down to a battle of buybacks and cc, which by 200 minutes would be in the absurd numbers. But I didn't see the start of the game.

So much for the bkb change reducing game length, though.