In-house leagues (IHL) have been a driving force in Dota for almost a decade. IHLs have cultivated competitive Dota scenes all over the world, and are responsible for connecting many of today’s professional players. While the concept of an in-house league is ultimately simple, its impact cannot be understated. Despite their lasting influence, the future of IHLs are in jeopardy. With the largest esports tournament in history on the horizon, now is the perfect time to ensure the everlasting success of the IHL.
The majority of today’s professional players were first recognized from their involvement in an IHL. Here are just a few examples:
- Arteezy joined Kaipi after meeting EternaLEnVy in C9-DL, and became an icon through his play in NEL.
- Ppd made a name for himself in HoN, but met his current teammate Arteezy in NEL.
- Mason began ringing for EG due to his success in NEL.
- Universe and ixmike88 entered the competitive scene through NADL and other North American IHLs.
- 1437 and Universe joined OK.Nirvana.int after playing together in DCIHL.
- DeMoN made a name for himself in DXD before joining hi2u.
- MSS was originally asked to ring for Team Liquid because he was on top of the NEL ladder.
- eHug was formed with five NEL players.
- Jubei met eHug through IXDL which led to his MLG attendance and relocation to Korea.
- Shadows of the Past formed after playing together in NEL.
- Many pro Chinese players, including ZSMJ, YYF, ChuaN, Yao, Mu, LaNm, Super, cty, and papaxiong have competed in CDEC, the premier in-house league in China.
- EternaLEnVy met kizzles in IXDL to form the first No Tidehunter roster.
- H4nn1, Loda, Akke, Pajkatt, MiSeRy, Puppey, Dendi, and XBOCT have all played in in-house leagues from IHCS to EEL.
The Importance of In-house Leagues
The future of Dota 2 as an esport relies on fostering new talent and efficiently ushering them into the competitive scene. This is sometimes accomplished by recognizing the talent of an unknown pub star, but more often than not, a player turns pro after engaging in semipro competitions. Amateur and semipro team leagues have always been an important part of esports infrastructure. But semipro competition has a lot of barriers to overcome – most notably, team stability. Most players cannot commit the necessary time to improve without compensation. Unfortunately, esports has not yet grown to a point where semipro players can make a living wage. It’s no wonder that semipro teams become discouraged and quickly disband before reaching the professional level. In the rare occasion that a player has the dedication and lifestyle to pursue a professional Dota 2 career, the other four teammates are most likely not in the same situation. The team disbands, and the player has to start over.
This is why IHLs are a vital complement to semipro leagues. IHLs allow a player to improve without being attached to four big question marks. Dedicated IHL players are easily recognized by their activity and desire to improve. The best players rise to the top, and are either approached by pro players who also compete in the IHL, or form a team with other individuals who have shown similar talent.
Of course we cannot ignore perhaps the most scrutinized aspect of IHLs, the community. Nowhere else do players learn and grow as quickly as an IHL, largely because of the constant interaction with other competitive players. Strategy discussions and technical tips are often the focus of an IHL’s chat. Sometimes these discussions get a bit heated. Sometimes they’re serious, and sometimes they’re all in good fun. Ultimately if you’re feeding, something is wrong, and learning to take criticism is an important step to improvement. This atmosphere has historically crafted the metagame for professional competitions. Mass games with competitive players spawn trends quicker than a limited number of pro matches where teams have a lot riding on every game.
A Brief History of In-house Leagues
The Threat
The Elite Leagues were thriving until December 2013 when ranked matchmaking was introduced to Dota 2. Ranked matchmaking was not a surprise, but it was immediately apparent that players cared more about their official Dota 2 matchmaking rating (MMR) than their NEL rating. This was confirmed after speaking to numerous NEL players, many of whom preferred the exclusivity of NEL but cared more about boosting their official MMR.
The Solution
Integrate Elite League ratings into Dota 2. IHLs require special attention to maintain the desired skill level and to discipline appropriately. This is not the same as 6k MMR matchmaking. Matchmaking is great for quickly starting a game that will be relatively balanced. 6k players are often matched with 4k players to balance the game. Sometimes this is exactly what players want, but sometimes they are willing to wait longer for a better game, especially when they can see who else is playing before committing. Elite Leagues also let the best players draft their teams, which has the potential to create more balanced teams with better chemistry than matchmaking.
The Potential Outcome
When I say NEL and the other Elite Leagues were thriving, I mean it. The NEL viewing experience was completely different from pro tournaments. NEL provides a more casual, yet highly competitive and innovative atmosphere. Industry leaders quickly took notice, we expanded to four continents, and had more interest from sponsors than we could have ever imagined. We were in a position to employ multiple hard working individuals full-time, which is no easy feat in the esports industry. And that’s really what we want – to let people do what they love. The past six months have been tough. Seeing your dream materialize before you, only to vanish in an instant is nothing but demoralizing. But we know we have something special. People want to play in IHLs. People want to watch IHLs. Because of this, IHLs will never truly die. But with one change, they could flourish.-- Aaron “Spit-wad” Stern & Michael “ixmike88” Ghannam
Testimonials
"Well for me I was ‘good’ and I kept playing inhouses. Eventually you form relationships with people if you play with them enough. In RMM it's a bit different. I said it earlier in some interview, RMM ladder isn't good for finding pro players, inhouses are much better. It's a better environment in almost every way." – Mason “mason” Venne, Evil Geniuses
“I spammed IXDL games on the same hero and just hoped to play one of the practiced matchups versus a pro player in hopes of showing my talents off because there were a lot of observers in each IXDL game back in the day. Eventually, I was defeated by pro players in matches like Korok and Dendi which made me even more hungry to get better and crush them later on because I knew I could do it if I tried.” – Artour “Arteezy” Babaev, Evil Geniuses
“I would like to say that back then I'm just a MM player who always stack with people like sN for example. I don't know what competitive was and my english skill is really low so I don’t know much things about in house like people used to play (ixdl, NEL) and then I met Broodstar and he asked me to play ixdl but it wasn't fun for me and then I go back to MM. As the days progress I start to get bored of it and there was an announcement for NEL with prize pool so I decided to try it out and I got vouched by Broodstar but I was afraid to play with all those players because I thought my skills aren’t good enough but when I tried it, it was fun and people start to noticed me and like me based on my skills and good attitudes but what I think for myself I’m not a very skilled player. I always have this dream that one day I want to play in competitive scene but my english wasn’t good enough to communicate to people but NEL has brought me into competitive and it helps me building my english skills with people who plays this league and then it was ixmike88 who asked me to play completive after he saw my performance in the NEL because he thought I was a good player and ixmike88 has brought me into competitive scene. I'm also still playing in-houses like ixdl and NEL as long as there are people to play but the leagues need supports to get more people to play it. Big thanks to ixmike88.” – Veasna “SNA” Sokhom, Sneaky Nyx Assassins
“IHL's have always been a great way to introduce yourself into a competitive environment. For me in particular for being a South American player the level of play I could reach was limited due to the player skill around me. But thanks to the old IHL's back in Dota 1 I got to improve myself and join games with players way above my skill and because of it I was able to learn a lot and eventually grow as a player as well as making a name for myself. This helped me getting noticed and meeting new people who eventually would become my teammates.” – William “Gudii” Aguilera, No Earthspirit
“Inhouses are the best way to show your true potential and get good at professional Dota 2. You can always play with good players, players better than you, and that is the best way to achieve something, learning with the best. It has also a nice environment, you can always meet new people to play with, and there is no such thing as fake accounts. Another good thing about inhouses is the tickets system, many people watching you play around the world with casters is very good to show your skills and get known in the International Dota 2 scenario.” -- Danilo "Ned" Silva, CNB e-Sports Club
“I can pretty much say the only reason I'm going to compete at TI4 is because of ixmike88 and his inhouse leagues. A year ago it was only a dream of mine to compete professionally and I didn't think pro players would acknowledge me since I was a unknown player. That was until I started to play in NEL and slowly got my talent and potential recognized by pros and I eventually ended up standing in for the top tier NA teams and got asked to join teams after TI3.” -- Arif "MSS" Anwar, mousesports
Sources: ixmike88 - Reddit
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