DOTA 2 is arguably the most in-depth and complex game out on the esports scene and Moin Ejaz just loves it. The Commonwealth Esports Championships captain for team India explains his love for the game and gives a quick guide to the sport.
“The more complicated a game is, the more I like it”, he says. Ejaz first got into gaming when his father bought a PC for work when Ejaz was around seven or eight years old. “I was always into games, I always liked playing. At some point, I saw ads and stuff on a website about DOTA and I decided to give it a go.”
He never looked back. Ejaz has played the game for more than eight years now and became India’s team captain along the way. “It has been a wonderful ride so far. I loved playing it from the beginning”, he said.
Though it was only after four years when he thought about pursuing gaming as a career. “My advice for others would be to just give 100 percent to achieve your dreams. You don’t need to force yourself to play something just because some title is more popular. Just play the game that you love and commit 100 percent to it.”
It’s hard work, commitment, and a ‘never give up’ attitude that helped Ejaz to get to the level he’s at now, but he still only has one word to describe esports and especially DOTA 2. “Torture”, he said with a smile. “It’s a difficult game and there is a lot you need to think of.”
So what does this game involve?
DOTA 2 is a game where two teams of five players each are tasked with destroying the central structure in their enemy’s base, called the Ancient, while protecting their own. “Basically it’s earning money by eliminating the opponents and destroying the main structure”, Ejaz said. The five players on each team are given control of a hero that all have different skill sets. “The heroes all have different powers so a game could easily switch over time”, he added.
The whole match, therefore, becomes a strategic balancing act, with players needing to decide what to do. “Everyone uses their own hero to protect the tower as much as possible and attack the other side. As a team, we always try to make a plan on how to make the best use of our heroes. Just so we can gain money and push the other side in order to win.”
The two teams’ bases are located on opposite ends of the map and connected by three lanes - top, middle, and bottom, each guarded by four tiers of towers. “It’s a matter of destroying those towers, so you mainly just focus on your own lanes. You really have to plan together. We all try and help each other and sacrifice ourselves and our towers for our teammates.”
Coming into the Commonwealth Esports Championships, team India is looking to make it to the (semi-) finals. “We feel confident. I think team England is very strong, very good. They will be hard to beat. But the other teams should be a bit easier. When I saw them play, they didn’t look as good. We made some strategies for our matches, so let’s see how it goes.”
“We had a long trip to get here, it’s been a long journey. We were tired when we arrived, but we slept and are getting into it now. Just give us a PC and we are totally fine”, Ejaz said.