AGASA Looking To Phase Out DotA — HoN To The Rescue?

South Africa’s largest online league, AGASA, has announced a contentious decision to phase out support for the popular game Defense of the Ancients (DotA) in 2010. This is, according to the AGASA Committee, in order to orientate the organisation’s full resources towards a potential replacement in the hero-based RTS genre: S2 Games’ Heroes of Newerth (HoN). DotA has a significant local following; however, most local players choose illegally pirated installations instead of purchasing the legitimate game. This has made the title almost impossible to source sponsorship for.

This week, in an exclusive interview, an AGASA representative told eGamer:

“We’ve spent over 4 years trying to source a viable sponsor for competitive DotA, but nobody wants to touch it. Piracy was the major reason why we were not able to lobby for DotA to be held at rAge. Despite the presence of an enormous local community and the arrival of a number of stable competitive teams, it’s a risk which sponsors aren’t willing to take – and rightly so.”

Heroes of Newerth might offer the local community an opportunity to build the hero-based RTS genre into something which dwarfs the likes of Call of Duty and Counter-Strike.

“The potential is there. It’s a rapidly growing community and a game which has already begun to prove its worth across the world. Aside from the chance to revive the DotA community’s reputation, HoN offers players heaps of functionality which the non-standalone alternative never will.”

Being dropped from a match mid-game (one of the major downsides to competitive on-/off-line DotA) is alleviated in Heroes of Newerth through the game’s ability to let you rejoin a game after being dropped. The netcode (the language which the game uses to transmit game data to other players) is also substantially improved which means that local teams are able to compete against overseas teams on a more equal playing field. Heroes of Newerth also offers players and spectators a big step forwards in terms of graphics and gameplay dynamic, although this does require better graphics and processing capabilities.

S2 Games also recently released their online clan management facility, which allows players to easily manage their clans and players, along with stats tracking and easy matchmaking. The ESL, Europe’s largest online gaming league, also recently got their first HoN Competition underway, with over 80 teams taking part.

“We’re not happy to say goodbye to DotA, but we have to be realistic. The community will never really have an opportunity to reach its full potential with the reputation it currently has. I doubt that HoN will ever replace DotA as a free-for-all title, but competitively, I hope that the community makes the shift towards something sustainable.

We want to push for HoN’s inclusion in the Do Gaming leagues next year, which will mean that it will see major sponsorship and prizes – possibly to the extent of Call of Duty 4. All that has to change is the mindset. For the fun and enjoyment you will get out of it, buying HoN for 30 dollars is really worth it in the long run. ”

AGASA will continue to offer support for DotA for the first half of 2010, although it will no longer offer the free weekend cups which became a monthly event this year. After the phase-out period, DotA will be moved to the archived games section and will no longer be supported.

Although Heroes of Newerth is still in its beta testing stages, many of the country’s top DotA clans have already begun to form HoN teams as the title aims for full release later next year. AGASA has already started working towards an introductory competition to be held in Q1 2010 and registrations will open in January.

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