Congratulations to the (apparently now defunct) iCHOR-DotA division on defeating those coquettish rogues from the Anthony Mallon All-Stars in the recent DotA Grand Final. I will point out that my name is also Anthony, and it was in fact my team that got creamed in my own tournament. Perhaps an ironic twist if it weren't such a one-sided finals match. Also you should not wonder what drives a person to name a team after himself, but you should wonder more on what drives an entire team of players to also agree to this.
Double congratulations to iCHOR and another congratulations to AMAS for some true sportsmanship displayed. On a serious note however with the first DotA tournament now completed and behind us, I already find myself with slight withdrawal symptoms. Quite a few people ask about DotA, and quite a few more people have asked since some time around 2005. I've never ever had the patience to teach the game to anyone and this is something that is common to a lot of the DotA community outside of their official forums. Several years ago now I used to be an avid DotA player, fitting in as much throne time as I could between meals, showering, work, sleep and breathing. Well sometimes sleep. But whenever I could drag my friends kicking and screaming into a game I would do so with great glee and for the most part it met with success, and more importantly the people who weren't also violently allergic to RTS and/or RPG gaming had a stack of fun doing so.
DotA Thursdays eventually moved closer to Sundays and then Tuesdays, but the one rule of the evening always stuck with us no matter when it was on - it's still DotA Thursdays. Perhaps because the one rule was simply denying that we were a few calendar squares off the mark was the very thing that helped to enhance the fun of the whole experience, who knows. I tell you this story because I want to assure you that DotA Thursdays is a tradition steeped in a rich pedigree.
Seeing as today is a Thursday, I hereby announce that DotA Thursdays is now officially back on. The aim of DotA Thursdays is to drag as many people kicking and screaming into the game of DotA as we possibly can. And I should point out that this is the one aim of it, and not to generate professional DotA teams that can reshape the landscape of DotA gaming in Australia because progaming is just hard to do in Australia. Hell, even casual leagues are hard to get going properly, with the occasional exception, and considering you have to organise 10 people without a 'public server' to aid you there is no simple and easy public game to join without running the gauntlet of swearing teammates. Yes those three links are broken, yes that is the point.
I am hoping that if enough people are having enough fun in enough games, this will lead up a casual 'pro-am' style DotA circuit on the forums, whereupon we stick 2-3 new players with 2-3 seasoned players; and then those responsible could organise those teams to play so that new players can learn under someone who has played the game before. This should allow prospective players to skip the whole semester of Item Builds 101, and additional "Unit Control and You" classes. Until that day the DotA forums are open for business, and any and all information you need to know about DotA, the playing of DotA and playing DotA on the Sabbath day (Thursdays) will be collated and posted there.
If you have even a tiny interest in DotA, come and let me share an insatiable love for ganking with you. That was DotA terminology by the way.
Don't worry, you'll get there.