League of Legends and DOTA 2 are currently the two leading MOBA titles in the world. While DOTA 2 has clearly fallen behind in some Asian countries, conversely, League of Legends in North America and Europe is not as strong as in the LPL and LCK regions. A prime example is the absolute dominance of Eastern League of Legends since 2012 in the World Championship.
The communities of League of Legends and DOTA 2 are always embroiled in debates, arguing over which game is truly the “champion” in the MOBA scene. Even details like tournament prize money, the scale of competitions, and the legends of each game can become topics of controversy between the communities of these two prominent Esports titles.
Recently, the communities of these two games dove into a heated debate triggered by the streamer known as xQcOW – a male streamer with millions of views on Twitch who often creates content related to various games like DOTA 2, Overwatch, etc. Specifically, during a discussion with xQcOW on December 25, former Riot employee Blautoise claimed that the design of DOTA 2 was truly terrible and he did not understand why many people thought that the harder a game is, the better it is.
In response to Blautoise’s criticisms aimed at DOTA 2, streamer xQcOW fiercely asserted that League of Legends players are too weak: “League of Legends only has about 3 items that are activatable, and even Riot intends to remove them because they believe too many buttons prevent League of Legends players from using them properly, isn’t that just like being weak? It’s like, ‘Oh my god, 5 buttons? That’s too many, I can’t handle it! It’s exhausting!’.
This remark from the male streamer displeased Blautoise, and both sides continued their fierce verbal clash. Ultimately, the discussion ended with no side truly emerging victorious.
However, just a few days later, netizens discovered that xQcOW had also been trying hard in League of Legends, even reaching level 77 and spending some money in the game to purchase skins. When playing, he also appeared to try hard and expressed frustration when being defeated or making mistakes.
Criticizing the League of Legends community as “weak” but then trying hard at the “national game,” xQcOW has faced criticism from many for seemingly trying to bait views. Nonetheless, this is still evidence that League of Legends indeed has a powerful allure and continues to grow even more widely.