Cover-Credits:
Each region in Dota 2 has its own distinct type of players and playing style resulting in varying experiences for different regions. As part of a discussion about the North America (NA) and Europe (EU) regions on the BananaSlamJaron podcast, three of NA's popular Dota 2 personalities Brian "BSJ" Canava, Quinn "Quinn" Callahan, and Jaron "monkeys-forever" Clinton shared their experiences playing in both regions. All three of them agreed that NA pubs were chaotic, but there was a sense of community since players knew one another, but since there is not as much friendship in EU because of a very large player base, it lacks a sense of community.
Quinn, BSJ, and monkeys-forever talk about NA and EU pubs
Quinn and monkeys-forever, both having been professional gamers for years, have played in many regions across the world, including NA and EU. When questioned by BSJ about the difference between pubs from both regions, Quinn gave humorous examples to illustrate his view.
“EU pubs are much colder than NA. There are so many more players so there’s… In NA, almost everyone else is an animal but like there’s like a community, you know you are in a zoo together whereas, in EU, there are so many people. Like you do not know anyone. All their names are like - kill me and their pictures are anime girl bleeding out of her eyes and they all first pick Shadow Fiend. There’s no community, you don’t know anyone.”
Likewise, monkeys-forever cited the low player base in NA as a reason why players know each other in pubs.
“That’s true, in NA, you do play with the same 100 or 200 people so you literally do know everybody eventually if you have played enough in NA. But you go to EU, and nobody knows each other there. There are not as many friendships so you don’t get like two friends on the same team and two other friends on the same team.”
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BSJ, being a streamer for Team Liquid, a commentator, and as it recently became known, a pro player for Arkosh Gaming, has also played a lot of pubs in both regions. Quinn echoed BSJ's view that it is the case where sometimes he meets strangers in EU pubs, whereas in NA, it is clear who the players in the game are.
“I am gonna give you props but using the word ‘cold’ in EU. It literally is very cold there but man, the people that are griefing me, I have no idea who this guy is. It’s just some rank 900 because, in NA, rank 900 is like rank 300 so you probably know the guy. I could say if you played, of pubs, the top 300 people are probably consistently in your games.”
Further explaining his experiences in EU and NA pubs, BSJ joked that picking a random hero such as a Morphling or Shadow Fiend in the first phase is going to happen in both. However, in the former, he will have no idea who the player first picking these heroes is, whereas in the latter, he knows who the player is and exactly what he is going to do all game.
Even with all of these differences, BSJ hilariously mentioned one practice that was common to both regions - muting the players on the team.
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