To be honest, the DotA community is highly skilled in finding guilt in all factors but themselves. But what if the DotA community keeps itself from taking the "next big step"? What if eSport organizations are afraid of signing teams because of the players? Or the sponsorship thing: what if the companies don't trust the reliability of DotA and its competitive scene?

Every day both players and community argue about the differences between DotA and other major eSport titles. So many fans, so many events, so many teams and yet so little support and cash involved. Unfair! The evil is found fast and easily in the covering websites that fail so often in providing high quality information, in the events that fail to gather enough sponsors to establish prize galore that are comparable to other titles and ultimately in the sponsors themselves, who seem to ignore the demand of the millions of fans out there.

All these reproaches seem to be directly connected to the teams and players of the competitive scene. They are in charge of scheduling their matches early enough and communicate their match dates with the event organizations. This is the only way the events can manage their leagues and tournaments. The covering websites also depend heavily on the players: the early known match dates are basics, but they also need a little more of the players to produce attractive content, like interesting statements prior to and after matches and a lot of time for interviews that offer more than the known super mediocre "bla bla". Sponsors want to see real characters and personalities to represent their products and are looking for idols, also in terms of reliability and being mature. And right now only a few players are able to fit those needs.

There is a major connection between the players, the community, the event organization, the websites and the sponsors. And only if every group involved gives its best the sponsors will think about taking DotA seriously, the event organizations get the support of companies to create satisfying events, the news and coverage websites get the data to provide the required information for the community and last but not least the players get what they deserve: serious prize money for the time effort they make by giving DotA such a high priority in their lives.

Players demand a salary, demand support to be able to attend the few offline events that feature DotA with prize money and they demand to be treated in a mature and reliable way. They will have to prove that they can be a benefit for a major organization by representing the organization in public.

A professional behaviour will also fix problems like the fact that major organizations stop their engagement for DotA. SK Gaming or mousesports for example are not interested in DotA anymore. SK Gaming didn't put effort into recruiting new talents after the team around their star player Jonathan 'Loda' Berg disbanded. According to TheSlash, their Swedish phenomenon was still in contract when he joined up with the ex-MYM team, Kingdom. But the thing SK Gaming is looking for is not only a successful team; they are looking for a team they can utilise as a marketing instrument for their partners' products. Why? Maybe because DotA isn't supported by companies directly, or for any other reason still unknown.

mousesports seems to have even worse trouble managing their DotA division. They build a team around Kim 'Drayich' Larsson, but right before they could harvest the crops he seeded months earlier, his fellow players joined the ranks of Kingsurf.international, where they compete successfully until now. mousesports stepped down for a few months and then decided to give DotA a second try. Again they called Drayich to form and lead a new team, and again they failed in establishing themselves. Their second try ran out of steam even faster. Only a couple of weeks after they announced their new line-up the team decided to break up without informing the management of mousesports. This is also the reason why the official website is still missing a statement to clear up the situation. Lack of players' motivation or whatever the official statement will be - it's really frustrating for an organization to be treated like this.

The whole community surely has to spend a little more effort to fulfill the dream of pushing DotA to the level of an accepted eSport title, and the players have a leading part. A player who takes care of the press' needs, the events he's participating in and the needs of the community, will raise his own worth and the economical worth of his team by working on his own brand. A team with a massive crowd of fans and followers has better chances to find sponsors by being a constant topic in the media.

The part of the sponsorships is definitely the hardest of all, and with websites and events developing, the players should realise that it's time to decide whether to stay on this competitive level we know today or not. They have to consider the option that a little extra effort could close the gap between their level of professionalism today and the level most of them dream of.

Massive prize money is not the only indicator of a successful eSport title and this was proved by several games in the past. DotA lacks acceptance of the global eSport community and the interest of potential sponsors. Players need to prove that they can deliver excitement to the community. This includes more than only action packed games.

This does look like a couple of insults to the players, yes. But it's only a mind game to show which kind of problems the community and especially the competitive scene could work on to create better circumstances for the evolution of the professional scene. The press and media have to develop further as well as the administration of events has to continuously work on becoming more professional.

eSport has to be a big show to attract sponsors just like any real life sport has. Football didn't become so popular because it's a sport that needs the best skill or because it's a unique game. It got ahead of handball, tennis and figure skating because it's so emotional and intense. DotA can be a bit like football: we got the media, we got the events. Now we need the emotion of players and the organizational support of teams to call it a major and successful eSport title.