When Valve changed the matchmaking selection a few years ago, Dota 2 users were able to select the server they want to play on. New groups of players have landed explosively on the European and American servers!
A lot of these transferred users were Russian players. A huge shitstorm began and the majority of the Dota 2 community started to associate Russian teammates to an automatic failure which made the game harder to win. What is it all about? Let’s discuss!
Reasons why so many Russians play on Dota 2 EU-Servers:
First of all, I dissociate myself from any racist aspects, in general it’s not limited to a specific group of people. The problem is that players of a specific region join regions of other countries and refuse to speak the same language. Russians in Dota 2 and a few other nations like the chinese and some eastern europe countries, often completely reject the English language!
Instead of helping the game flow, through good communication, the only thing they do is to not talk at all or to speak Russian. They take it for granted to chat and voice chat in their language without taking care of other teammates.
The frequency of these types of users is enormous – this makes Dota 2 beginner players and others that are trying to have a good game with proper communication, desperate and aggressive. And when it comes to flaming, of course, any Russian can use English to flaming back surprisingly! 😀
Why are the Russians playing on different servers?
Valve has set up a Russian server – why the hell aren’t all Russians playing on that server? Fact is, a lot of Russians have a worse ping on this server than on EU and US servers!
Why is that so?
The answer is, (one of )the Russian Dota 2 server is located in Stockholm, Sweden. Nordic countries have always had fantastic pings and internet connections, but Russia is big and even if it is the server for them, they have a relatively bad pingthere. 
So it’s understandable that they just test other servers and if it works better they play there permanently. 😉
Of course there are other aspects to this: For example the waiting time to search a ranked Dota 2 match increases if more and more players move to other servers. Who wouldn’t add more servers to the search?
There is also the theory that these nationalities themselves have similar opinions about their own player nation and avoid playing with Russians – comment if you have any learnings about this or if you think this is bullshit! 😉
The stupid thing about this is, that we all start to have an opinion about Russians in Dota 2, but that’s wrong: Unfortunately, there are a lot of unpleasant examples that put the good guys in the mud. I have met so many Russians, who are awesome and nice players – and absolutely no feeders or throwers. I played so many great hero combos with them and just had a good time.
Funny Examples of the Dota 2 Shitstorm:
The associations with Russians in Dota 2 in Europe and America are extremely negative but also funny. 😀 That is of course only for the part of the Russians who ruin games.
But the prejudices have hardened in the meantime and a lot of people in Dota 2 have this opinion. Here are a few funny examples of opinions and memes about Dota 2 and Russians:
Is the Main-Language-Problem existent
in other Online Games?
I played Warcraft 3 and Dota 1 for a long time. There the relationship to Russians was about the same, there wasn’t even a dedicated server for them. They were part of the game and very often you had to get upset about them. In Warcraft 3 (a strategy game), the teams are smaller: When you play with friends, any strangers are your oppononents and there is no problem anymore.
I don’t know what it’s like in League of Legends because I don’t play it, but I’ve heard that there are similar problems with some Chinese players and that Riot is being asked to do something about it. Do you have any experience there? Comment below. 😉
In general, I think in international online games the English language should always be used and maybe even be obligated.
Tips to have a better gaming experience in Dota 2:
- The easiest way is to play in a team with as many people as possible, optimal is 5 players and nothing can happen! 🙂 It’s also the perfect place to try special hero tactics.
- Get into action and ask Steam to set the English language as a standard and allow reports/complaints if it is violated. In the common old Dota leagues, English was always mandatory and that was an easy rule!
- Reduce your prejudices a little bit. Often it’s the racist or derogatory comments that drive the people concerned into a corner and leave them no other choice but to flare back and defend themselves. Because nobody would say yes, that’s right I am Russian I am a feeder!
- In general, the Dota 2 psychology-basic-rule #1 from the Dota 2 mind games guide applies: Encourage others: simple compliments like “gj or nice” as well as deferment like “u can go on the save lane, u can take the rune” will connect you and let you survive together in crises.
In such situations, one should not look for blame, but rather make the goal clear, through which moves the team can still win. Often it is not the other player that cheers for flaming, but oneself.
In the Dota 2 MMR rank boosting guide, you can find a few more psychological tips on how to deal with such problems.
Conclusion
The gaming experience in Dota 2 still needs to be improved! But as long as nothing changes at the current state it is difficult. In-game racism has always been a topic in e-sports titles, but maybe Steam will create a better game dynamic with a better set of rules in Dota 2.
In the end just try to avoid any racism in online games, we are all the same and Dota 2 is just a game! 🙂 Let’s give the world some love!
For me, it’s not about the good humanity and the improvement of interpersonal problems, but my shitty Dota 2 game should amuse me and I want to gamble on a high skill level with good communication! 😀
What is your opinion about Dota 2, Russians and all other countries?
That’s ridicules so many people request this simple feature, but Valve do not add it on some unclear purpose. Just let players select countries which they don’t want to play with. It is very simple feature. I believe all of us would prefer to wait a bit longer, but play for pleasure.
Funny how this article kinda defend the russian speaking players. I’m sorry to say that but almost all the russians I come across are so toxic. I can’t enjoy playing with them. They are rude, disrespectful, have no sense of behavior. I’ve been playing games for 35 years and you can not seriously say most of them are nice. My quality of life in video games dropped since they get on our servers. Even in some games, I have to join US servers to get nice players and avoir playing with them. They also hack, have no respect for others.… Read more »
And I understand people giving up in video games. Myself, I gave up yesterday because of two Czech players who were trolling to make us lose on purpose and who kept insulting me during the whole game. No one is crazy enough to keep playing in these conditions.
I have been on the Internet for over 18 years and have been playing Dota for about 15 years. I saw with my own eyes how the community was changing, also a great experience of playing other moba games. In the article, you made one major mistake, like all other English-speaking players in relation to the “Russians”. The fact is that those whom you call “Russians” are most often not real Russians. In the CIS countries, there are many Russian-speaking or languages similar to Russian. Even in the article you have a meme with a picture where letters similar to… Read more »
Vladimir, you are full of sh*t, I had many interactions with Russians in real life and games and I dislike ration nation. Rarely I find an educated and civilized person. And your opinion on Ukraineans are not supported by facts. Yes a lot of CIS people are rude but your remarks are simply Fascist and Nationalistic. I put no value in you or your views on this specific topic, nor should all the wise people.
I am Russian, playing on EU servers. For me personally it started from Starcraft 2. EU server was considered much more skilled (some of top pro gamers from EU). Hence the desire to play there. Platinum league in EU was sometimes harder than diamond in RU. But I speak English fluently and use it as a default language for my communications (plus I live in Germany now). Another point is there are really much more bad mannered players in RU which makes it really annoying for me to play with them. Interesting thing here. The amount of hate for bad… Read more »
Well at least you speak english. Most of this kids don’t speak english and beside that, they go AFK, feed or be toxic in any other way. It’s so damn annoying. They really are a different kind of humans xD.