A Critical Investigation of Competitions in E-Sports Gaming Industry using DOTA 2 Business
Model Analysis
The Research Paper is submitted in Partial
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E-Sports
Declaration of Originality
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Abstract
The purpose of the research study was to investigate the level of competition in the E-Sports
gaming industry with reference to the business model of DOTA 2. For the very reason, the
researcher relied upon the use of both qualitative and quantitative data. The research instrument
that was used by the researcher was questionnaire, which was distributed to the participants over
the Steam account. The researcher found that the popularity of DOTA 2 was the resultant of its
business model, which eventually resulted in the extreme popularity among professional gamers.
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Table of Content
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 5
Research Background and Context.......................................................................................... 5
Thesis Statement ...................................................................................................................... 6
Research Objectives ................................................................................................................ 6
Hypotheses............................................................................................................................... 6
Nature of the Research Study .................................................................................................. 7
Anticipated Outcome ............................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 8
E-Sports ................................................................................................................................... 8
Competition in the E-Sports Gaming Industry ...................................................................... 11
DOTA 2 Business Model ...................................................................................................... 11
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .......................................................................... 13
Research Design .................................................................................................................... 13
Qualitative Research ...................................................................................................... 13
Quantitative Research .................................................................................................... 13
Research Approach ................................................................................................................ 13
Inductive Research ......................................................................................................... 13
Data Collection Methods ....................................................................................................... 14
Primary Data .................................................................................................................. 14
Secondary Data .............................................................................................................. 14
Research Instrument .............................................................................................................. 14
Sample Size and Sample Population ..................................................................................... 14
Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .................................................... 16
Gender ................................................................................................................................... 16
Age......................................................................................................................................... 16
Years of Experience............................................................................................................... 16
Preferred Game over Steam ................................................................................................... 17
Reason for Selecting the Game ............................................................................................. 17
DOTA 2 Business Model ...................................................................................................... 17
Future of DOTA 2 ................................................................................................................. 17
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................. 18
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 18
Limitations of the Study ........................................................................................................ 18
Recommendations for Future Researches ............................................................................. 18
References ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Appendix A – Questionnaire ........................................................................................................ 21
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Research Background and Context
Electronic Sports (E-Sports) or competitive gaming has become a buzz term for
organized professional gamers, and is considered as a composed feature amusement rivalries. In
the 21st century, competitive gaming has not just been limited to real-time strategy online games,
but has also expanded in the genres like first-person shooter, multiplayer battle arena (MOBA),
and fighting (Taylor, 2012, pp. 8-9). Considering the rise of interest in competitive gaming,
several tournaments have been organized over the years including; The International, the
Evolution Championship Series, and the Intel Extreme Masters that not only give cash prizes to
the winners, but also give equally live telecasts of the opposition. In particular, South Korea has
a TV channel that is completely dedicated to broadcast professional tournaments of League of
Legends (LoL) and StarCraft II etc. The World Championship Season III of LoL was
broadcasted over Twitch, which was watched online by approximately by a total of 32 million
fans, where 26.5 percent (representing 8.5 million viewers) watched it at the same time. This is
an interesting fact that reflects the interest of people from all walks of life towards competitive
gaming.
Despite the facts that E-Sports have long been a member of game diversion society,
rivalries have seen an extensive surge in prevalence as of late. Though, rivalries before around
the year 2000 were generally between novices, the expansion of expert rivalries and developing
viewership now underpins countless players and groups, and numerous feature amusement
engineers now incorporate peculiarities with their amusements intended to encourage such
rivalry. This can be observed from the rise in the level of sponsorship. The League of Legends
(LoL) tournaments are sponsored by multinational corporations including Samsung, Coca Cola,
Nissan, and American Express. According to Zancy (2012), competitive gaming has experienced
significant increase in the level of rivalries among prominent titles. For instance, DOTA 2 along
with League of Legends and StarCraft II were among the prominent titles in the year 2012;
whereas Call of Duty emerged as the prominent title in the year 2013 and 2014 (Shaw & Warf,
2009, p. 1332).
In the technologically advanced era, the E-Sports have brought significant changes in the
traditional gaming industry. There are several genres of games, and each of them is somewhat
similar to the real indoor sports. For instance, Counter Strike is relevant with Football in terms of
teamwork and moving forwards; meanwhile DOTA 2 is similar to Chess (Crawford & Gosling,
2009, pp. 50-66). Every move in DOTA 2 can cause the player to earn gold and experience, and
has an impact on the outcome of the game. In this regards, people from all walks of life have
shown their interest in E-Sports in one way or another. Since the gaming industry has attracted a
lot of people towards it, gamers are now working for further development of the industry
worldwide. According to Kalle (2010), the number of professional leagues and organisations
representing E-Sports has significantly increased over the years, which is yet another
development in the field of competitive gaming. By doing so, professional gamers can earn up to
hundreds and thousands of dollars in a fiscal year, and they are supported by investors and other
shareholders including; commentators, spectators, organizers, and multinational firms. In other
words, E-Sports can be regarded as the new wave in sports gaming industry, which has not even
reached its potential yet (Crawford & Gosling, 2009, pp. 50-66).
On the contrary, Riot Games; an American-based Chinese-owned video game publisher,
indicated the existence of significant competition in the E-Sports industry, which is the reason
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why the company has failed to reap impressive profit over the years. However, E-Sports have
been regarded as the new wave in the international gaming industry, where the target audience
are the gamers, irrespective of their age and ethnicity. For instance, Sumail Hassan with the
Team Evil Geniuses (EG) won the DOTA Asian Championship in China, and each team member
received $1.2 million (Hassan, 2015, p. n.d). Irrespective of the fact that Sumail belongs to
Pakistan and was 15 years of age, he was taken into the team once his capabilities and potential
of gaming techniques were analysed by the team members. This clearly suggests that age does
not matter in competitive gaming, but what matters is the X-factor and potential of the gamer
(Hassan, 2015, p. n.d). In comparison to the year 2014, the pool prize for Worldwide
Championship named ‘International’ was $5,000,000, and the team members of NewBee
received $1 million each. More importantly, every professional DOTA 2 team has set their sights
on The International 5, where the prize pool is expected to be over $10 million.
More importantly, there are several useful communities and programmes into action that
provides every individual gamer with an equal opportunity to compete in online games. One
particular community is STEAM that allows gamers to connect with the rest of the world,
irrespective of their location. The introduction of such programs have influenced a lot on cyber
sports industry and due to them it alluded to carry competitions on the next level and they
become world-wide and international. In the year 2014, it was suggested that approximately
6,562,031 users have recently joined the Steam society, and more will join the society as soon as
they hear about it (Steam & Game Stats, 2014).
Thesis Statement
The purpose of this research study is to critically investigate the level of competition in
E-Sports gaming industry, and the level of influence on each gamer in the selection of
competitive games.
Research Objectives
On the basis of the delineated thesis statement, the researcher has outlined the following
research objectives that will accomplish at the completion of the research study;




To investigate how competitions in e-Sport influence on gamers choice
To investigate the underlying reasons for the selection of a particular game over other in
the industry
To investigate the underlying reasons of DOTA 2’s success across the globe
To elaborate the future of the Cyber Sport industry considering the recent developments
and significant increase in the number of tournaments across the globe.
Hypotheses
Following are the research hypothesis that the researcher will either accept or reject at the
end of the research study;
Hypothesis 1:
H1o: Challenges in e-Sport has changed people`s understanding of gaming industry
H1a: Challenges in e-Sport has not changed people`s understanding of gaming industry
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Hypothesis 2:
H2o: A lot of young people all over the world are willing to make a career in e-Sport
industry
H2a: A lot of young people all over the world are not willing to make a career in e-Sport
industry
Hypothesis 3:
H3o: Countries all over the world will open faculty of Cyber Sports in universities and it
will become a real degree
H3a: Countries all over the world will not open faculty of Cyber Sports in universities and
it will never become a real degree
Hypothesis 4:
H4o: The use of DOTA 2 business model will have significant impact on the popularity of
other products in forthcoming years
H4a: The use of DOTA 2 business model will have no impact on the popularity of other
products in forthcoming years
Nature of the Research Study
The research study incorporated quantitative and qualitative research design. The
quantitative data for the research study was collected through the use of questionnaire, which
was intended to investigate the level of competition in the E-Sports gaming industry. From
qualitative perspective, the researcher has gathered the opinion of professional players in the
gaming industry along with commentators and analytics for understanding the level of
competition in the industry, and the motivational factors underlying the selection of games over
the internet. The researcher has separated the target audience in different groups such as: users,
professional players, analytics and organizers. It was important to divide them in order to gain
information from all perspective, rather than limiting the scope of the study to just a single
group.
Anticipated Outcome
With over 3 years of gaming experience, the researcher has anticipated that all of the
delineated hypothesis would be proved by collecting strong evidence. Even though, the
competitive industry is thought to be rather small, but actually it has been consistently growing at
a rapid pace. The prize pool money of The Tournament can be considered as an example.
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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
E-Sports
E-Sports are competitive in nature that only requires strategy, but also coordination,
reflexes, and exceptional technical skills to outperform others in the industry (Marchand &
Hennig-Thurau, 2013, pp. 141-157). The gaming industry has been in the centre of attention
because of all the tournaments and competitions being held all over the world. Electronic Sports
or E-Sports refer to an organized competition where professionals from all over the world
compete with one another in games for either attaining the title or the prize pool (Burk, 2013, pp.
2014-12).
In general, the viewership of E-Sports has drastically increased over the years.
Considering the significant increase in viewership, it has been indicated that the revenue
generation has doubled resulting in increased sponsorship (Teh, 2015, p. n.d). More importantly,
the E-Sports industry has outpaced other industries even including the traditional sports. In the
year 2011, a ground breaking record of 3.5 million viewers for StarCraft II championship, and
11.7 million viewers for Pro Circuit Championship in 2012 are just some statistics that have
changed the face of the gaming industry (Teh, 2015, p. n.d).
Figure: Viewership of E-Sports
Source: (Teh, 2015, p. n.d)
From the figure, it is quite visible that the E-Sports viewership has consistently been doubling
year after year. Not only the viewership has increased over the years, the competition in the
industry has also increased considering the rising interest of professional players all over the
world. In this regards, Pearson (2015) suggested that the E-Sports will hit $465m in terms of
revenue generation in the fiscal year 2017 (p. n.d).
On the other hand, it has been indicated that the E-Sports industry is already worth $194
million, which will jump to $465 million in just two years. Like traditional sports, E-Sports have
become a spectator sport that can be well compared with Ice Hockey and American Football
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(Pearson, 2015, p. n.d). The following figure illustrates the growth in audience in E-Sports along
with the revenue generation;
Figure: Growth in Audience and Revenues
Source: (Pearson, 2015, p. n.d)
In the digitally advanced era, the revenue generation of E-Sports and Sports is the key
differentiator. In particular, it has been suggested that 34 percent of the revenues of E-Sports is
the resultant of online advertisement, but the reliance on the investment of game publishers is
extremely high (Pearson, 2015, p. n.d). However, the recent change of events has attracted
sponsors from all over the world to get on board; whereas the consumers have shown their
willingness to contribute to the prize pool. Meanwhile, others are just willing to pay to attend the
real-life event (Pearson, 2015, p. n.d).
Figure: Sports and E-Sports Audience
Source: (Pearson, 2015, p. n.d)
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At the same time, it has been estimated that the there are 1.6 billion global sport-playing
population; whereas the global gaming community stands a little higher with 1.7 billion
population (Pearson, 2015, p. n.d). A total of 86 million E-Sports enthusiasts can be compared to
people that daily watch swimming, but there is still a difference to be compared to American
Football (151 million).
Figure: Revenue Generation per E-Sports Fan
Source: (Pearson, 2015, p. n.d)
Not only the revenue and fan-base exploded over the years, but the number of
tournaments held in a fiscal year also exploded. In the year 2000, there were only 27 tournaments
held for top players from all around the world, which significantly increased to 1895 in the 2014
(Taylor, 2015, p. n.d). At the same time, the prize money for each tournament also increased by
approximately 70 times resulting in more and more attention of professional players. In the year
2000, all the 27 tournaments that were held barely topped $500,000, but in 2014 the prize money
was more than $35 million, excluding the lucrative sponsorships from multinational
organisations including; Ford, American Express, Coca Cola etc (Taylor, 2015, p. n.d).
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Figure: Prize Money in E-Sports Tournaments
Source: (Taylor, 2015, p. n.d)
Competition in the E-Sports Gaming Industry
The competition in the E-Sports gaming industry has become tougher than expected. It
was expected by DFC Intelligence in the year 2014 that PC gaming market would hit $25 billion,
where the leaders would be League of Legends and DOTA 2 (Breslau & Nordmark, 2014, p.
n.d). This leading position of both MOBA games was the result of outstanding online gaming
experience and servers, where the majority of the players were Asians (Taylor, 2015, p. n.d).
Moreover, Breslau and Nordmark (2014) suggested in their article that League of
Legends retained its leading position in MOBA; whereas the second position was retained by
DOTA 2 with an outstanding growth that even surpassed LoL. Furthermore, it was indicated that
the MOBA genre was by far the most dominating because of two games; League of Legends and
DOTA 2; whereas the second position was held by PC first person shooting game; Counter
Strike: Global Offensive. The third position was held by MMORPG’s Team Fortress 2 (Taylor,
2015, p. n.d).
In the year 2014, Riot Games released some interesting statistics regarding the active
players for League of Legends (LoL). For instance, it was indicated that there are 27 million
active players of LoL (daily basis), and 67 million players per month. In the peak hours, LoL has
a total of 7.5 million players making it the largest game in MOBA genre (Taylor, 2015, p. n.d).
On the other hand, it was indicated that more than 50 percent of gaming cafes in China had
millions of LoL and DOTA 2 players.
DOTA 2 Business Model
Valve, the most successful game company, has ushered the idea of global distribution of
games through its online application store; Steam, where the games developed by third parties
are sold online to players. Games like Call of Duty and Skyrim are at the top of the list in terms
of sales (Graft, 2012, p. n.d). However, the real value of Steam lies within the equal opportunity
that it provides to independent publishers against multinational game makers. With the online
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gaming application, Valve has outmanoeuvred the titans in the gaming industry, and has attained
the leading position in the E-Sports gaming industry (Fung, 2014, p. n.d).
Figure: List of Most Played MOBA Games on Steam
Source: (Fung, 2014, p. n.d)
From the above figure, it has become clear that majority of the games played by
professional and amateur players are developed by Valve. For instance, DOTA 2 has 3,828
million hours of game play making it the most popular game over Steam. However, the
popularity of DOTA 2 is not its availability over the Steam, but its free-to-play business model
(Fung, 2014, p. n.d). Considering the rise of player’s interest in DOTA 2, Valve offer players to
purchase fancy gear for their in-game character, this is considered as pure cosmetic by Valve.
According to Valve (2014), “we believe restricting player access to heroes could be destructive
to game design, so it's something we plan to avoid. DOTA 2 will not be a pay-to-win game. All
the items in the store are cosmetic, and don't affect gameplay” (p. n.d).
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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The chapter of research methodology highlights the adopted approach by the researcher,
followed by the design and the instruments used for the collection of primary and secondary
data.
Research Design
Following is the brief explanation of the research design that the researcher has used for
the completion of the research study;
Qualitative Research
Qualitative research, as the name suggests, is a non-quantifiable data that is aimed to
develop, predict, and prove the hypothesis. In this research design, the researcher collects logical
and objective type of data, mostly by investigating regarding the topic of interest directly from
the respondent. This allows the researcher to understand the perception of the participants along
with their opinion towards the topic. More importantly, it has been suggested that qualitative
research design is mostly used for attaining information on innovative topics. Since the topic is
to investigate and analyse the competitiveness in the E-Sports gaming industry, the researcher
preferred to use qualitative research along with quantitative research design.
In other words, it can be stated that qualitative research design has been adopted by the
researcher to discover the rising level of competition in the competitive gaming industry, along
with the underlying reasons and assumptions for the selection of DOTA 2 and LoL as the
prominent titles in the 21st century. According to Kaplan and Dunchon (1988), qualitative
research design has significant advantage in terms of understanding what people like and want
from the point of view statistics and numbers.
Quantitative Research
According to Bryman (2006), quantitative research is based on the traditional
confirmatory scientific method, where the objective is to test the hypothesis and theories through
the use of statistics and numbers (p. 98). Quantitative research design comprises of the scientific
discovery that is rooted in the acceptance of outcomes through the use of statistics or the data
gathered from the research participants. In this regards, Kerlinger (1964) stated that in a
quantitative research, the researcher uses statistical approach for either accepting the hypothesis
or rejecting it. As the name suggests, this research design relies exclusively on the data gathered
in the form of numbers and statistics that allows the researcher to investigate the research
problem in a systematic manner.
Research Approach
Inductive research approach was used by the researcher considering the nature of the
research study, which is briefly described as follows;
Inductive Research
According to Goddard and Melville (2004), the inductive as the research approach
initiates with observations, and based on the observations the researcher formulate theories at the
end of the project. On the other hand, Bernard (2011) explained that ‘inductive research involves
the search for pattern from observation and the development of explanations – theories – for
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those patterns through series of hypotheses’ (p. 7). Considering this, it has become prominent
that no theories are formulated at the beginning of the research paper under inductive approach,
which makes the researcher free from making any changes in the direction of the research once
the process has commenced.
Data Collection Methods
Data collection is the process through which the researcher collects relevant and reliable
information regarding the topic of interest, and for the achievement of research objectives, while
ensuring that the defined hypothesis are either accepted or rejected. Following is a brief
description of the data collection methods used by the researcher for the completion of the
research study;
Primary Data
Primary data can be defined as the process of collecting first hand data and information
regarding the topic of interest. Considering this, the primary data for the research study was
collected through the use of survey, where the research instrument used by the researcher was
questionnaire. In particular, the survey questionnaire was distributed to professional players over
Steam, and against their responses the researcher gifted them ‘mythical clot’ for DOTA 2. The
researcher had to purchase the gifting item for 100 participants, which accounted for 50 pounds
in total.
On the other hand, primary data regarding the level of competition in the online gaming
industry was also collected through the use of interviews. The researcher interviewed some
professional players, commentators and analytics for understanding the depth of the gaming
industry. Since the target audience for the interview was somewhat different from questionnaire,
the researcher has separated the target audience in different groups such as: users, professional
players, analytics and organizers. It was important to divide them in order to gain information
from the different points of view.
Secondary Data
Secondary data, as the name suggests, is the data collected by some other researchers but
the research was somewhat similar to the topic of interest. Considering this, the researcher
collected secondary data through the use of past publications over the internet. Secondary data
was collected for its associated advantage of extensive reduction in cost and time associated with
collecting information regarding the problem at hand.
Research Instrument
Since the research study is both qualitative and quantitative in nature, the researcher used
Likert scale ranging from ‘strongly agree’ to ‘strongly disagree’; whereas the factor of neutrality
was not provided by the researcher to ensure that appropriate and reliable data was collected for
the research study.
Sample Size and Sample Population
There are over millions of gamers, but keeping in mind the limited time frame the
researcher selected the sample size of 100 participants. Keeping in mind the research objective,
the sample population was professional gamers. The research participants were selected
randomly over Steam.
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Ethical Considerations
Generally, there are five ethical concerns that the researcher considered during the
process of survey research. In this regards, the most highlighted concerns that the researcher
prioritised were; voluntary participation of the research participants, ensuring the confidentiality
and anonymity of the research participants, no harm to the participants, identification of the
research purpose, and the objectives of the research. The researcher informed the participants
regarding the objective and purpose of collecting the data.
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CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter of research findings, the researcher has provided the first-hand information
attained from the participants, which is as follows;
Gender
The question inquiring the gender of the research participant was the first demographic
question incorporated into the questionnaire. Considering the rise of E-Sports, the researcher has
observed that both males and females are equally into gaming, and both take online gaming quite
seriously. In this regards, the researcher incorporated the question regarding gender into the
researcher study. It was quite fascinating to find that 43 percent of the participants were females;
whereas 57 of the participants were males. The researcher was somewhat shocked to find such
significant figures for females.
Age
The next demographic question that the researcher incorporated into the questionnaire
was regarding the age group of the participants. Since the questionnaire was distributed to the
participants over the Steam, the researcher was unable to find the actual age group of the
participants. It was quite fascinating for the researcher to find that 23 percent of the participants
were between the age group of 17 and 21. This age group is usually associated with young
teenagers and young adults. This might be the influence of Sumail, who was just 15 years of age
when he won the DOTA 2 tournament with Team EG. On the other hand, the researcher also
found that the majority of MOBA games are played by individuals between the age group of 22
and 26, as they have more leisure time as compared to others. In particular, 39 percent of the
participants belonged to the delineated age group.
The next age group also had significant contribution in the world of online gaming. The
researcher found that approximately 21 percent of the participants were between 27 and 32 years
of age, and had been playing online multiplayer games for approximately 24 hours in a week.
Lastly, the age group between 33 and 37 had also limited contribution to online multiplayer
gaming. 17 of the research participants belonged to this age group.
Years of Experience
The purpose of incorporating this question into the questionnaire was to evaluate the
years of experience the participant had in multiplayer gaming. Since the participants were
surveyed over Steam, the researcher was able to check their level and was quite relieved that
majority of the participants had more than 25 level.
Only 12 percent of the participant had less than a year gaming experience, which
suggested the researcher that these individuals had recently joined Steam. On the contrary, 56 of
the participant had 2 years of gaming experience. This suggested that these players were able to
play ranked matches with greater MMR over Steam. 11 percent of the participant had more than
3 years of experience. These can be regarded as professionals with more experience than others
over the Steam. Lastly, 21 percent of the participants had 4 and more than four years of
experience.
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Preferred Game over Steam
Steam is an application that connects people from all over the world to connect and play
online games. Therefore, it was important to inquire what kind of game was preferred by them
over Steam. As expected by the researcher, the majority of the participants played DOTA 2 over
Steam, and did not switch over to any other game over Steam. In particular, 71 percent of the
participants were engaged in DOTA 2. It might either be the gifts that an individual receives at
the end of the game, or the excitement that follows in the game. On the other hand, the
researcher also found that 19 percent of the participants were engaged in Skyrim V: The Elder
Scroll. With 3 years of gaming experience, it can be added that DOTA 2 and Skyrim are
addictive games, and very difficult for gamers to live without it.
The remaining participants were engaged in Team Fortress 2 and Counter Strike. A total
of 6 individuals were engaged in Team Fortress 2, and the remaining 4 percent were engaged in
Counter Strike.
Reason for Selecting the Game
The next question inquired about the underlying reason for the selection of the game. It
was quite fascinating to find that majority of the participants preferred to play DOTA 2, because
it was a continuation of DOTA 1, which was quite familiar to them. At the same time, the
researcher found that DOTA 2 required extensive skills and techniques to overcome the
opponent. Since the game is played in 2 teams with 5 members each, it was quite difficult for the
team members to coordinate with one another, but the satisfaction and happiness after killing the
opponent was unable to be described in words.
Another reason that the researcher found was the graphics. As mentioned earlier, DOTA
2 is an extension of DOTA 1, which had low graphics but outstanding game play. The
participants indicated that the outstanding graphics and the gifts following victory was the reason
for selecting the game.
DOTA 2 Business Model
When the participants were inquired about the recent development in the business model
of DOTA 2, it was found that the transformation from pay-to-play to free-to-play had significant
impact on the number of gamers playing other online games. In particular, a total of 59
participants stated that the recent change in the DOTA 2 business model was able to retain them;
otherwise they would have to select another online game over DOTA 2. In addition, 19 percent
of the participants indicated that the play-to-win business model was quite encouraging for the
online professional and amateur players, because they were given an opportunity to win gifts for
free; all they had to do was to win the game over the other team.
On the other hand, 22 percent of the participants were dissatisfied with the recent
development in the business model. They indicated that they had to purchase the game key, and
it was injustice to them as others were able to play DOTA 2 for free
Future of DOTA 2
When the research participants were inquired about the future of DOTA 2, it was
indicated that DOTA 2 is among the most commonly played game over the internet. It was
further predicted by the research participants that the online multiplayer game had quite an
interesting future, as the game has continually evolved considering the requirements of online
players.
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
Conclusively, it can be stated that E-Sports gaming industry has an outstanding future
against other industries. The outstanding future in the industry has also resulted in significant
increase in the level of competition. There are several games competing for the title of most
prominent game of the year. League of Legends and DOTA 2 are the only games that have been
able to retain the title for more than years. Currently, there is a tough competition, but as per the
recent development in DOTA 2, it can be predicted that the most prominent game for the year
2015 and 2016 would be DOTA 2.
Considering the rise of gamers’ interest in DOTA 2, the company had transformed its
business model from pay-to-play to play-to-win. In particular, the company has offered the
victorious team with gift that is only given to a single player based on probability. In earlier
years, the entire winning team was offered the gift, but the recent changes had made it quite clear
that only the most outstanding player would be offered the entire set of a random character.
Even though, the business model of DOTA 2 can be imitated by other online games, but
they might fail to achieve the height of success that the game has achieved in just years. This
makes it quite clear that DOTA 2 is among the most addictive games in the 21st century, with no
competition close to its popularity and success.
Limitations of the Study
The research study had several limitations. The foremost limitation of the research study
was the limited time-frame. The research was conducted with limited time frame, which made it
extremely difficult to obtain responses from no more than 100 participants. The selection of the
sample size was another limitation of the research study. As mentioned in the earlier section, the
questionnaire was distributed to the participants over the Steam, which made it extremely
difficult to track the gender, level of experience etc.
Recommendations for Future Researches
The number of research studies focusing exclusively upon E-Sports Gaming industry is
quite scarce. Therefore, the research study can be considered as the pioneer, and can be used for
future research studies. The research study focuses extensively upon the business model of
DOTA 2, and its impact upon the future of the game in the gaming industry. In this regards,
future researcher would be recommended to investigate the business model of other popular
games over the internet, and whether the selected games can come close to DOTA 2 in
forthcoming years.
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E-Sports
APPENDIX A – QUESTIONNAIRE
Gender
 Male
 Female
Age




17 to 21 years
22 to 26 years
27 to 32 years
33 to 37 years
Years of Gaming Experience
 Less than a year
 1 year
 2 years
 3 years
 4+ years
Which game do you prefer to play over Steam?
 DOTA 2
 Call of Duty
 Skyrim V: The Elder Scroll
 Team Fortress 2
What is the reason for the selecting the game?
 Quality
 Familiarity
 Tactics and Strategies
 Graphics
 Gifts
Does the change in the DOTA 2 business model have any impact on the selection of it?
 Yes
 No
Do you believe that DOTA 2 would be able to retain its popularity and ranking in the
forthcoming years based on its business model?
 Yes
 No
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