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Dota 2 and League of Legends are the twin pillars of the entire MOBA community today, although the two communities are not exactly peas in a pod.
In fact, there seems to be much beef between Dota and LoL players. For veteran players, the reason for this antagonism dates back to the creation of LoL.
Dota 2 and League of Legends: A Tale of Two MOBAs
Since day one, MOBA has been a genre of games created and driven by the community. Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) was originally a custom map on the Warcraft III engine. The original DOTA Allstars formula was moderated and improved upon by many individuals over the years. Among them were Steve ‘Guinsoo’ Feak and Steve ‘Pendragon’ Mescon, who left the DOTA community to work on a completely standalone MOBA with Riot Games, which is where LoL comes from.
The early days of friction between LoL and Dota were sparked by the fact that Pendragon took down dota-allstars.com, the central Dota online forum, and replaced it with a LoL ad. Back in the day, the forum was practically the lifeblood of Dota’s community matchmaking. So its loss was a huge blow, to say the least.
But these are decade-old wounds. The current-day Dota 2 community’s idea of LoL is riddled with a different mantra: the fact that LoL is more casual. In turn, LoL players can sometimes dismiss Dota as the unrefined, less fun, and tryhard version of LoL. If that was the case, wouldn’t a seasoned Dota 2 pro own the League pubs? The answer, seemingly, depends on how far the myth of LoL being ‘casual’ holds true.
Is League of Legends ‘easier’ than Dota 2?
League did more or less replicate some of the things from Dota, from the map layout of Allstars to heroes and ability designs. But LoL does things differently enough to set things apart.
On account of being a mod, the original Dota was bound by Warcraft’s engine limitations, for example, the obligatory turn rate in hero movement. After Guinsoo’s departure, IceFrog had done the painstaking job of balancing Dota through the patches, and he had ported most of the original Dota into Valve’s Dota 2.
So things like turn rate have become an integral part of Dota 2’s balance (e.g. Batrider’s Sticky Napalm and Medusa’s Stone Gaze). LoL, on the other hand, could design everything from the ground up. So they did away with many things that were not universally liked in Dota.
As a result, LoL gameplay feels much smoother. It doesn't bother the players with things like cast time and turn rate. There are no couriers or denies, and itemization for champs is much more cookie cutter. These are the perceived differences that lead people to believe that LoL is easier.
But that is a misleading concept in general. Albeit in the same genre, LoL is a different game altogether. There is no downgrade or upgrade of in-game mechanics for the Dota convert, simply a sidegrade. Not having denies means no player has to bother about it. So one’s talent of denying 2 creeps per wave will not serve them in LoL at all. Their attention is instead required elsewhere.
In League, there is a lot more focus on skillshots and reaction timing. Many mechanics from Dota 2 may be absent in League, but it has some unique mechanics of its own. League does not have the Aegis from Roshan, or any neutral item drops for that matter. In its place, though, it does have the buffs and benefits from killing Rift Herald, Rift Scuttler, the dragons and Baron Nashor.
Between the two, Dota 2 is probably the more daunting game for a beginner. It hinges a lot more on proper picks and counterpicks, item decisions and timing, farming patterns and map movement. This makes it more demanding, as the beginner has to study all of these concepts outside of the actual game.
Not to imply that League does not need those things, of course. Even so, League is more beginner-friendly, but that does not lower its skill ceiling. Being beginner-friendly is simply no longer a factor in the pro scene.
So to return to the original question: could Dota 2's Anathan ‘ana’ Pham be as good as Yiliang ‘Doublelift’ Peng at being an AD carry in LoL? The answer is still yes, but not because LoL is ‘easy’.
Ultimately, both Dota 2 and League require a deeper understanding of the big picture: strategizing. Without a game plan, no matter how good a player is at landing skillshots in LoL or manta-dodging in Dota, they will not get far. Being a pro player is not just about landing Hookshots or landing a 5-man Parallel Convergence (Ekko’s W).
Being a pro player implies that one has the propensity to understand the game strategy, the win conditions, and the willingness to improve. So with one obvious caveat, that they find the level of familiarity with Summoner’s Rift they have with Dota 2, a Dota pro will easily steamroll their LoL pubs.
