Since there have been an increased number of blog visitors during TI9 and there are people asking me why no hats mod is necessary. I will be sharing some of my thoughts on why you should never mix dota with hats.
This will be part 1 of many parts to come. Focusing on the competitive aspect of dota. As I have mentioned before on my Patreon and this blog, dota at its heart is a competitive eSport and players want to perform at their best in competitions. Hats are distractions. They make heroes and spells harder to recognize. Below are some examples from Reddit.
Just like in a game of football (soccer for you KKonas & KKrikeys), players need to be able to distinguish each other at a glance so they know who to pass the ball to. Similarly spectators need to be able to distinguish at a glance which team has the ball. This is why professional sports teams have uniforms. It’s not just for the players, it’s for the spectators too.
Imagine watching FIFA and every player is allowed to wear whatever they want to the game. This alone is reason enough why all TIs, Majors and Minors should have a no hats policy. At the end of the day hats do not add any value to competitive dota. They are just distractions. Unfortunately this is the business model that Valve has chosen and players have to just deal with it. With all that said, I’m not completely against hats in dota. There is a place and time for them – in casual pubs.
Of course not every dota player plays competitively or cares enough to be competitive. When kids play football casually in school they are not gonna put on uniforms. The difference between football and dota is that football players have a choice while dota players don’t. This is where no hats mod comes in. It gives you the choice.
Now is when all the anti no hats people start yelling “But Valve needs to make money!” and “You’re just blind. I can tell the difference between heroes fine.” and “Hero dress up is part of the game. If I paid for it, I want you to look at it!” and “Free game no bitchin”.
All valid arguments. Which I will discuss in detailed in future posts 🙂
Dota 2 No Hats Mod 