From: Biolizard28 | #025
I don't understand how this is such a prominent problem for people.
I mean, I get that bad people will be attracted to a free game, but if you don't like it, you can just find a few guys to team up with for sure.
I especially think it's unfair to act like these people are supposed to be on your level when they've probably never even heard of DotA, never mind played the original. Expecting them to be on par with you is a miscalculation on your part, yet they pay for it.
Being forced to find a team of 4 other people to play with to get decent matches shouldn't be required. DotA is a game where a bad player hurts more than having no player at all. Unless Valve's skill ranking system is really well polished, I think people's worries are justified. If the servers are flooded with bad players, it will be near impossible to get a good game unless you pre-make your team, in which case you'll be stomping every game and that doesn't really count as a "good game" either.
Upon release I imagine Valve will do their best to sort out the different players. I know you pick your skill when you start, so hopefully their matchmaking can keep the groups separate.
As for the streams, I've only found one time where I opened one and it was a DotA 2 game (once it was HoN, other times it was just blank). And watching just one player is a lot less interesting than being behind the observer camera like we saw in the tournaments.
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No amount of planning will ever replace dumb luck.