Have you ever wanted something so badly that it consumed you? That it became your motivation for getting out of bed every morning, the thing that looked backed you in the mirror? For some people, it’s a tradecraft. Other people, it’s a person or their family. For the Danil “Dendi” Ishutin, Benedict “Hyhy” Lim, and Clinton “Fear” Loomis, it was a sport. Not basketball, not baseball, not even football or soccer.
It was DOTA.
Many professionals wear their hearts on their sleeves. Artisans, military professionals, all-star athletes–one thing that the best of them all have in common is the driving passion that consumes them into their work. They are who they are, and they love every zenith and every valley. Professional gaming is no different, and every day it strives to become less of an “eSport” and more of a “real” sport.
Spectators at The International 1, the first gaming tournament to ever feature a prize pool of $1,000,000
Free to Play isn’t just a movie about DOTA. It’s a tale about three people who come from completely different walks of life and the event that ties them all together. Free to Play is a story about evolution of a new, unifying force in our generation. Free to Play is about human will, the ability to keep going for something you truly wish for, even when everyone doubts and questions you and your wish.
All of the professionals in this movie not only have to cope with the pressure of trying to be the best in the world at something, they also deal with the skepticism that their respective families bring.
- Hyhy’s family, for instance, blames his grades falling from being a top student to mediocrity due to his “gaming”.
- Fear deals with some grim ramifications of his gaming in his home life through the course of the movie.
- Dendi’s mother wonders and worries about her son, sensing a deep-rooted sorrow that she worries he self-medicates with his gaming.
Even with the adversity that comes toward them, they stay resolute in their paths, striving to work towards being called the “Best in the World” at something.
Hyhy gazes out to the shipping container yard that his father works at
Effort. Time. Pain. Nothing in this world is truly free. It’s a truly frightening thought, the idea that what you want to do will not work out for you. That everyone who told you “it won’t work out” is correct. That the people around you saying “Give up on that dream and get a real job,” were right all along. These three spotlighted pros are just a small subset of DOTA and eSports as a whole. The trials and tribulations that they face are symptoms of the growing pains of eSports as a “legitimate” sport in the eyes of the masses.
Free to Play shows that gaming really is taking off as something that is more than a subculture of anti-social misfits who use it as a tool of escapism. Free to Play shows that you can really do what you want in your life if you really want it badly enough. Free to Play is a marked moment in the history of gaming–a moment that tells gamers, who spend endless hours on games, that the relationships they build and the experiences they have aren’t any less real than anyone else’s.
If you want to do what you want to do, you just have to play. Everything else will work out.
