My Big Announcement

Hey everybody.

This is a bit of an announcement, maybe a lot of an announcement.
It’s something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time.

The beginning of this thinking was actually the beginning of my mental health journey about five years ago.

If you watch this channel, I assume this matters to you too. Personal growth. Self-improvement. Accountability.

About five years ago Dota was getting more toxic. I was getting more toxic. Passive, aggressive, defensive. At some point I looked in the mirror and I wasn’t happy with who I was becoming.

It’s easy when you have raging teammates, frustrating games, people giving up. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking it’s everybody else’s fault instead of your own.

I had to take that look in the mirror and say it’s time to take accountability and do something about myself.

I started therapy. I stuck with it. Over time it meant a lot to me to try to be a better example.

Nobody’s perfect. But I wanted to show I can play this game and go through life maturely, emotionally grounded, working on myself.

I’ve always cared about educating people. I care about articulating my thoughts, helping myself and others get better. I believe the best way to learn is to teach.

At some point along that journey I had this nagging feeling that I didn’t belong in the Dota community anymore.

I’m 33 now. When I started thinking this I was around 30. I’m a grown man.

Blaming everyone else for being toxic doesn’t change that it feels bad to be surrounded by toxicity all the time. As you get older your time gets more precious and wasting it becomes something you really want to avoid.

Many of us have been here 10 or 20 years. Dota 1, early Dota 2. This game is a lifestyle. It’s the best game ever made. People don’t quit because the game sucks. They quit because the community wears them down. Valve has largely abandoned the community side. The report system doesn’t feel like it does anything. Low prio feels outdated.

I started to have an identity crisis. Is this what my career amounts to? Baby raging, surrounded by baby rage? Am I going to become that guy?

I even tried Deadlock to see if I should grind something else. Ranks came out and the vibe felt the same as Dota solo queue. And there’s just no game that hits like Dota. I didn’t want to do the grind somewhere else.

So I felt stuck. Wasting time in toxicity. Powerless. I’ve built a career, friends, a community, the talent scene. So much of my life is in this game. I love it and I have mixed feelings about it.

You all know the meme:

lol

We love this game. It’s unmatched.

A lot of us have adapted by muting teammates, playing through the pings, pretending it doesn’t get to us. That’s a lonely experience.

It’s one thing to say the community is toxic right now. It’s another to accept that it will always be that way. If we accept it as permanent, what’s the point? Why are we still playing?

If enough of us feel this way, some of us, myself included back then, are part of the problem.

When you give up on solutions but keep playing, you start contributing to the very thing you hate.

So I started looking for a way to make an actual difference. Not just more videos. Not just more coaching VODs. A pocket of the community that values improvement and enjoyment the way it used to.

We’ve all been guilty.

But I wanted an oasis inside Dota.

For a long time, I just thought this was a pipe dream. Yes, I wanted to do it, and I've talked with friends in Dota about it, but nobody who really believed in it with me. There was nobody I could go to to really bring this to life. And this is not something I can do alone.

What I'm thinking about doing is a massive movement, and it takes community building. It basically involves doing something that Valve has decided is too big of a project to not want to do. That says something. For a long time, I just thought, "Ah, if only."

I'm not sure if this was just right timing or the stars aligning, but earlier this summer another creator approached me asking if I ever thought about building a Dota community.

They told me about their vision, and as we were talking, I realized we were talking about the same thing.

That's when we kicked off the Dota Dojo mission and made it official.

Here’s where the team comes in. And where I need your help.

We built a Discord server designed to help people come together and play together. A pocket of Dota where like-minded players don’t feel alone or helpless or stuck, and we don’t have to lie to ourselves that we should quit a game we still love.

If you’re thinking this game has gotten really toxic, maybe it’s a waste of time, maybe you should quit, but you still love it, I’m talking to you.

We’re going to moderate it. No bad eggs. We don’t care if you’re bad at Dota. We care if you’re bad people.

There will be:

We’re going to listen. We’re going to refocus on improvement and learning instead of MMR worship.

The cool part is when you focus on learning you still gain MMR, and you gain accountability, and the game becomes more enjoyable because you focus on what you can control.

If you’re struggling with mechanics, heroes, drafts, questions in your games, that’s what the community is for. Discussion, no trolling. How do we get better? How do we have fun again? How do we help others do the same?

Best of both worlds. The game we love, without the negativity.

Whether you’re 20 years old and play 30 to 40 games a week or you’re a 35-year-old with a family and five precious games a week, I want to help you get the most enjoyment and fulfillment from those games.

As a carry, I think about efficiency. The inefficient part of Dota now is the dopamine. The enjoyment is mixed in with prolonged periods of toxicity and baby rage punishment. The focus on the right things. That’s the efficiency problem I want to fix.

I also know many of you still watch Dota even if you stopped playing. If you truly don’t enjoy playing anymore, that’s fine.

But if you left because of the community, or you’re considering leaving, or you’re taking a break, I want to invite you back to try this with us.

We can set you up with like-minded people. Party stacks, private lobbies, whatever you need. We’re trying to restore what made Dota great for us in the first place.

We can’t control everything in the world. But this is a place where I believe we can make a difference. If we can just get a taste of that old feeling back and build from there, I think we can do it.

I think there are enough people who are fed up and ready to help. I’m here to lead the charge, and I’d love for you to come with me.

Our Discord is free to join, and you can check it out here. Come see what we’re building.

I’m excited. I’m also nervous. I don’t know exactly how it will go, but I can’t wait to make it happen with you.

See you in the Dojo,
Brian ‘BSJ’ Canavan

P.S. Dota Dojo team here. This is a transcript from the Brian Canavan IRL channel. Follow more for more written updates on Dota improvement content, self development, and Dojo updates.