Dota 2

Dota 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Valve Corporation. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux in July 2013, following a Windows-only public beta testing phase that began in 2011, and is the stand-alone sequel to Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Dota 2 is one of the most actively played games on Steam, with maximum peaks of over a million concurrent players.

Dota 2 is played in matches between two five-player teams, each of which occupies a stronghold in a corner of the playing field. A team wins by destroying the other side's "Ancient" building, located within the opposing stronghold. Each player controls one of 111 playable "Hero" characters that feature unique powers and styles of play. During a match, the player collects gold, items, and experience points for their Hero, while combating Heroes of the opposite team.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid (TL) is a video game website and multiregional professional eSports organization based in the Netherlands. With the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, Team Liquid began sponsoring professional players. In 2012, Team Liquid recruited a North American Dota 2 team, marking their first venture into multi-genre management. In January 2015, Team Liquid officially merged with Team Curse under the Liquid banner, bringing on Steve Arhancet, his supporting staff, and former Curse League of Legends, Street Fighter, and Super Smash Bros. teams. Team Liquid was founded in 2001 originally as a news site focusing on StarCraft.

History

The website was founded on May 1, 2001 by Victor "Nazgul" Goossens and Joy "Meat" Hoogeveen under the domain teamliquid.cjb.net. On September 22, 2002 the website was moved to the current address of teamliquid.net. A day later the very first poll was posted as a vote for the website's name with the current name winning over other suggestions such as likwit.com.

Liquid

A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, and plasma), and is the only state with a definite volume but no fixed shape. A liquid is made up of tiny vibrating particles of matter, such as atoms, held together by intermolecular bonds. Water is, by far, the most common liquid on Earth. Like a gas, a liquid is able to flow and take the shape of a container. Most liquids resist compression, although others can be compressed. Unlike a gas, a liquid does not disperse to fill every space of a container, and maintains a fairly constant density. A distinctive property of the liquid state is surface tension, leading to wetting phenomena.

The density of a liquid is usually close to that of a solid, and much higher than in a gas. Therefore, liquid and solid are both termed condensed matter. On the other hand, as liquids and gases share the ability to flow, they are both called fluids. Although liquid water is abundant on Earth, this state of matter is actually the least common in the known universe, because liquids require a relatively narrow temperature/pressure range to exist. Most known matter in the universe is in gaseous form (with traces of detectable solid matter) as interstellar clouds or in plasma form within stars.

Team

A team is a group of people or other animals linked in a common purpose. Human teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.

A group does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Naresh Jain (2009) claims:

Team members need to learn how to help one another, help other team members realize their true potential, and create an environment that allows everyone to go beyond his or her limitations. Teams can be broken down into from a huge team or one big group of people, even if these smaller secondary teams are temporary.

A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.

Thus teams of game players can form (and re-form) to practise their craft/sport. Transport logistics executives can select teams of horses, dogs, or oxen for the purpose of conveying passengers or goods.

Electronic Sports League

The Electronic Sports League (ESL, formerly ESPL) is an eSports league, which is operated by Turtle Entertainment in Cologne, Germany. Today it has more than 5,000,000 registered members and consists of over 1,000,000 teams, which have played over 22.5 million games in addition to leagues, tournaments and VERSUS, the ESL's own online matchmaking. The ESL supports over 50 games in different genres through various national and international leagues. Games are usually broadcast via Twitch.tv, or played publicly at conventions such as Gamescom or CeBIT. ESL also operates the Intel Extreme Masters world championships.

History

ESL was founded in 1997 as Deutsche Clanliga (DeCL) by today's CEO, Ralf Reichert, and members of SK Gaming. It was renamed in 2000, making it the oldest league of its kind in the world. In July 2015, Modern Times Group (MTG) bought a majority share within Turtle Entertainment for $86 million.

Until June 2015, the Electronic Sports League was operated by the German company Turtle Entertainment GmbH, headquartered in Cologne. The main sources of income are sponsorship revenue, online advertising, merchandising and international licensing business. Licenses to operate their own national branches of ESL are assigned to partners from across Europe.