CDEC is the most prestigious high-level in-house competitive Dota leagues in China. Having been a feature of the Chinese Dota scene for years, recently, they’ve switched to Dota 2, and have even provided an in-game ticket for viewing via the Dota 2 client. Ruru (also manager of LGD), manager of CDEC, recently answers a variety of questions regarding this switch, the in-game ticket, and other future CDEC arrangements accompanying its switch to Dota 2.

For more info and to follow more CDEC, check out their Facebook and Twitter.

How can I watch CDEC streams, or will a stream only be provided via LGD’s YY channel?
LGD’s stream will not be the only place where you can view CDEC in an online streaming environment. In fact, we openly allow any and all CDEC participants to stream. That is to say, every CDEC participant is free to livestream their games within the league. By now, many viewers will have already seen games streamed live from various perspectives, and it must be emphasized that we encourage this. Additionally, each club may choose to send their own casters to stream CDEC games, and upon approval by CDEC, will gain access to games via the in-game client in order to commentate and stream.

We have a CDEC stream directory page here, where viewers and fans can freely choose between different streams: http://live.vpgame.cn/

Will in-game tickets replace these livestream options?
No, no matter what, streams will remain free and open to all. As long as someone is streaming from within CDEC, then viewers will have a stream to watch.

What sets CDEC apart from normal games?
CDEC currently utilizes a set of matchmaking tools to match a mix of high-tier amateur players and professional players, the goal being to set up consistently balanced games while allowing players room to play with a wide variety of fellow CDEC participants and thus learn and challenge themselves in different scenarios.

Why has CDEC started selling in-game tickets?
For profit.

Isn’t this profit coming at the expense of everyone else?
No. First of all, we have costs of our own invested into all this. If this kind of thing was easy, then we wouldn’t be the only remaining league like this. We’ve hired a programmer full-time to support our endeavors in this, we have our own software for the league, and we also need testing for the software. We also have people working full-time in organizational and moderation efforts for CDEC, and we have server rental costs, as well as prize money for participants.

Secondly, we aren’t necessarily interested in being the ‘heroes’ and saying that we only want to contribute with no expectation of anything in return. But I still must say, 50% of our profit from the in-game tickets will go towards further prize money for CDEC itself, while the other 50% will go towards clubs and entities that contribute to CDEC (such as casters, promoters… as yet we haven’t gotten any clubs that want to contribute in an official capacity), and online event coordinators.

Third, it should be noted that the in-game tickets remain only an option. Online streams will remain free to stream for players, and free to watch for fans. The choice to purchase a ticket is purely a voluntary gesture of support for what we’re doing.

You mean you, Ruru, won’t gobble up all the ticket profits for yourself?
No, it won’t. Perhaps people’s impression of me is that I’m quick to anger, easily agitated. Any talk of me taking the money privately should begin, and end here. I couldn’t possibly be dumb enough to exchange what I’ve worked for in my young adulthood for a bit of ticket sale money. As for details of ticket sales and related profits, I propose to be transparent; how about I post via Weibo when the time comes?

Why don’t the games have item drops for viewers?
Because technically, the games consist of randomly-arranged groups of players on each side, not set teams as in other competitions. This is a problem that we’ve already communicated with Valve, and they’ve let us know that this is something they’ll try to fix as soon as possible.

Why isn’t there a courier included with the ticket?
Because making a courier takes time. Sorry, just wait a bit more.

CDEC claimed to be promoting appraisal and discovery of new talent, why do we only see the same old faces over and over?
Our plan is to gradually open up further levels of competition within the league, with poor performers being demoted to lower levels, while strong performers get promoted to higher levels. Because the league as a whole has just begun, this level-based league system still needs more time to develop. Once the higher level ‘ladder’ system stabilizes, we will also open up an open competition league system, with no minimum threshold for competition, and this will be the so-called ‘open qualifier’ level where strong players can be selected into CDEC proper. The hope is that once CDEC fully takes form, we can contribute our bit to esports. (Dotaland note: CDEC operates via seasons, and player performances are tracked via points)

What purpose does CDEC exactly serve? Aren’t games within CDEC still just that — games?
I’ll answer this with just a number: From CDEC’s founding to now, there have been over 400,000 official CDEC games played.

Can we submit suggestions for CDEC?Of course. As they say, three soldiers see as much as one general — one person’s view is never comprehensive, the more the better. Anyone who feels they have talent to contribute, or some way to help, is welcome to submit themselves forward. We also do have quite a few existing questions and problems, such as how to encourage players to be more creative in playing different and new strategies. How should we fairly split prizes? (No more winner takes all? Prize for best newcomer? Strategy prize? Most improved prize?)

Wouldn’t it be better to just let the players go play pub games? Not only have you closed everything off behind an in-game ticket, but you’ve also taken away our ability to watch first-page pub games.
On this, we respect the players’ decisions; if they choose to play this then that is their choice.

Source: http://t.qq.com/p/t/301934127870136