Sheever: “The crowd in Birmingham is definitely something special”

During the ESL One Birmingham Major, we got to talk with Sheever about women in esports, the year in Dota 2 and how talent are coping with the changes to their schedule.

How are you enjoying Birmingham this time round?

Sheever: I am finding it great! So I will say I’ve been to the previous two Birminghams as well, and both of those locations were more in town. So coming here, I was a little hesitant, like is it going to be the same vibe?

But it’s been fantastic. And it’s not let me down at all. I think it’s sort of hard to say just great. And I think the crowd in Birmingham is definitely something special. There’s a lot of drinking involved. But it’s not in the bad way. And everybody’s happy. It’s feels like a very wholesome, gigantic group of people basically hanging out watching amazing Dota.

Sophie: That’s so good to hear. And would you say the vibe is like different before vs now?

Sheever: I would say it’s very comparable. I mean, by now it’s like five years ago, right? So maybe in my head, I’ve hyped it up a bit as well. But I think this is definitely not lower than expectations. So it’s very good. And I think that this event basically kicked off where the previous Birmingham are left off.

Sophie: Yes, I mean, I guess the UK has lagged behind esports a little bit in recent years.

Sheever: Yeah, I mean, COVID kind of came in between there as well. So I think there might have been a Birmingham on the schedule in 2020. I seem to remember something like that. But obviously COVID happened, so that got canned. And then coming back here is fantastic. And I think that’s why the vibe is the way it is everybody’s just really happy.

Sophie: So I wanted to ask a little bit about your role, you’re kind of the face of professional Dota in a lot of respects. And we don’t have such a great balance of women in Dota. But we really seem to in terms of talent.

How important would you say that balance is for the ecosystem of Dota?

Sheever: I think it’s very important. I think, if you see someone doing something, and you can identify with that person for whichever way, it doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t even necessarily have to be gender, just for whatever you can identify with a person. It means that somewhere in your mind, you think, “oh, you know, I can do that too”. And if that person enjoys it, I can too. I think in that case, gender is a very obvious difference that people can identify with. So I think it’s important to have that representation there.

I’m in the host role, which means that I’m not necessarily the smartest about the game. So I’m very happy that in the last couple of years, we’ve had more and more women stepping up. Like obviously here at Birmingham, we got Ephey and she’s the brains, you know. To be able to have all of that and have basically have representation on all facets.

Sophie: That’s exactly it. I mean, we’re probably still quite a way off seeing female gamers on the mainstage.

Sheever: I think a lot of people are familiar with a Chinese player called AXX. She is amazing. And she has been on a big stage. And I think it just needs a couple of people doing it for other people to see it like, “Well, if that person can do it, maybe I can do it too”.

So you don’t need like 50 role models, but you need at least one. It will be slow. But I think once it’s there, it will go faster. I think that’s what we saw within Dota on talent side as well. Because first it was only me. And then it was like all of a sudden we have more women coming in. It’s great.

I think is incredibly important as well, because again, if you have all facets covered. I think that’s that’s a really good baseline to get more diversity within gaming.

Sophie: So just to talk a little about the year in Dota at the moment. We’ve had some pretty massive changes since Valve got rid of the DPC and PGL announced 8 new tournaments.

How do the changes work for you? Are you concerned about burnout?

Sheever: I’m not concerned about burnout. I think the first reaction from most talent after DPC was canceled, was like, “Oh, that means a lot of jobs are gonna get cut”. Because DPC might not have been the best for viewers, but from a talent perspective for a lot of people it brought a lot of stability. And I think that is something that in talent work will always be somewhat lacking.

So the fact that it was there for a while definitely made people feel just just a bit more relaxed on that front. And now, I guess the “stress” that being freelance talent brings is back. That makes it just a little bit more tricky that way.

I think overall, so far, we’ve seen that there’s less space for talent, which is really a shame. For myself, personally, I’m a person that always likes to prepare for everything. So you don’t know in advance what you’re gonna get asked for, and what you’re not gonna get asked for.

I’m sure a lot of people will say that I’m a part of the top of the totem pole, right? So if I’m worried about that kind of stuff, then yeah, it is a trickle down to low loads, people are gonna be maybe even more worried.

And it’s a really stressful position, I think, for talent to be in. But I will say that slowly, but steadily this calendar within Dota 2 is filling up. Initially, I thought, okay, maybe the first year after DPC is going to be a little bit less than normal, because tournament organizers are adjusting and thinking “oh, that means I could organize a tournament” and we’ll see new ones pop up.

But it actually has already happened. And it seems like a lot of tournament organizers were prepared to organize things. And yeah, it is great to see the calendar fill up the way it’s doing. I mean, I was with the viewers DPC wasn’t the most exciting product. And now you got these tournaments, left, right, and center. And it’s great.

Also from a host perspective, it creates better storylines. It’s great to see the teams play each other more and have more Grand Finals. I think, overall, a net positive so far. And I feel like the dust hasn’t settled yet. So we’ll see how it how it develops.

It’s a net positive for the viewer, I think it’s still a little bit of searching how the talent roles will settle. Because there’s still a lot of uncertainty, but I think that’s also I know that that’s part of the job as well.

Sophie: Yes, I did notice that Banks is going to be an interviewer at the PGL Wallachia next month too.

Sheever: Yeah, he’s done that he’s done some Dota in the past before and in Kyiv. I don’t know if it was as an interviewer, I believe it might have been. But yeah, it will be great to see him back in Dota.

Sophie: So to touch on the game itself. And one thing I’ve been asking people about is there’s a lot of uncontested heroes at this Major.

What’s your perspective on the meta and why there are so many uncontested heroes?

Sheever: I think this past because the patch is so long, the meta has been figured out in terms of which heroes are good, and which might not be as good. But the ones that are not picked are incredibly situational. They might be good in their own right. But I think because it’s figured out a lot more than what it was, we see a lot of recurring heroes.

But I will say I’m not disappointed with the Dota being played here in Birmingham, we’ve had incredibly close games. And maybe that’s because everybody is at the same point of having figured out the patch.

Which means that the teams that win are the teams that just are better in skill, right? Because if you assume that everybody has figured the patch out, then that’s the end result and not like, “oh, that team has figured the patch out before anybody else”. It’s literally the best team is winning. I, obviously personally, I’d love a patch, but I’m not disappointed that we’re not seeing that here on the mainstage.

Sophie: Okay, so just last thing I wanted to talk about was your own streaming.

What motivated you to start streaming and start like doing your own content as well as hosting?

Sheever: I streamed way before anything else. So that was actually the first thing I did. I started streaming in 2011. I started streaming Skyrim. So at some point, I started streaming Dota 2 instead. And it just just always been a hobby of mine.

It’s really nice. I enjoy it. It’s something that I can put more effort into. But I’m not yet doing that. I feel like that is for me also, sort of a safety net. If I don’t get hired, then I can always fall back, at least for a bridge period on the streaming. It won’t pay my mortgage or anything like that. It won’t pay the bills, but it will definitely help me bridge until I find something else potentially. And it’s just something I enjoy doing. Which means I don’t get burned out doing it.

If I do it between events, I could turn the stream on every day. And I find that sometimes I stream three games and sometimes I stream eight games. So it’s very dependent on my mood, and I don’t feel pressured that I like I don’t have to do it. It’s just something I enjoy doing it and if I’m gonna play Dota anyway, might as well stream.