posted by Tezzeret,
In an effort to foster and grow the fragmented Australian and New Zealand Dota scene, au Alix 'Vixx' Chinnery launched the Southern Cross Dota website that provides news and tournaments catered specifically to the region. We caught up with Vixx in order to get more information on the project.


First things first, what exactly is Southern Cross Dota?


Southern Cross Dota is a volunteer run organisation put together to provide news and coverage for the Australian and New Zealand Dota 2 scene.


What was the reason that led to the formation of said organization?


Originally the plan was to try create a regular tournament series catering to the higher level teams in the region. However as I went on I realised that there were actually a number of existing tournaments and leagues, but nowhere that provided a central point for the players, teams, casters, viewers and ultimately potential sponsors to find news or information on these events. So my 'run a tournament' plan evolved into the full news and coverage site that we released this month.


Is there anything that you hope to achieve through this project?


Lots! Our big ambition is to see the Australian and New Zealand scene consolidate and hopefully become a real part of the international Dota scene. The talent is here, just nothing to foster it. Smaller goals include providing coverage for the regular events and encouraging stable team composition so that sponsors can take a serious look at the scene.


speaking of talent, since the dissolution of Natural 9, there has been no true blue Australian team contending for the top spot internationally. Why do you think is the cause of this?


It is a complicated issue. An easy way to answer is to ask why there are stable and strong teams in other regions. The answers are that there is a larger player pool to find the good players, sponsors to encourage the practice & dedication and a competitive scene to push players and teams to go to that next level.

There have been semi succsessful teams from the region, Rilimin and Chains Stack did fairly well within the SEA scene. The ex-N9 players have somewhat reformed in the team Hans Reborn which is probably the top team in the region at the moment. But without those factors that I mentioned before, these players and teams are essentially just casuals and pub stars. They need something to push the competitive scene in the region to the next level.

Which brings us back to why we created the site! To look at that big picture!


Is there any plans to expand to other South East Asia regions in the future? Or will this project be solely for Australians and New Zealanders.


We are considering it and I think it will be the next logical step once we have roped in the players of the Aus/NZ scene. Our priority will be to work on the current scene and to try foster the talent and community here. The two scenes more ore less overlap on a comptitive level.

An example is the Tide's Wrath tournament which has run successfully within the Au/Nz region for a while now. During the second edition of this event numerous SEA teams signed up, with Mineksi making it through to the Grand Final desipite the higher ping than they are accustomed to.

SCD has recently merged with the people who run that tournament and will definitely be looking to invite SEA teams to future events

The SEA scene will hopefully benefit from some fresh competition, as similar to the Australian and New Zealand scene the talent there is somewhat stagnant and limited to a small player pool.

In terms of community - the links between SEA and Australia are strong due to the vast number of SEA students studying abroad in Australia. I think the community even in its beginnings is already a mix of the two regions and this will continue following the linking of the two competitive scenes through cross region tournaments.


For more on Soutern Cross Dota, visit the website here.

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