Free to Play is a feature-length documentary that follows three professional gamers from around the world as they compete for a million dollar prize in the first Dota 2 International Tournament. In recent years, e-sports has surged in popularity to become one of the most widely-practiced forms of competitive sport today. A million dollar tournament changed the landscape of the gaming world and for those elite players at the top of their craft, nothing would ever be the same again. Produced by Valve, the film documents the challenges and sacrifices required of players to compete at the highest level.

About the players

Dendi

Born in L’viv, Ukraine, Dendi began playing video games at a young age after his older brother received a PC from their grandmother. As he had with his other early interests in life, music and dancing, Dendi picked up games very quickly and was soon excelling far beyond his age bracket. The prodigious dexterity earned through long hours of piano study was soon put to use in local gaming tournaments where he earned a reputation as a dominant and creative competitor. Though he was successful at other games, he knew he found his calling when he stumbled upon Dota.

HYHY

If you’ve followed the development of Singaporian Dota, then Benedict “HyHy” Lim is a name that is familiar to you. Born in Singapore on 1990, HyHy’s rise to prominence began when he and teammates represented Singapore in the 2007 Asian Cyber Games. The following year, he was victorious in the Electronic Sports World Cup. Since then his body of work has become a pillar in the Dota 2 community. Never one to shy away from controversy, HyHy speaks his mind, and has made a name for himself as one of professional gaming’s most driven and versatile players.

Fear

Arguably among the most formidable Dota 2 players to ever come out of the Western Hemisphere, Clinton “Fear” Loomis, has never had an easy path in front of him. Ever the underdog, he’s used a balance of raw skill and hard-earned experience to overcome the isolation that US players often face when they compete at the highest level. Born 1988, his work ethic and dedication have taken him from Medford, Oregon to Europe, to China, and finally to the Dota 2 International, the tournament with the largest prize pool in the history of video games.

Or download, install and watch it on Steam! http://store.steampowered.com/app/245550/

Some new things that you can buy, also

The Free to Play Competitor's Pack will also be available for purchase on Steam and the Dota 2 Store on March 19th, 2014. 25% of the sales will be distributed to the players featured in the film as well as the contributors. The Free to Play Pack will include the following:

• Fear's Sven Set - Created by Jeremy Klein, Ziedrich
• hyhy's Doom Set - Created by Vermillion Wlad
• Dendi’s Pudge Set – Created by Danidem, Bronto ϟ Thunder
• Free to Play Wards – Created by Valve
• Free to Play HUD – Created by Valve
• Free to Play Courier – Created by Valve

You know, I'm curious, is this all commissioned work like how Area 5 does work for Last of Us and Street Fighter Documentary? Or is this an actual part of Valve actually devoted to making documentaries? Just curious who made it?

@allofthemods

Fuck, typo in title. Please fix/let me fix it. Also maybe move this to the Valve or Dota 2 forum.

@mb

Thanks!

@crithon:

The credits list the following...

Production Companies

• Valve (presents)

Cast (in credits order)

• Benedict Lim ... Himself
• Danil Ishutin Danil Ishutin ... Himself
• Clinton Loomis Clinton Loomis ... Himself

Music by

• Mark Adler ... (original music by)

Cinematography by

• Phil Co ... co-cinematographer
• Nick Maggiore ... co-cinematographer
• Jeff Unay ... co-cinematographer

Film Editing by

• Scott Balcerek ... lead editor
• Phil Co ... co-editor
• Lars Jensvold ... co-editor
• Jeff Unay ... co-editor

Sound Department

• Tim Larkin ... sound designer / sound mixer

Animation Department

• Andrew Burke ... animator
• James Cunliffe ... animator
• Cameron Fielding ... animator
• Matt Logue ... animator

Editorial Department

• Noel Albornoz ... digital intermediate color assist
• Vahe Giragol ... digital intermediate editor

@fattony12000: hmmmmmm.... most of them read off as veteran visual effects guys.... they could have been hired by valve. I remember they had a Particle effects guy who worked on the Balrog in Lord of the Rings. Kinda wish I knew more of Valve's intentions in films, this is wonderful PR for Dota2 and esports scene.

I watched it last night, I made it all the way through but I didn't think it was very good.

It tried to paint the three players as poor kids given a chance to make it, they all came off as selfish entitled children.

Major delusions about the future of esports here, at one point they were saying that in about 10-15 years from now kids can look forward to making $250k a year playing videogames...

I can't believe Dendi gave them those clips of him dancing in a play.

@dudeglove: no, I saw the one they did before. And yeah, I kinda got that impression as a propaganda for Dota2, but still it's interesting seeing personality of esports players. But really, more interested why valve is making films, I know they announced a TF2 film a while ago. I'd rather see that instead.

@fattony12000: change URL from /#n to /edit

I enjoyed it a lot.

I could relate to the players who's parents didn't want them to become professional gamers as it was pretty similar to me wanting to become a game developer. It took so much effort to explain to them that this was a viable career path. They did make the Chinese teams seem like the bad guys but it was an enjoyable film. I preferred it to Indie Game: The Movie for sure.

I wont see it ... because it feels like me an attempt from Valve to go al around saying "free to play is great , so free to play is what must be". Ugh

I'll watch this. Wonder how it compares to the Smash brothers doc.

• Interest level in Valve documentary: 12/10
• Interest level in Dota: -2/10

Shame :(

I really enjoyed it. Being a big fan of Dota, but not watching too much of the competetive scene, I have to say it was really cool to see how big of a deal it really is. All the crazy fans, all the sacrifices that are made to make it... dunno, just really exciting.

And I in NO WAY saw them as selfish entitled children, but I guess some might see them as that.

Anyways, kudos to the players for sharing their stories, some parts of them are really relevant to most of us in one way or another

@aetheldod: It doesn't go into the aspect of Dota being free to play at all, or any free to play games. It focuses on 3 Dota players and their journey through the first international.

@singingmenstrual: The Valve documentary I want to see isn't made or sponsored by Valve, though. Which would be true of any documentary on a corporation.

I really thought it was pretty bad for a number of reasons. I like Dota, but don't really love it, but I do love a good documentary. All of the heartstring tugging was super obvious and pretty poorly executed. A large part of the movie is focused on hyhy and Fear, going back and forth on their personalities, barely touching Dendi. The entire movie I just kept thinking that Dendi was a dud personality wise, and they just included him because he's the most popular player. I don't follow the Dota pro scene, but I've known the name Dendi for a while. However, the real reason is that they just had the "Dead dad" bomb to drop at the end. By the time they got to that point though, I had kinda stopped caring about Dendi entirely.

Hyhy is by far the most likable story line, for me at least. Still in love with the girl that dumped him years ago, just wants to follow his dreams at all costs without any moral support from his family. In the end, he did get back with that girl, but what of his dream of being a pro gamer? What about the conclusion to what is ostensibly the main story of the film? We don't know because he went on to play League of Legends, and this documentary was made by Valve and those words are forbidden. Hell, you barely see even a glimpse of Warcraft 3 Dota, where these players got started, leaving the viewer with little backstory.

It also had a problem of not really knowing its audience. It, of course, needed to have the cursory explanation of just what the hell Dota is, and that was fine. After that though, it was completely schizophrenic in tone. Sometimes it would feel the need to explain that "gg" means good game, but every time it showed a clip of a fight from the match, it wouldn't explain a damn thing about what happened. An uninformed viewer would see a character get hit by some particles, stop and then get hit by more particles and die. They would see what happened and get told the results of the game, but would have no connection to the action. For them, they added specially rendered bits of what the mind's eye sees when imagining the game. This means nothing to the informed viewer though, especially since they just used ingame assets and look sorta bad.

I think the movie's biggest problem is that it focusses around The International. It takes a relatable story about the sacrifices one makes to follow one's dreams and makes it more about a single competition. One that happened kinda a long time ago at that. Most people don't have an experience in an historic million dollar competition to relate that back to. That's what made the King Of Kong so successful. It wasn't telling the story of Donkey Kong, it was telling a story of sacrifice and heartbreak and struggle. It was Rocky but for video games. Free To Play spends too much time telling the story of Dota 2's big competition and only the goings on of it, not behind the scenes stuff. It just makes the whole thing sorta unsatisfying and pointless.

Totally. But I didn't mean that I was interested in a documentary about Valve (though, sure, I am), I was saying that I'd love to see Valve do a documentary about their own shit (rather than about themselves), if only it wasn't Dota.

Watched this with my wife and mother today. They both enjoyed it, you don't need to be particularly invested in the world of dota to enjoy this film, and the game features secondary to the players and their stories.

Aside from the weird way the game was presented in the film (weird cgi) I found this a great watch.

As far as all the talk of valve making it to advertise or legitimise their own game, whether that was their intention it doesn't register as sinister. E sports is already legitimate without the presence of this movie.

Lets be honest, if you aren't interested in dota you are probably going to smack talk this without ever seeing it. edit - yeh so reading through this thread that's already 50 percent of the comments.