FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Games

According to Waka Flocka, Dota 2 Would be 'Great on a Blunt'

"Listen I'm going to be real with you: you don't want want to play this."
courtesy DreamHack

As esports' audience grows, celebrity cameos at major tournaments are becoming more common. NBA star Jeremy Lin occasionally shows up on Dota 2 streams, while retired NFL kicker and Teemo enthusiast Chris Kluwe appears at the LCS every few seasons. This weekend, DreamHack Atlanta got some local talent on stream when rapper and producer Waka Flocka Flame crashed the vaguely Star Trek-themed Dota 2 panel at the DreamLeague LAN finals. (Hilariously, the DreamLeague chyron initially misspells his name as "Wacka," which for all I know may be intentional.)

Advertisement

Waka Flocka Flame's enthusiasm for games in general helps explain why he's at DreamHack in the first place, but he's a novice when it comes to Dota 2. That's a good thing for two reasons. One, it provides an opportunity for the panel to dispense some DotA history (in return, Waka offers a brief lesson on flow).

Two, it gives Waka the chance to render his own "review" of Dota 2, making him, along with Braid aficionado Soulja Boy, one of the few rappers to moonlight as a game critic. And while Waka Flocka's verdict that Dota 2 is "an alien invasion meets Gargoyles" might not be true in a narrow sense, it's definitely better than the drivel mainstream journalists come up with (e.g. "Teams of video gamers playing characters ranging from wizards to monsters exchanged virtual punches, fireballs and lightning strikes over the past six days, battling at the main event of the Dota 2 International 2015 tournament in Seattle," as one hapless Reuters reporter put it).

Plus, Waka's instinct that Dota 2 would be "great on a blunt"—with or without Snoop Dogg—is extremely correct. So, Waka, if you're reading this… hello.