Dota 2 is a globally popular game, but seeing some of the biggest VTubers play it on a random Friday night surprised a lot of fans. Five creators entered the battleground of the Ancients, some for the first time—and it went about as well as you might expect.
The collaboration didn’t actually come out of nowhere, with some of the five participating hololive creators announcing this dive into Dota on their schedules ahead of time. One of the streamers, Ceres Fauna, actually did a practice stream in preparation, noting that she was the one who organized the idea in the first place despite having not touched the game in roughly six years.
Once all five streamers, Fauna, Kobo Kanaeru, Mori Calliope, Nerissa Ravencroft, and Koseki Bijou loaded up the game, things immediately devolved into chaos, even though some of them had experience with other MOBAs like League of Legends.
That especially held true with Kubo, who spent the first game showing that classic Southeast Asian Dota spirit, screaming that she is “always mid” while running mid—and playing with high ping—and Bijou only added to that with her own SEA energy. She had all her chat skills on display and even “secured” a Rampage. She has also played on stream in the past, with several memes about her joining Team Secret’s Dota 2 team popping up back in 2022.
For roughly three hours, over 31,000 viewers across five streams watched a full stack of VTubers attempt to learn—or relearn—Dota in real-time. A mess of trying to learn what items to buy on the fly, how certain abilities work, and asking chat for advice was set to a backdrop of laughter as a group of friends had a good time playing together.
“I think all I got was everybody was running around, Kobo was hyping everyone, Biboo was going all murder death kill, Calli was learning, and Fauna and Nerissa were also there,” MrDarksol said on YouTube. “Overall, this was still a fun stream, even with me being confused about what was going on half the time.”
Sure they spent most of their games, whether it be against bots or unranked opponents, playing from behind, the streamers and chat were having a blast and hyping each other up as everyone improved. This sparked nostalgia within the Dota community, too, with several viewers commenting that the VTubers brought an energy reminiscent of long hours spent staking together with friends and just playing for the fun of Dota.
There is also hope that big streamers from outside of the Dota space playing the game on stream will potentially get some new faces to pick up the game. This is great advertising for a more casual approach to Dota, where you can simply group up with friends and have some fun in unranked or bot matches. There is still a little hope that another collab like this could happen in the future, too, and maybe it includes the Dota 2 community’s own VTuber, sheepsticked, in the stack.
