Welcome to Clarity

An introduction to Clarity League & some words on the future

As we get underway with the start of Clarity League’s launch, I wanted to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to the community — both to the league as a whole, but also to this Medium page, which the staff will occasionally use to talk about the league and share our thoughts.

Keep in mind that all of the most important information regarding the league will always be posted on the official Discord server; our blogs on Medium will only serve to supplement this for the community members who want to know more.

The focus of this post will be primarily on what you can expect for the future of the league, both in the short and the long term, but I also wanted to talk briefly about the journey that brought us here.

Creating Clarity

At the risk of sounding a bit trite, it’s my genuine belief that the value of a Dota league — and subsequently the community that forms — comes from the people you meet.

That value manifests in all sorts of ways; it might be as simple as finding people you enjoy playing with. It might be the sense of belonging, it might be the banter fueling your competitive drive. Hell, it could just be having a server to scroll through and shitpost on when you have five spare minutes. All of these things elevate these communities towards something more than just a way to play more Dota, and it’s why people stick around and become invested.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet some incredible people that I’m happy to call friends (ayo get your 🤢 out of the way now before I get to talking about inhouses and shit); among them many who share in my appreciation for these communities, and importantly — an eagerness and motivation to create a platform of this kind.

Over the last couple of months, an incredible staff team joined me in working on the project that would blossom into Clarity League, centered around the vision of crafting a friendly and inclusive environment to experience the game we lov- eh, the game we play a lot of, in its best — competitive — form, so before I move on, I want to express my heartfelt (if sappy) gratitude to Dazza, Thunderdyne, Waterfalls, Muffin, Boelens, Syrphx, Haraway, Nappa, Crispy Bacon, Omegasaw, Cloud, Maslyyy, Codex, Holy Harry, Skully and vehement staff-status denier Mikel (tagged on the staff server as resident “Emotional Support Teddy Bear”).

Plans for the Future

Working on Clarity League for a couple of months unsurprisingly led to many ideas and ambitious plans, and exploring these concepts in the future is something we’re set on doing.

Even as we get into our first season, we’re working on new features and additions to the league behind the scenes. I’ll go over some of the things we plan on doing, though it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t an exhaustive list — just a couple of the things we felt the communtiy might be excited about.

Inhouse League

Don’t worry IHL fiends, we’ve got you covered. Or, uh, well, we will have you covered, soon™. The inhouse league will be fairly familiar to most of you, and will be run through the league Discord.

Other Formats

While the division & auction based format will remain our go-to for the main season, we’ll be exploring other formats in the (likely not very near) future. This includes a linear draft format with no divisions — which is to say, a more mixed-MMR environment; a Franchise format featuring elements like player transfers; a Premade team format, in which community members register as teams rather than individuals. We’ll also be making a distinction between major and non-major events, and are keen to also experiment with formats in non-major events. Speaking of which…

Side Events

The main go-to side event (interchangeably referred to as non-major events) will be the Clarity Cup, a one-day event from start to finish. We’ll be hosting these throughout the year — and we have a year-long registered ticket that community members will be able to use for these events.

Content Creation & Streaming

Past individual community members’ ability to create and share league-related content, the staff is keen to explore other options for content (and incentivizing the creation of it). We can announce plans for detailed Season History archives (and other documents that’ll archive the history of the league as it unfolds), and are considering launching a Medium publication tied to this account in order to highlight community content.

Past that, we’re likely to explore content events, such as showmatches or all-star games (though we’re not committing to anything quite yet). On the streaming side of things, we’ve crafted a system for league casters that will ideally serve to reward the regulars and make it a bit fairer overall. We’re also working on creating media for streamers and casters to feature (if they wish to do so) and represent the league in doing so. Other plans include creating an official league Twitch channel, but I’ll cut it a bit short lest this intro end up like the ruleset.

Community Feedback

A massive part of why we’ve opted for a smaller, more limited launch is a desire to make sure that what we’ve got so far works. Towards the end of the launch season, we’ll be reaching out to the community to gather your feedback on a number of different things, and this feedback is one way that you can influence the league individually.

I say “one way” because the staff is always open to hearing your opinions and ideas, and I’d encourage you to share them, be it publicly or in private. I’ll steal Thunderdyne’s words — Clarity aims to be a community running the league, rather than the other way around.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to Clarity.

-Madsen