With the advent of a game like Dota 2, the world of eSports has changed dramatically. The game quickly overwhelmed a wide variety of countries, conquered almost all age categories, made women and men, Russians, Americans, etc. converge on the same field. People from different corners of the Earth came together on one map, and all in order to find out who the stronger of them!
Language problems
There were a lot of problems with the globalization of the game, especially at first. Once upon a time, Dota 2 was just a map for a game as big as Warcraft III. She constantly developed and very quickly captured the attention of the players. The standard language for both the game itself and for a separate card was English, they started translating much later. But even after translating both the game itself and this card into many languages of the world, there still remained some problems with sociability. For example, players from Russia, even with perfect knowledge of English, could not understand players from China or Italy (just like those Russians).
The beginning of the way
When the game grew into a separate e-sports discipline, the problem only worsened. Then it was decided to use standard abbreviations for the game, which would always be the same, regardless of the language of the region. For such abbreviations, the English language was chosen (nevertheless, everything was based on it). These abbreviations were taken from other well-known games that have long become familiar eSports disciplines. The most striking game then was StarCraft, where players first started using similar abbreviations to indicate the beginning / end of a match. For example: gg, gl hf. What are these abbreviations? This is the standard abbreviation for the first letter of an expression. GG - good game (good game), good luck and have fun (good luck and fun) - gl hf. Dota 2 thus received a certain set of abbreviations available to all players, understood anywhere in the world. Although not everyone understood such reductions right away. Many people have a question about what gl hf means or what gg means.
Come from here
However, the game has expressions that originated in it and then only migrated to other games of the MOBA genre. For example, the well-known abbreviation ss, which tells that the enemy (enemy hero) has left the line (as you know, there are three lines in DotA). This is an abbreviation of the word miSSing (literally - lose). Players gradually began to understand abbreviations, now everyone knew what gl hf was: what is the abbreviation used to wish a good game. In addition, there is game etiquette that simply obliges players to write such abbreviations at a specific point in time in a match. Thus, fans of this game around the world have learned to understand each other, albeit at the level of a few letters and simple expressions. This was a big step forward. Of course, it was still problematic to play with allies from China, especially if you did not speak any one language (English, for example). But you could contact the most basic phrases with both your allies and opponents.
Are developing
Over time, these expressions became stable. Players began to use the expression gl hf so much that it was more like a greeting. Now, the match between the two teams traditionally begins with this (with the expression gg one team notifies that it has surrendered, or this abbreviation is used to indicate the end of the game).
Sociability of the game rises every year. For example, more recently, an option such as “Chat Wheel” has been added. When you click on a certain key, a set of the most popular and necessary teams is issued, which are automatically translated into all languages (if you come across players from another state). There is also our gl hf team. Is it a tribute to traditions, an indicator of good form, or just an ordinary greeting? It is up to you to decide.