NS: "The trend for Dota 2 has already passed. It's not as trendy anymore."

Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov, an analyst and streamer, reflected on the influx of new players in Dota 2. He believes that serious issues have arisen in recent years regarding this.

"Some schoolkids still play Dota 2, but the trend has passed. It's not cool anymore. There aren't many new school kids in Dota. I think soon we'll witness a scarcity of new players. We've crossed a certain Rubicon. Already, some players are lingering on the scene. We already have a sort of age-old Dota.

Now, certain players are rising to the top. For example, Cr1t. Is he a great player? Absolutely, he's great. He has outstanding achievements in his career, but he's been playing Dota for a very long time. So when the Falcons were forming their roster, they didn't find someone relatively new, young, and fresh, so they took Cr1t. Often, some old-timers pop up from nowhere because there's no one new. And there's no one new because there's a very low influx of young blood into Dota on a global scale." - Yaroslav "NS" Kuznetsov

Previously, Kuznetsov deliberated on the schedule of balance patches for Dota 2. He believes that developers should focus on frequent and minor changes instead of rare major updates.