User blog comment:Lukeatlook/Never Go Full Meta/@comment-5266525-20140713165912/@comment-15244341-20140713204510

DotA won't ever outshine LoL because both the learning curve and the game's mechanics are extremely harsh to unskilled/new players. New MOBA players will have zero chances of figuring out when to pull in a safe lane, how to play support aggro in a trilane or how to stall a game with an illusion hero by picking Radiance and controlling lanes. Which are actually important skills extremely relevant to many heroes. It's funny, since the tutorial is actually pretty good at teaching basic MOBA mechanics (last hitting, buying items, spell casting) but it teaches zero specific DotA2 mechanics outside of TP scrolls and their usage.

Also, while LoL's community has a bad reputation for being extremely toxic, DotA's has a ton of elitists and racist comments against non-english speaking people are a norm. Russians are pretty much like LoL's brazilians, but with a lot less "huehue Morde es 1" and more "russians are cancer" type of attitude. Plus the amount of leavers is simply astounding at even middle of the pack MMR levels.