Free to Play (film)
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Release poster
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| Based on | Dota 2 |
| Starring | Benedict Lim Danil Ishutin Clinton Loomis |
| Music by | Mark Adler |
| Cinematography | Phil Co Nick Maggiore Jeff Unay |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Valve Corporation |
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Release date
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Running time
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75 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150,000 |
Free to Play is a 2014 documentary film by American video game company Valve Corporation. The film takes a critical look at the lives of Benedict "hyhy" Lim, Danil "Dendi" Ishutin and Clinton "Fear" Loomis, three professional Defense of the Ancients (DotA) players who participated in The International, the most lucrative eSports tournament at the time. The central focus of the film is how their commitment to DotA had affected their lives and how this debut tournament for the sequel, Dota 2, would bring more meaning to their struggles.
The documentary focuses on three different players who arrive in Cologne to compete in a gaming tournament for Dota 2, The International, that will net the winning team a $1 million prize.
Singaporean team Scythe Gaming is led by Benedict "hyhy" Lim. Parts of the film explore his life in Singapore, where he lives with his mother, aunt, and father. His father works long hours for a shipping company at the nearby port to support the family, and his mother and aunt disapprove of the time he spends on video games, which has led his grades to suffer. In order to attend The International, Hyhy must skip his final exams at school, and he feels that only winning the $1 million grand prize will demonstrate to his family that his gaming career is worthy of respect. He also admits that he is still in love with his ex-girlfriend, and hopes that a win at the International will impress her enough for her to give him a second chance.
Meanwhile, Clinton "Fear" Loomis, an American player from Medford, Oregon, is older than the other contestants, but he leads multinational team Online Kingdom in the hopes that he can finally prove that his life is going somewhere. Fear grew up under the care of his single mother, who eventually came to respect his skill at video games. As a young man in his 20s, Fear has found it difficult to support himself financially as a full-time gamer, being forced to play his matches on an old, secondhand CRT monitor.
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