I actually don't like the MOBA abbreviation because it describes too little of a class of overwhelmingly complex games. I have had a bit of a head start dealing with that complexity having played DotA longer than the MOBA abbreviation and even the company that forced that term into existence. Way back then, Defense of the Ancients was a custom game mode, a mod, for WarCraft III. The first match I ever played was in 2006 on DotA Allstars. I picked Nevermore the Shadow Fiend. It went very badly.

I continued to occasionally play DotA, though more frequently played tower defense games on WarCraft III Battle.net and a certain free-to-play 2D side-scrolling Korean MMORPG. It wasn't until I got into the Heroes of Newerth closed beta in March 2010 that I began to play MOBA games almost exclusively. HoN as it was frequently called was being developed as a standalone clone of DotA while improving upon the limitations of the WarCraft III engine. The game brought features now taken for granted for any other standalone MOBA title such as dedicated host servers, matchmaking, punishments for intentional disconnections, and modern graphics. For a while, it looked like Heroes of Newerth and its indie developer studio S2 Games had a future. Heroes of Newerth was officially launched in May 2010 for $30 and unsurprisingly, a substantial number of players left as the free beta period ended. What came next was even more unfortunate for S2 Games. Competition and bad decision making would only make the bleeding worse.