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Meanwhile, increasing attention has been paid to top international electronic sports (eSports) tournaments in which competitive pressure is becoming increasingly more serious. Therefore, how to win such games is a problem worth exploring. This article proposes a set of evaluation indicators for testing gameplay in Defense of the Ancients 2, which is a popular multiplayer online game. The analysis shows that the multiplayer killing indicator is an effective predictor of the game result. Furthermore, the evaluation indicators are divided into two categories: operational skills and tactical awareness. The functions of the indicators in each category are discussed. The results show that, for professional eSports teams, tactical awareness affects the multiplayer killing indicator and the game result more so than operational skills.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/1555412017710599","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,25]],"date-time":"2017-05-25T02:22:01Z","timestamp":1495678921000},"page":"498-522","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":32,"title":["What Contributes to Success in MOBA Games? An Empirical Study of Defense of the Ancients 2"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Bang","family":"Xia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Emergency Support Simulation Technologies for City Operations, Beijing, China"}]},{"given":"Huiwen","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing, China"},{"name":"Beijing Key Laboratory of Emergency Support Simulation Technologies for City Operations, Beijing, China"}]},{"given":"Ronggang","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing, China"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,5,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"bibr1-1555412017710599","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Armitage G. (2003). 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