We played Dota, Zoomed and tried to act normal.

Being post-covid we can now take a moment to reflect and remember how we survived the weird time that was 2020/21.??

I am at the end of a rabbit hole. Covid in 2019 coincided with the birth of my daughter, Jeanne-Louise. One of the ways I got through the bad sleeping patterns we caused as new parents, was by listening to audio books. Daughter on my lap, bouncing on a yoga ball, listening to Harry Bosh journey through on murder after the other as a cop working for the LAPD.??

?Fast forwards almost three years, and I am now on the last of 24 books in the series. I have many thoughts on the books and the narrators they chose for them, but that is for a different time. In The Dark Hours, the 23rd book, Harry Bosh has caught up with me. Written in 2021 they also discuss / touch on the impact Covid 19 had on LA and America in general. Reflecting on mask wearing, social distancing and all the other wonderfully bizarre things we went through.??

This got me thinking about Lumico, and how we tried to stay connected, specifically our time when we were playing online games and ‘connecting’ with each other virtually. How we formed a company culture based on our internal need to connect, and not an external assumed word. ?

I reached out to a few of the Lumicans to get their views on this time:?

Eden (28/F):?

Starting at a new company just two weeks before the lockdown was a wild ride. Between navigating the work-from-home space and adapting our content to accommodate the new normal, isolation crept in. I had no friends at work and the outside world was out of reach.??

A month later in April 2020, we were tasked to download and play Dota. I was terrified. Not because I had to figure out the game, but because I actually had to talk to people. Alas, we soldiered on. Forced to communicate with my different Dota teams, I really got to know my colleagues. It broke down communication barriers and I felt less alone. ?

It only took a month or two for us to really warm up to the game, and before we knew it, we were jamming Britney on Discord and sending cheeky “Lobby Live” messages on a Saturday afternoon.??

Looking back, playing Dota was a really special way to connect with a group of people I’ve only spoken to online. We were equally bad at the game, and having to figure it out together created a sense of community I think we all longed for at the time. 10/10 would recommend.?

Elené (31/F):?

Heading into 2020, I was keenly obsessed with company culture for about three years. Creating spaces and environments where people wanted to work and spend their time took up a lot of my day. When we had to take all of that online, my world really flipped on its head.?

I realised a lot of things about myself, like for example how I rely quite heavily on facial queues when communicating. That I do need to spend time socially with colleagues to build a working relationship, and that even though I am an introvert I am very much dependant on interactions from my team and if I do not actively seek out these engagements it can be anxiety inducing.??

And that is where Dota 2 was really the turning point for me. Although we tried several different mechanisms of staying in touch, a lot of it felt forced and contrived. Playing this game meant that I could spend time with my colleagues and get to know them in a natural way. I could see how they react in situations; I could gather who was competitive and who just liked to have fun, for example.??

In the end, a lot of the colleagues I still call friends today, is people that I spend hours online with playing Dota 2. We’ve conquered many foes, played countless heroes and joined many conquests, and still today come 4pm we log in to join forces.?