something that i read a lot of LOL players say when switching to dota is the learning curve. Seems like dota is a way harder game for them.Depends on what you call bigger, i think league's active playerbase is much higher. Can't find recent numbers (or i don't want to spend time looking), but in 2018 the diffrence was huge AND showing a decreasing trend for dota.
https://www.superdataresearch.com/d...oo-late-for-dota-2s-disappearing-player-base/
On the other hand it is true that dota has much bigger prize pools (25 mil vs 5 mil) but considering league has a much larger vieuwerbase the e-sport scene is valued higher. Players are payed more and teams/orgs make more money.
The games are very simular with a few differences in design choices i think, league went for a visual appealing(easy to differenciate abilities) while dota has a deeper mechanicspool (i think). Another difference is that in dota you are puniched much harder for a mistake. Does this define a skilldifference? I don't think so because it works both ways.
I can't tell you anything about the learning curve, sounds reasonable since i think league is more intuitive (?)something that i read a lot of LOL players say when switching to dota is the learning curve. Seems like dota is a way harder game for them.
Also, in terms of earning, DOTA is way higher for players (https://www.esportsearnings.com/players) the first 39 spots of the top 100 rank belong to DOTA players.
And yeah, LOL's playerbase is quite much higher and DOTA has been dropping, but still we're on track to beat last years TI prizepool.