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The neutral jungle creep tier list for Dota 2 patch 7.30e Dota 2 The neutral jungle creep tier list for Dota 2 patch 7.30e By William Davis Here are the best builds and counters for Spirit Breaker Dota 2 Here are the best builds and counters for Spirit Breaker By William Davis What happens to Dota 2 if Valve cancels The International? Dota 2 What happens to Dota 2 if Valve cancels The International? By William Davis
What is smurfing in video games and why do gamers hate it? Dota 2
What is smurfing in video games and why do gamers hate it? William Davis If someone on your video game team is calling an enemy a smurf, there’s a good chance you’re losing pretty hard. Smurfing in video games is the act of intentionally playing in a skill bracket below a player’s actual rank. People who do this are called smurfs. The idea is that playing against lower-skilled players can be a good source of training or way to boost a wounded ego. It’s …
How to create an empty map for practice in Dota 2 Dota 2
How to create an empty map for practice in Dota 2 William Davis An empty Dota 2 map is still full of possibilities. Practicing in Dota 2 is a lot harder than it has to be. The last hit trainer and demo mode leave a lot to be desired, especially if you’re interested in the more niche parts of the game. Vision and jungle strategies are pretty inaccessible in the standard practice environment. Luckily for studious players, you can make your own lab …
These are the terms you need to know before playing Dota 2 Dota 2
These are the terms you need to know before playing Dota 2 Steven Rondina Dota 2 is a difficult game and a big part of that is because there’s so much lingo associated with the game. While terms like “support” and “gold” make sense and are used across a variety of different games, Dota 2 goes several steps beyond that. Not only does it have terms that aren’t used in any other MOBAs, it has terms that are used in multiple different ways. That …
How status resistance works and how to counter it in Dota 2 Dota 2
How status resistance works and how to counter it in Dota 2 William Davis Understanding how status resistance works can help you avoid certain death in Dota 2. Status resistance is a polarizing mechanic. On one hand, there are supports barely getting out alive thanks to Aeon Disk. On the other are Ursas and Spirit Breakers who just refuse to stay stunned. Understanding the finer points of status resistance allows players to use it to their advantage. It’s also possible to counter opponents’ status …
Is Valve ready to cancel The International after pro complaints? Dota 2 Is Valve ready to cancel The International after pro complaints? By Steven Rondina SumaiL calls for Dota 2 to die following Winter Major cancelation Dota 2 SumaiL calls for Dota 2 to die following Winter Major cancelation By William Davis Dota 2 2022 Winter Major canceled over health concerns Dota 2 Dota 2 2022 Winter Major canceled over health concerns By William Davis
North Korean gamers are risking their lives to play Dota 2 Dota 2
North Korean gamers are risking their lives to play Dota 2 William Davis Against all odds, North Korea has an active Dota 2 community with in-person events. A North Korean defector has revealed that Valve’s MOBA is gaining popularity in his home country. He claimed that Dota 2 was a household name in the country and that players often secretly gathered to play. Such actions are highly illegal, but many fans are willing to risk it to play their favorite video game. While …
UltimoGG brings a new chance to compete for Dota 2 players Dota 2
UltimoGG brings a new chance to compete for Dota 2 players Steven Rondina The new Dota Pro Circuit gives more players than ever before an opportunity for a shot at esports glory in The International, but it has also choked out a lot of the tier-two and tier-three tournaments that allowed developing talent to emerge on the scene. Companies like UltimoGG are looking to fix that by providing new opportunities to aspiring Dota 2 competitors. UltimoGG is running a Dota 2 tournament in …
Is Primal Beast from Aghanim’s Labyrinth the next Dota 2 hero? Dota 2
Is Primal Beast from Aghanim’s Labyrinth the next Dota 2 hero? William Davis There is reason to believe that Dota 2’s next hero could be Primal Beast from Aghanim’s Labyrinth. The final boss of Aghanim’s Labyrinth has become synonymous with Dota 2’s roguelike game mode. Primal Beast can dish out an insane amount of punishment between his rock toss, charge tackle, and ground fissure abilities. If you survive, your reward is getting pounded into the dirt while your teammates dodge the shockwaves. Between …
What is Dota 2’s player count in 2022? Is Dota 2 a dead game? Dota 2
What is Dota 2’s player count in 2022? Is Dota 2 a dead game? Steven Rondina While Dota 2 has been in an awkward spot for years, its player count actually enjoyed strong growth in 2021 even though the year had a chance to be disastrous for Valve’s famed MOBA.  Dota 2 has long been a distant second place behind League of Legends in terms of being the most popular, most widely played, and most culturally relevant game in the MOBA genre. Between Arcane and a …
DOTA: Dragon’s Blood Book 2 delayed, but here’s when it comes out Steven Rondina Dota 2 The premier of DOTA: Dragon’s Blood Book 2 has been quietly pushed back by Netflix. Back in December, Netflix revealed that the second season of the animated series based on Dota 2 was receiving a second season much sooner than initially expected. While the first season took years to develop, the second season was announced for January 6. Though that announcement came just four weeks ago, something has changed within …
Why has the radiant advantage disappeared in pro Dota 2 games? William Davis Dota 2 Pro Dota 2 teams had almost completely even win rates across Radiant and Dire in 2021. Now that 2021 is over, Dota 2 stat junkies have released their yearly analysis of the pro scene. Statistician supreme Ben “Noxville” Steenhuisen’s end-of-year review unveiled plenty of information about the state of the game. Among several notable statistics, the most interesting may be regarding the radiant advantage in profressional Dota 2. While radiant …
Here’s why Jakiro is the best Dota 2 hero of patch 7.30e William Davis Dota 2 The best hero in Dota 2 7.30e may not be who you expect. At the moment, Jakiro might actually be the best hero in the game.  According to the official numbers, Jakiro is the best hero in Dota 2 heading into the new year. The two-headed dragon sported a 53.93% win rate across the month of December 2021 with a 12.65% pick rate. Dotabuff also lists Jakiro as the 21st-most …
All about Arteezy, Dota 2’s biggest esports and streaming star Steven Rondina Dota 2 Artour “Arteezy” Babaev is a professional Dota 2 player best known for his time with Evil Geniuses. He is also one of Dota 2’s most popular streamers. He began playing Dota 2 at a professional level at just 16 years old. In 2013, he was added to a formidable Kaipi roster. This only lasted for a short time as he juggled school and competitive play. He bounced around multiple teams …
The most fun hero builds for Aghanim’s Labyrinth in Dota 2 William Davis Dota 2 Aghanim’s Labyrinth is a roguelike, so half the fun is finding broken hero builds. Heading into week three of the new battle pass, Dota 2 fans are really digging into Aghanim’s Labyrinth. The small hero pool encourages replayability above all else. Each hero has a ton of cool Aghanim’s Shard upgrades to find during a run. Some of these provide simple bonuses like cooldown reduction and cast range. Others completely …
How to find or create the best Dota 2 wallpapers William Davis Dota 2 Dota 2 wallpapers let you remind yourself of your favorite hero every time you turn on your computer. Dota 2 is a beautiful game. From the incredible ultimate animations to the stellar hero sets, there’s something cool to see at every point in a game. That’s especially true for arcanas and personas, but almost any hero looks amazing with any set of cosmetics. Those looking to redecorate their desktop with …
The complete history of notorious Dota 2 star EternaLEnVy Steven Rondina Dota 2 Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao first popped up in Dota 2 in memorable fashion, making an impassioned post on the Team Liquid forums that he was dropping out of university in order to become a professional Dota 2 player. Despite the post going viral with people criticizing his decision, he was competing with a top team less than a year later. As the support player for No Tidehunter, he found huge first-place …
Three carry tips and tricks that will rank you up in Dota 2 William Davis Dota 2 These three tips and tricks will help you rise up the Dota 2 ranks as a carry player. Position one is one of the most difficult roles to play in Dota 2. Its your job to eventually win the game for your team, but that doesn’t mean they’ll make it easy for you to carry. You need to make constant decisions about the best times to fight and how to …
Drow Ranger’s pick rate is soaring, here’s how to counter her William Davis Dota 2 Countering Drow Ranger may seem silly until you watch your health bar melt under a barrage of arrows. With the release of the new Dread Retribution arcana, Drow Ranger’s pick rate has massively spiked. She’s now the sixth-most-popular hero in the game according to Dotabuff pick rate info. Anyone who’s played during the holiday season already knew that. Drow Ranger is usually stereotyped as a training carry due to her …
This is how and when to base race in Dota 2 William Davis Dota 2 Mastering the base race is an essential part of ranking up in Dota 2. In Dota 2, the term base race refers to a specific late-game scenario in which both teams attempt to attack the opposing base to end the game. Some players use the term “GG push” to refer to the tactic. Base races are an uncommon scenario, but they almost invariably lead to the end of a game. …
What is the Dota 2 Aghanim’s Labyrinth Battle Pass end date? Steven Rondina Dota 2 Dota 2’s new battle pass tied to the Aghanim’s Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum event has arrived, but what is its end date? Dota 2 players have generally gotten accustomed to The International Battle Pass, which typically runs for months between May and either August or September of each year. This has changed recently, with Dota 2 rolling out multiple events over the course of the year that don’t actually last …
Who is ana? All about one of Dota 2’s biggest star players Steven Rondina Dota 2 Anathan “ana” Pham is one of Dota 2’s most popular personalities courtesy of his time with championship team OG. With two The International championships and two Valve-sponsored major titles to his name, he’s also among the richest and most decorated players in Dota 2 history. ana took a unique approach to entering the Dota 2 pro scene, dropping out of high school and moving from Australia to Shanghai to try …

Few games have proven to have the resilient popularity enjoyed by Dota 2. The multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA for short, has been among the biggest and most successful projects released by gaming giant Valve, and it continues to enjoy great popularity to this day.

That popularity has endured despite a great number of changes that have been made to both the game itself and to the communities surrounding it. The competitive title’s history reaches all the way back to another game created and published by another developer, but with Valve now leading the way, Dota 2 seems primed to last well into the future.

From Blizzard to Valve, Dota 2 continues to evolve

While know today as one of Valve’s key game properties, Dota 2 has its origins in a real-time strategy game developed and published by famed video game company Blizzard. One of the franchises that keyed Blizzard’s success and reputational growth in the games industry is WarCraft, which today is best-known for the popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft.

But prior to the success of World of Warcraft, the high-fantasy franchise was experienced through a series of RTS games. The third main title in that series, WarCraft 3, provided players not only with a great experience right out of the box, but also with the opportunity to heavily modify the game and its functions, and to play modified versions of the experience as custom games online with other players.

The most popular of these custom game modes was arguably Defense of the Ancients, or DotA for short. This custom game mode saw two teams of players face off against each other with strong individual champion characters, as opposed to building out complex home bases and developing broad armies of diverse units.

It was an entirely different way to play the game, and it proved so popular that would eventually give birth to an entirely new genre of video games: the MOBA genre.

The continuation of the original DotA became Dota 2, a project developed under the guidance of famed developer and publisher Valve. Flush with success from online marketplace Steam and its own franchises including Half-Life and Portal, Valve was more than willing to invest in this new and innovative game type.

The International sets Dota 2 apart

While there have been many other competitive games created and released since, including other popular MOBAs such as Riot Games’ League of Legends, Dota 2 has stood apart for remaining true to its roots and for massive competitive events like The International. First held in 2011 for the purpose of bringing together disparate competitive teams from all around the world with more than $1 million on the line, the esports tournament quickly grew into the biggest such event of each calendar year.

One of the main drivers behind that immense growth was the upwards trajectory of the tournament’s prize pool. Partially funded by Dota 2 players and esports fans, the prize pool for The International began increasing in 2013 and eventually ballooned to a massive total of over $40 million by the time 2021 rolled around. For the groups of players and coaches who climbed this mountain and won its top prize, it was a truly life-changing event.

For varied reasons, Valve eventually soured on running the event itself and on the idea of having so much money filtered into one specific event. Prize winnings were dropped significantly in 2022, and even further for the 2023 and 2024 events. But despite the prizes on hand no longer being quite so astronomical, The International still boasts a prize in the low millions, and it remains the biggest event on the Dota 2 competitive calendar and arguably on the greater esports calendar across all games.