Dota 2
Dota 2
Valve finally teases a release date for Dota 2 patch 7.31
William Davis
Valve has finally revealed the release date for Dota 2 patch 7.31. After the exciting conclusion of The International 10, fans had a lot to celebrate. Team Spirit’s underdog victory rocked the Dota 2 world, a pro player shuffle was inevitable, and another TI grand finals meant that a patch was soon to be released. While Valve has tuned the game with small patches, the traditional post-TI patch remained absent. …
Dota 2
Wildcard tournament returning for The International 11
Steven Rondina
Valve has announced that The International 11 is going to have a new format and a different qualifier system compared to past years. Following the enormous backlash surrounding the cancelation of the 2022 Winter Major, Valve has detailed its plans for the remainder of the season. There were two notable revelations therein, including regional competitions to replace the major as well as a new qualification system for The International 11. …
Dota 2
The new characters from DOTA: Dragon’s Blood Book 2 explained
William Davis
Dragon’s Blood Season 2 is blisteringly fast-paced, and that applies to the introductions of a whole bunch of new characters including Kashurra and Auroth. The second season of the Dota 2 anime introduced a ton of new characters. From Auroth the Winter Wyvern to the mysterious Kashurra, there are a lot of new names to remember. Based on rave reviews, these characters resonated but in most cases their role moving …
Dota 2
Was Evil Geniuses cheating in DPC match against Quincy Crew?
Steven Rondina
Evil Geniuses is at the center of an alleged cheating controversy after a Dota Pro Circuit league match. The first tour of the 2021-2022 Dota Pro Circuit season is wrapping up in most regions and the match between Evil Geniuses and Quincy Crew closed out the regular season for ESL’s North American league. However, a moment during the match stands out as controversial and has led to accusations of cheating. …
Dota 2
The neutral jungle creep tier list for Dota 2 patch 7.30e
William Davis
Neutral creeps are a powerful force in Dota 2, but some clearly top the power tier list while others are more forgettable. Many Dota 2 heroes revolve around neutral creeps. Some heroes steal creep abilities, while others take the entire camp with them, and still others just want to kill as many as possible. While each has its own niche, not all jungle creeps are created equal. Some provide powerful …
Dota 2
Here are the best builds and counters for Spirit Breaker
William Davis
Learning how to play Spirit Breaker is a great to quickly rank up in Dota 2 patch 7.30e. Spirit Breaker is one of the most infamous heroes in Dota 2. His Charge of Darkness is a constant threat, and his Greater Bash always seems to hit way more than 17% of the time. Spirit Breaker is the picture-perfect ganking hero, which is awesome for patch 7.30e. Meta. If you want …
Dota 2
What happens to Dota 2 if Valve cancels The International?
William Davis
Dota 2’s The International is the one big event that keep’s the game’s competitive side together, but what would happen if Valve decides to cancel the event? In the wake of canceling the Dota Pro Circuit Winter Major, new details have emerged that imply Valve could cancel The International as well. Many professional players and teams complained about the last-minute decision to cancel the major on social media. This allegedly …
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
William Davis
Dota 2
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
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
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
William Davis
Dota 2
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?
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Valve is once again dealing with an angry Dota 2 pro scene, and it’s possible the company may soon have had enough of it. Following the cancelation of Dota 2’s winter major event, a host of professional players and others within the scene took the opportunity to publicly vent their frustrations with how the company handled it. Among them is Evil Geniuses manager Peter “Panders” Anders, and he recounted a …
SumaiL calls for Dota 2 to die following Winter Major cancelation
William Davis
Dota 2
The King is not happy with the state of competitive Dota 2. Several professional Dota 2 players have begun airing their grievances over the cancelation of the first Major of 2022. The $500,000 event was unceremoniously canceled by Valve due to health concerns. Instead of redistributing the prize money to regional leagues, the money has effectively vanished from the scene. In response, some players are calling for a boycott on …
Dota 2 2022 Winter Major canceled over health concerns
William Davis
Dota 2
Dota 2’s Winter Major was supposed to be a triumphant return for Dota 2’s live crowds, but Valve has now canceled the event entirely. Valve has canceled the Dota 2 Winter Major. An official blog post stated that rising health concerns and international travel restrictions contributed to the decision. The event was planned to be the first Dota 2 event with a live audience since early 2020. The season’s Dota …
North Korean gamers are risking their lives to play Dota 2
William Davis
Dota 2
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
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
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?
William Davis
Dota 2
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?
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
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 …
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.
