Dota 2
Dota 2
The Dota 2 player count is rocketing up in late 2021, but why?
Steven Rondina
Dota 2 suffered a brutal player count drop in September, but it has rebounded brilliantly in October. Dota 2 posted one of its strongest month-over-month gains in the game’s long history in October, with enormous jumps in terms of both average and peak player counts according to Steam Charts. This comes following an action-packed month for the game at both the professional and casual levels. Throughout the month, Dota 2 …
Dota 2
Is Dota 2 really better with a high behavior score? We found out
Steven Rondina
There’s a lot of talk among Dota 2 players when it comes to behavior score and what impact it has on the playing experience. Only those who have been at the top and at the bottom of the game’s behavior score brackets can really give definitive answers on the differences between having a high and low behavior score. I’m a player that’s been in the trenches of Dota 2 with …
Dota 2
zai transferred from Team Secret to Team Liquid for 2022 DPC
William Davis
Roster shuffles are inevitable after The International, but there’s a big one kicking things off with Ludwig “zai” Wåhlberg leaving Team Secret to join Team Liquid. According to both teams’ official social media, the transfer is finalized. The Swedish offlaner will join Team Liquid, though it’s unclear where he will fit into the team. zai first joined Secret in 2018 and was an instrumental part of cementing Team Secret as …
Dota 2
Dota 2 is no longer the most toxic game, but it’s close
Steven Rondina
Dota 2 players may still be as toxic as ever, but they’re not actually the most toxic in gaming anymore. The Anti-Defamation League has released a 2021 follow-up to its past studies on toxicity in online gaming, which tracks players’ experiences in various prominent games. Studies on the subject began in 2019, with Dota 2 being the worst-rated game in both the inaugural rating and the 2020 edition of the …
Stats say Marci isn’t OP, but here’s why the stats are wrong
William Davis
Dota 2
In DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, Marci is lightning quick and untouchably strong. Her Dota 2 incarnation is equally powerful. Since her release with patch 7.30e, Marci has quickly become one of the most polarizing Dota 2 heroes. Her high mobility and extreme damage output have frustrated hundreds of thousands of players. Marci’s ability to reposition enemies and punch them into oblivion makes her seem overpowered, but the stats suggest there’s a …
Inspired by Team Spirit, EternaLEnVy might leave pro Dota 2
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
AIllya “Yatoro” Mulyarchuk has inspired Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao to do something. But what exactly he’s inspired to do is unclear, and fans are feeling very confused. EternaLEnVy took to Twitter to praise The International 2021 winner Yatoro, but he did so in a strange way. The free agent player praised the skill and savvy of the TI10 winner and stated that he feels he’s no longer up to scratch as …
Marci finally arrives in Dota 2 alongside update 7.30e
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Valve promised Marci would arrive in Dota 2 “this fall” in the trailer unveiling the character that dropped during The International 2021, but it should’ve just said “next week.” The fan-favorite character of DOTA: Dragon’s Blood has arrived in Dota 2 as the newest hero. She arrives alongside the 7.30e update which is technically the first patch following TI10, but isn’t the enormous gameplay update that fans were likely expecting. …
Dendi not kicked from B8, but the team is still in trouble
William Davis
Dota 2
After some miscommunication on social media, Dendi fans should be glad to know that the star player remains on the B8 Dota 2 roster. On October 26, Dota 2 sponsor B8 posted an image macro of a soldier jumping out of a plane. The plane was labeled as the B8 organization while the paratrooper was labeled as Dendi. The image could easily be mistaken as a retirement announcement for legendary …
Three Dota 2 support plays to screw over the enemy carry
William Davis
Dota 2
Don’t trust your safelaner to carry the game? Give him a boost by turning the enemy carry’s game into a nightmare. Both support roles have an interesting relationship with the carry position. The hard support wants to keep their safelaner nice and safe in the early game. The soft support wants to mess with the enemy’s carry as much as possible. It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of …
The best builds for Magnus, the Most Valuable Pick of The International 10
William Davis
Dota 2
Want to learn how to build and play Magnus like Team Spirit’s Magomed “Collapse” Khalilov? You’re not alone. According to Dota Plus, Magnus’ pick rate has gone up 11.6% in Divine and Immortal ranks since the start of The International 2021. Team Spirit off-laner Collapse flexed his Skewering skills in the TI10 grand finals against PSG.LGD. Now his signature hero is the fourth-most-popular in the game. His insane ganks with …
Criticism of Frankie at TI10 highlights sexism debate in Dota 2
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The International 2021 has highlighted issues of sexism among some elements of Dota 2’s fandom, and Michelle “Moxxi” Song is taking umbrage with it. The Dota 2 caster attended her first The International at TI10. Three other women also shared that distinction in Mira “Ephey” Riad, Kasumi “Sumichu” Yogi, and Frankie “Frankie” Ward. All four of them faced resistance from a subsection of the Dota 2 fandom, with Frankie in …
Indian Dota 2 fans crowdfund a K-pop-style banner for Team Spirit
William Davis
Dota 2
Indian Dota 2 fans congratulated one of The International 2021’s champions in a cool way. According to social media users, a group of Indian Dota 2 fans has crowdfunded a massive billboard in a city center to congratulate TI10 champion Team Spirit. The banner specifically focuses on midlaner Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek. They were inspired by local K-pop fans who crowdfund similar banners for their favorite stars. While there aren’t many …
Every Dota 2 player need these important settings turned on
William Davis
Dota 2
Dota 2 is hard to learn, but the right settings will make everything a little easier. Dota 2’s settings menu has 79 different choices in its options alone, and that’s before deciding your hotkeys. It can be hard to tell what some of these options actually affect in-game. It doesn’t help that Dota 2’s default settings leave a lot to be desired. If you’re a new player or a veteran …
Putin congratulates Team Spirit for winning The International 10
William Davis
Dota 2
Vladimir’s offering his congratulations to the winners of The International 10. Russian president Vladimir Putin issued a formal congratulations to Team Spirit’s Dota 2 team for winning The International 10. The message was posted through the official Kremlin website. Putin complemented the squad’s decisiveness, teamwork, and ability to seize the initiative. It paid particular notice to captain Yaroslav “Miposhka” Naidenov’s leadership skills. Mid laner Alexander “TORONTOTOKYO” Khertek, offlaner Magomed “Collapse” …
How much did TI10 teams make from the Supporters Club? “A lot”
William Davis
Dota 2
It’s tough being a tier-two Dota 2 team, or even a tier-one team that hasn’t already played at The International. That was the case with Undying, North America’s third-best Dota 2 team, heading into TI10. Dota 2’s Supporters Club system gives players a method of directly supporting their favorite competitive teams. The packages range from $2 to $20 with half of the money going directly to teams. They went on …
Team Spirit wins TI10 finals, defeats PSG.LGD 3-2
William Davis
Dota 2
After 10 days of competition, Team Spirit has won The International 2021 finals and are the new champions. The biggest tournament in Dota 2 history has found its champion. Team Spirit is the winner of TI10 and will take home the $18 million grand prize. That stands as the largest prize in esports history, breaking the record set by TI9. The squad’s run to the podium ended with a 3-2 …
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.
Dota 2
Dota 2
Dota 2
Dota 2
