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Dota 2 patch 7.30d is one last round of polish before TI10 Dota 2 Dota 2 patch 7.30d is one last round of polish before TI10 By William Davis How to counter Tinker, the teleporting terror of Patch 7.30 Dota 2 How to counter Tinker, the teleporting terror of Patch 7.30 By William Davis OG adds Misha as head coach for The International 2021 Dota 2 OG adds Misha as head coach for The International 2021 By William Davis
Why did Team Nigma and Galaxy Racer merge into Nigma Galaxy? Dota 2
Why did Team Nigma and Galaxy Racer merge into Nigma Galaxy? Steven Rondina Dota 2 esports fans aren’t seeing double. There really are two Team Nigmas now. The organization founded by The International 2019 runners-up made a surprise announcement that it has merged with Galaxy Racer Esports and will take on a secondary Dota 2 roster as a result. Galaxy Racer’s Dota 2 team is based in Southeast Asia with a primarily Indonesian roster, but Galaxy Racer actually headquarters in the United Arab …
New Dota 2 hero and Mirana model may come after TI10 Dota 2
New Dota 2 hero and Mirana model may come after TI10 Steven Rondina Hidden Dota 2 files show that something big is coming in the near future. UPDATE: The next Dota 2 hero has been revealed. Find out who it is here. In a recent update, changes were made to a file that contains the minimap icons for every Dota 2 champion, including alternative icons for arcanas and hero personas. Included in that file are three new additions that are blacked out, which …
The betting dark horses to watch at The International 10 Dota 2
The betting dark horses to watch at The International 10 William Davis The biggest Dota 2 tournament in history could continue the tradition of a dark horse champion.  The International 10 and its $40 million prize pool are just around the corner. Dota 2 teams from across the world have dissected patch 7.30 looking for the best strategies. Every International from 2014 to now has been won by an underdog, so no team should be counted out just yet. Here are three …
Every Dota 2 game is canon in Dota 2’s lore, here’s how Dota 2
Every Dota 2 game is canon in Dota 2’s lore, here’s how William Davis Many Dota 2 mechanics seem entirely separated from the lore, but everything from cosmetics to respawns have in-game lore explanations.  Games like Undertale and The Elder Scrolls franchise have lore explanations for why the player can save and load, but Dota 2 takes that idea one step further. Valve’s MOBA has actual lore explanations for why the battle of the ancients happens over and over again with slightly different results …
How to activate cheats and spawn heroes in Dota 2 demo mode Dota 2 How to activate cheats and spawn heroes in Dota 2 demo mode By William Davis What low priority means and how to escape it in Dota 2 Dota 2 What low priority means and how to escape it in Dota 2 By William Davis The best way to play the TI10 Fantasy Challenge game Dota 2 The best way to play the TI10 Fantasy Challenge game By Steven Rondina
Is all pick the best way to play Dota? Here are the best modes Dota 2
Is all pick the best way to play Dota? Here are the best modes William Davis Dota 2 matchmaking has a lot more to offer beyond the standard all pick. Dota 2’s decade-long history is marked by developer attempts to create new and interesting game modes. Some have succeeded while others have failed, but almost all of them are still available to play in custom lobbies. Here are the three best and three worst game modes available in Dota 2. Ability Draft is easily the most …
Here’s how to get the best cards for TI10 Fantasy Challenge Dota 2
Here’s how to get the best cards for TI10 Fantasy Challenge Steven Rondina Dota 2 player cards are back for The International 2021 Compendium but things are working a bit differently this year. Instead of getting packs as rewards for leveling up the TI Battle Pass, players now have the opportunity to buy packs of cards that almost guarantee silver and gold cards from that team. Not only that but these packs can be purchased in multiple different ways. With that in mind, …
Dota 2 Tome glitch lets players hit level 30 at 11 minutes Dota 2
Dota 2 Tome glitch lets players hit level 30 at 11 minutes William Davis Level 30 is usually a rare sight in Dota 2, but a new Tome of Knowledge glitch can put anyone at max level right after the laning stage is complete. Dota 2 players have discovered a new glitch that duplicates the Tome of Knowledge in the shop. The glitch allows all five heroes to consume infinite Tomes and get to level 30 at the start of the game. There’s no …
How far can a Dota 2 overlay go before it becomes cheating? Dota 2
How far can a Dota 2 overlay go before it becomes cheating? William Davis How much info can a third-party Dota 2 client give before it becomes straight-up cheating? Stratz+ is a free draft assistant available from Stratz, a prominent Dota 2 stat-tracking service. After downloading it for free, Stratz is able to instantly scan your opponents’ profiles and give you tips on how to beat them. Programs like these only use public information that any Dota 2 grinder can access, but they still …
Here is how Dota 2 hero bans work William Davis Dota 2 You have the perfect Dota 2 hero pick planned yet they’re inexplicably banned when you go to pick them. We’ve all been in that situation, so why do some Dota 2 heroes randomly get banned in each match? Dota 2’s ban system is a strange mechanic that’s never fully explained in-game. Players can nominate one ban each, only for a completely different set of characters to get removed from the …
Valve dev debunks Dota 2 players’ “forced 50% win rate” theory William Davis Dota 2 Dota 2 players have always speculated that the matchmaker forces a 50% winrate, where a five-game winning streak will inevitably be followed by a five-game losing streak. But a Valve developer has finally debunked that theory. Dota 2’s matchmaking system is an extremely complicated series of algorithms designed to give players the fairest match possible, adjusted for queue time. Fans have spent years discovering some of its criteria through experience …
TI10 Compendium arrives in Dota 2 client with new team card packs Steven Rondina Dota 2 There is no The International Battle Pass in 2021, but there is a TI10 Compendium. The TI10 Compendium has arrived in the Dota 2 client and it is free to all players. It will feature most of the facets that fans would expect from it including the fantasy mini-game, predictions, and the bracket. Not many of the features are currently operational however, but players can start opening player card packs. …
The International 10 ticket sales and spectator update announced William Davis Dota 2 The long wait for The International 2021 tickets has finally come to an end.  At long last, Valve has revealed plans for ticket sales at TI10. The $40 million esports tournament also called for an update to Dota 2’s spectator mode. The biggest tournament in esports history will have a live audience in Bucharest, Romania with advanced safety standards. TI10 main event tickets will go on sale on September 22 …
TI10 broadcast team loses Kaci and Nahaz, adds CSGO’s Frankie Steven Rondina Dota 2 The International 2021 is fast approaching and Dota 2 fans now know whose voices they’ll hear making the calls at TI10. Valve has confirmed the English language lineup for TI10, and while it’s a largely similar crew to what fans would expect, it’s quite a bit different from the talent team last seen at TI9. A variety of scandals has seen several notable broadcast talents effectively scrubbed from Dota 2 …
Io has the lowest win rate hero in Dota 2 history, here’s why William Davis Dota 2 With an all-time win rate of 41%, Io is the worst hero in Dota 2 for almost everyone. Io the Wisp has the absolute lowest win rate of any hero in the history of Dota. According to Dotabuff’s win rate tracker, any team with Io wins just two out of every five matches. Wisp’s all-time low 41.05% win rate is a whopping 2.33% lower than the second-worst hero, Broodmother.  The …
Is Dota 2 the hardest MOBA to play? We have the answer William Davis Dota 2 Dota 2 veterans with thousands of games under their belt often still call themselves noobs. Why? Because Dota 2 might just be the hardest MOBA to play, and one of the hardest competitive games overall. Esports fans love discussing which game is the most difficult to play. Some argue that a game’s difficulty should be judged by how long it takes to learn. Others say that pro-level gameplay should be …
Mason discovers Weaver Shard bug that breaks Shukuchi William Davis Dota 2 Of all 121 heroes in Dota 2, it makes sense that the time-warping beetle would be one of the buggiest. Dota 2 players have discovered a glitch on Weaver that causes his new Aghanim’s Shard ability to break Shukuchi. The extra attacks bouncing at Swarm-affected enemies will end Shukuchi’s invisibility early. Popular Dota 2 streamer Mason “mason” Venne discovered and tested the unfortunate interaction on a September 12 stream. The …
TNC Predator drops Dota 2 roster before The International 2021 Steven Rondina Dota 2 TNC Predator looks ready to start over in the Dota 2 space after missing out on The International 2021. The Southeast Asian organization fell just short of qualifying for TI10, losing to Fnatic in the finals of the SEA qualifiers by a 3-2 score. As is often the case in Dota 2, missing The International is being met with a complete roster purge as the organization announced the entire team …
The jungle just got a big nerf in Dota 2 update 7.30c Steven Rondina Dota 2 Valve is still smoothing out Dota 2 update 7.30, which has yielded the second big overhaul with version 7.30c. The patch boasts a long list of changes with most being smaller balance tweaks to specific heroes and items. That said, there are several significant changes that will redefine the meta at both the pro and pub levels. The biggest change wasn’t to a hero or item. It’s a change to …
How does buyback work? Dota 2 lets you cheat death for a price William Davis Dota 2 When the enemy team starts storming your base in Dota 2, one mechanic can be the difference between winning or losing.  Buyback is a Dota 2 mechanic that allows players to cut their respawn timer short and immediately spawn back into the game. Buyback costs a varying amount of gold as the game goes on, starting at just 200 but quickly growing to four-digit amounts. This mechanic is unique to …
PSG.LGD vs Team Spirit Dota PIT Invitational betting analysis William Davis Dota 2 Make the Dota PIT grand finals even more exciting with a wager on the reigning major champs or a rising underdog challenger. The last massive Dota 2 tournament before The International 10 is coming to a close. Chinese juggernaut PSG.LGD will face Eastern European TI10 qualifier Team Spirit in a best-of-five series. The Dota PIT champion will earn $114,500, nearly double the second-place prize. Both teams want to end the …

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.