Dota 2
Dota 2
Did Arkosh Gaming just confirm the identities of its players?
Steven Rondina
Arkosh Gaming has become a fan favorite in the western Dota 2 scene, and the organization is looking to use that to grow further. The organization has announced the signing of a stream team that includes several of North America’s top Dota 2 personalities. The list includes Brian “BSJ” Canavan, Andrew “Jenkins” Jenkins, Jason “Newsham” Newsham, and Shaggy. The signings were announced in a post on Reddit. “These content creators …
Dota 2
The International 10 tickets are not on sale five weeks before showtime
William Davis
The biggest tournament in esports history deserves a live audience but plans are getting pushed back to the very last minute. On August 3, the official Dota 2 blog clarified the situation surrounding tickets for The International 10. Valve is still facing several uncertainties regarding travel restrictions and event safety. Tickets for TI10 are still intended to be sold at a later day. The $40 million tournament is still scheduled …
Dota 2
Can OG win TI10? They’re not the favorites, but it may not matter
William Davis
The reigning champions of The International barely scraped into TI though qualifiers this year after barely avoiding relegation throughout the year. For OG, that means everything is going according to plan. OG rocked the Dota 2 world after winning $11 million in a surprise victory at The International 2018. Winning $15.6 million and becoming the first repeat TI champion the very next year triggered aftershocks. But the highest-earning banner in …
Dota 2
Dota 2 has lag problems, and Valve needs your help to fix it
Steven Rondina
Dota 2 has been suffering from serious performance issues over the last month, and Valve is looking for your help with fixing it. The Dota 2 experience has been an unfortunately shaky one for some players, with lag issues dogging many games. While one might expect that a PC restart or modem unplugging would fix things, that has unfortunately proven not to be the case for many players experiencing these …
Dota Plus update pays tribute to “Lakad Matatag” caster Dunoo
William Davis
Dota 2
The latest Dota 2 update celebrates the life and work of beloved commentator Aldrin “Dunoo” Pangan by reintroducing his iconic voice lines to the game. On September 1, Dota Plus received its first update of the season with a new treasure and guild rewards. The new platinum-tier voice lines for the season are all taken from Dunoo, a popular Filipino Dota 2 caster who passed away late last month. The …
How to play Slark: Dota 2’s slipperiest tank-killing carry
William Davis
Dota 2
Slark has been out of the Dota 2 meta for a while, but patch 7.30 has brought the maritime mugger back in style. Slark the Nightcrawler is a safe lane carry hero uniquely designed to outlast his foes by stealing their stats and healing mid-fight. Recent buffs to Slark’s farming ability Dark Pact and preferred ganking tool Silver Edge have catapulted him into Dota 2’s top tier. Players looking for …
Is PSG.LGD still TI10 favorite after ESL One Fall finals loss?
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Tundra Esports’ future is unknown but right now the team looks like one of the strongest in the world. Adrian “Fata” Trinks’ squad has won ESL One Fall 2021, an achievement worth $175,000. The victory may or may not be the last fans see of the team since it fell short of qualifying for The International 2021. But the team could very well end up being elite if they remain …
Keen, Oglodi, Slithereen, and more Dota 2 races explained
William Davis
Dota 2
Dota 2’s 121 heroes draw inspiration from all sorts of established fantasy archetypes, but each one comes with its own unique twist. The world of Dota 2 is extremely diverse. Valve has made an effort to create all sorts of unique characters to go alongside standard humans. While there are plenty of one-offs like Magnus, Puck, and Ursa, many heroes can be confidently codified as the same species. Some heroes …
Could Keeper of the Light be the best mid laner in Dota 2 7.30?
William Davis
Dota 2
Keeper of the Light has everything you want in a soft support, but those tools now make him one of 7.30’s strongest mid laners. Mid Keeper of the Light is one of the wildest builds to emerge in Dota 2’s patch 7.30 meta. Top players have used mid KotL to win pub games and even pro matches in ESL One Fall. In fact, Keeper of the Light is the second …
How to play Lycan, the rising bogeyman of patch 7.30
William Davis
Dota 2
After enduring several patches in the bottom tier of both win and pick rates, Lycan is quickly becoming the terror of 7.30. Patch 7.30 paid special attention to heroes from the “zoo meta” that dominated patches 7.25 through 7.28. Lycan got a ton of cool buffs which skyrocketed his win rate from 43.32% to 54.75%, easily landing him in the top tier of heroes. That 11% win rate increase is …
ESL One Fall Bootcamp group stage opening round betting picks
William Davis
Dota 2
ESL One Fall on patch 7.30 is guaranteed to be entertaining, but its group stage format could make it even more lucrative. The group stage of ESL One Fall Bootcamp Edition is best-of-two with a point system. In addition to fun storylines created by ties, that means higher odds and bigger payouts for savvy Dota 2 bettors. This tournament is your last chance to bolster your funds before The International …
Worst bug in Dota 2 history? Meepo can create infinite clones
William Davis
Dota 2
Meepo is one of the glitchiest heroes in Dota 2 history, but patch 7.30 has seen things hit new heights. By combining Meepo’s new Aghanim’s Shard ability with other spells and items, Dota 2 players can create Meepo clones of their own in patch 7.30. The issue stems from Meepo’s ultimate Divided We Stand being given an active ability. Valve will likely fix the issue in the near future, but …
Here are the new Neutral Items to use after Dota 2 patch 7.30
William Davis
Dota 2
Valve might have distracted you with all the system and hero changes, but the new batch of neutral items is the real highlight of Dota 2 patch 7.30. Dota 2 continues to push the envelope with neutral items nearly two years after their introduction. Patch 7.30 rotated out a ton of weaker options and replaced them with the most busted set of neutrals yet. Each side getting five per bracket …
Biggest winners and losers of Dota 2 patch 7.30
William Davis
Dota 2
Dota 2 patch 7.30 is finally here, and the meta might get turned upside down. Patch 7.29 was dominated by Aghanim’s Shards and Scepters, many of which have been toned down for The International 2021. The neutral items pool received a big shakeup, and a few heroes have cool new abilities to play around with. Out of Dota 2’s 121 heroes, six in particular stood out for being either buffed …
Tinker gets a massive rework as Dota patch 7.30 arrives
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
At long last, Dota 2’s 7.30 patch has arrived, and it has brought the extraordinary number of changes that fans have been expecting. After a bit of a misfire with a premature announcement on Facebook, the patch arrived on Tuesday night bringing significant changes to a long list of characters. It also brought some changes to key mechanics in the game related to how items and talents interact with each …
Find out how toxic you are in-game with your Dota 2 word cloud
William Davis
News
Want to see exactly how positive or toxic you really are in Dota 2? All-chat word clouds have become a hot topic in the Dota 2 community. The service allows players to view their all-chat language over the course of their account’s full history, which can say a lot about a player and their behavior. To see your own Dota 2 wordcloud, go to OpenDota and log into the platform …
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
