Dota 2
Dota 2
Team Undying launches crowdfunding campaign for TI10 boot camp
William Davis
North American Dota 2 team Undying has opened a crowdfunding campaign for its camp before The International 2021. On August 3, David “MoonMeander” Tan Boon Yang issued a statement through social media talking about his experience with Team Undying. In it, he discussed the difficulty of playing with an international roster and the trials faced by the squad. He accompanied the statement with a link to a GoFundMe page asking fans …
Dota 2
How to play Lifestealer: Dota 2’s relentless safe lane carry
William Davis
Once Dota 2’s mind-controlled ghoul gets his claws in you, it’s almost impossible to escape. N’aix the Lifestealer is a melee strength hero almost exclusively played as a safe lane carry. His kit is designed to counter tanky opponents and chase down backline heroes. True to his name, Lifestealer steals a percentage of his victim’s health with every attack. His health gain is the lowest of any strength hero in …
Dota 2
The best way to build and level Dragon Knight in Dota 2
Steven Rondina
Dragon Knight has become Dota 2’s main character since the reveal of the DOTA: Dragon’s Blood animated series. That’s appropriate, because Davion has long been a solid hero that is friendly for new players while still remaining viable in high-level play. There are a number of different ways to play as Dragon Knight in Dota 2, with a classic mid-lane build that turns him into a formidable core hero or …
Dota 2
mason banned for 5th time from Twitch, unbanned 4 hours later
Steven Rondina
Update- August 3, 9:50 p.m. ET Mason’s ban from Twitch was overturned just a few hours after being put in place. The unban was quickly announces by Streamer Bans on Twitter, then corroborated by mason: and I am unbanned. Will stream tomorrow probably. Let’s all be the best we can be in-game and out of game :) — mason (@masondota) August 3, 2021 –End of update– One of Dota 2’s …
Dota 2
EHOME shutters Dota 2 division until 2022 DPC season, xNova out
William Davis
The EHOME Dota 2 team will be temporarily shut down until the 2022 Dota Pro Circuit season. The announcement comes three weeks after a loss in the grand finals of China’s regional qualifier for The International 2021. In addition to a temporary shuttering, the team is also releasing Malaysian hard support Jian Wei “xNova” Yap due to the expiration of his contract. The EHOME Dota 2 team still plans to …
Dota 2
Wacky glitch lets Weaver attack up to 6 times at once
William Davis
Through an obscure combination of friendly heroes and items, Weaver can activate Geminate attack twice in a row. The possible glitch takes advantage of a unique interaction between Echo Sabre and Lycan’s Aghnaim’s Scepter upgrade. Echo Sabre allows melee heroes to strike twice in quick succession, but ranged heroes don’t benefit from that useful passive. By turning Weaver into a melee unit, he can throw out up to six attacks …
Dota 2
Dota 2 pros are rushing Helm of the Dominator with no starting items
William Davis
Helm of the Dominator is one of the least-bought items in Dota 2, but Tundra Esports off-laner Neta “33” Shapira loves rushing it. According to Dotabuff, HotD has been purchased in only .06% of public matches over the past month. It has a bottom-tier 46.86% win rate, but a new off lane build centers around Helm’s solid stats and infinitely useful active. 33’s new off lane build notably rushes Helm …
Dota 2
The funniest submissions from The International 10 Short Film Contest
William Davis
Source Filmmaker artists now have plenty of time to polish their submissions for The International 10 Short Film Contest. The deadline for The International 10 Short Film Contest has been extended to September 12. The contest was originally planned to end on July 25th but was extended due to TI10 being rescheduled. The top three selections will be shown live at The International 10 in Bucharest. Fans get to vote …
Gaben confirms Dota 2 works on Steam Deck as he tests it himself
William Davis
Dota 2
The Steam Deck is confirmed to capably run Dota 2, a fact confirmed by Valve president Gabe Newell himself. Valve co-founder and president Gabe Newell gave a rare interview with IGN during a trip to Valve headquarters in Bellevue, Washington. In it, he confirmed that Dota 2 would be playable on the Steam Deck, and not just theoretically. Newell claims to have played the competitive MOBA for his own personal …
Why are so many pro NA Dota 2 teams left without sponsors?
William Davis
Dota 2
Just a few years ago, Dota 2 teams had to beg and plead for sponsorship opportunities. Now they’re turning down offers left and right. So what changed? Dota 2 has noticeably shifted away from the traditional model in which rosters are supported by prominent esports organizations. This transition is most evident in North America, though the origins of the player-owned structure lie in Western Europe. Quincy Crew and Team Undying, …
AS Monaco Gambit slapped with four-event ban after D2CL ragequit
William Davis
Dota 2
AS Monaco Gambit will not be invited to the next four Dota 2 Champions League events after dropping out in the middle of the latest event’s group stage. AS Monaco Gambit has been struck with a four-event invite ban from Dota 2 Champions League after dropping out halfway through its group stage. The move comes after an extremely poor performance in the current season’s round-robin stage. This decision points to …
New documentary chronicles death of Dota 2 spin-off Artifact
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Valve has failed to fully execute on many of its most popular IPs, but the biggest flop in company history is likely the short-lived Dota 2 card game Artifact. There’s something to learn from a failure of that size, and Akshon Esports did a deep dive on the Artifact’s short life and sudden death. The 70-minute documentary looks at the entirety of Artifact’s existence, starting with its heavily maligned reveal …
Undying: Talked with 15 teams before staying independent for TI
William Davis
Dota 2
In the rocky world of professional Dota 2, North American squad Team Undying has chosen to go it alone. The champions of the North America TI10 qualifier have confirmed that they will attend The International 10 as a completely independent roster with a slight name change. The Team Undying name and brand will continue to be owned by the players and staff. The move comes after a flurry of rumors …
Which mechanics will be getting changed in Dota 2 patch 7.30?
William Davis
Dota 2
Dota 2 pro players have had nearly four months to experiment with patch 7.29, and the competitive metagame can be generously described as overdeveloped. Mid-lane Winter Wyvern almost won the Western Europe TI10 qualifier. The same team’s off-laner started three games with zero items. Major champions PSG.LGD just lost to hard support Faceless Void. Patch 7.29 is getting out of hand, and a big patch is exactly what’s needed before …
Hard support Faceless Void is taking over the Chinese meta
William Davis
Dota 2
The latest weird support pick of patch 7.29d is one of the hardest carries in the game. Royal Never Give Up defeated reigning DPC major champion PSG.LGD 2-0 with a support Faceless Void in the i-League 2021 playoffs. The final pick of game one’sdraft was a completely unexpected Faceless Void, which Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao played masterfully. Support Faceless Void looked predictably foolish in the early laning stage of game one. …
4Z.Gunnar shows off how broken Templar Assassin is in 7.29d
William Davis
Dota 2
4 Zoomers captain Nico “Gunnar” Lopez recently demonstrated Templar Assassin’s insane attack range between matches on his Twitch stream. Templar Assassin’s passive ability Psi Blades lets her attacks pierce through targets and hit anything behind them. Psi Blades also grants 230 bonus attack range at level four. With a level 10 talent and Dragon Lance, Templar Assassin’s attack range is 630, tied with Pugna and barely within tower range. Attack …
Team Secret blasts OG and Alliance for NFTs, Gorgc chimes in
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
NFTs are a controversial subject but that isn’t stopping a number of esports teams from trying to cash in on them. Various esports organizations including Dota 2’s OG and Alliance have attempted to get fans to buy into the company through NFTs. That isn’t sitting well with Team Secret, which threw a few barbs at their rivals about it on social media. In today’s hot takes… Word from our CEO …
WePlay talks about the process behind its wild themed events
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
ESL and DreamHack have carved out a niche in Dota 2 with their clean and professional events. Beyond the Summit has done the same with more casual tournaments. But newer contender WePlay Esports has taken a different approach, putting on some of the biggest shows in esports and doing so with great flair. Events such as Omega League and WePlay Mad Moon have stood out based on their elaborate stages …
Valve asks fans for help in fixing Dota 2’s lag problems
William Davis
Dota 2
Valve is famous for its secrecy, but a senior developer has asked the Dota 2 community for help on a new feature. On July 15, a Valve senior software engineer named Jeff Hill made a public social media post asking fans for feedback on a new Dota 2 feature. New anti-lag compensation features have been added to Dota 2 but Valve needs user feedback to develop it further. Direct communication …
EternaLEnVy and Gunnar reuniting on new team after ugly breakup
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
It’s no surprise that Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao is set to land with a solid stack after failing to qualify for The International 2021. But what comes as a massive surprise is who he’s teaming up with. During a recent stream, EternaLEnVy announced the lineup for a new team that he will play with for an upcoming Dota 2 tournament hosted by Beyond the Summit. Among the list of teammates is …
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.
