Dota 2
Dota 2
Fnatic and Quincy Crew dominate BTS Pro Series groups, EG struggles
Nina Forneloza
Fnatic and Quincy Crew have both scored an impressive 7-0 standing at the BTS Pro Series Southeast Asia and Americas, respectively. BTS Pro Series Americas featured a good mix of top teams from North and South America. Evil Geniuses was the heavy fan favorite, but the team did not dominate its opponents as expected. Evil Geniuses opened in disappointing fashion by losing its first series against Cloud9. This marked the …
Dota 2
ESL One Los Angeles boasts most viewers for Dota 2 event since TI9
Nina Forneloza
ESL One Los Angeles’ European and CIS Online league recorded the highest Twitch viewership of any Dota 2 event since The International 2019, peaking at 506,288 viewers. The grand finals series between OG and Virtus.pro kept fans on their toes, ending with a 3-2 comeback victory for Virtus.pro. Despite the event taking place in an online setting and without any kind of official major status, the event out-performed a number …
Dota 2
Universe follows ppd and retires from competitive Dota 2
Steven Rondina
Dota 2 veteran Saahil “Universe” Arora has announced his retirement from competitive Dota 2. The former The International champion was vague on his future plans, but stated he was leaving the game behind him regardless. “I have decided to retire as a player from competitive Dota 2…Now, the time has come to pursue other interests and figure out what comes next. Thank you to my fans and past teammates for …
Dota 2
Evil Geniuses vs. CR4ZY in BTS Pro Series playoffs betting analysis
Steven Rondina
BTS Pro Series: Americas has been the biggest and best tournament in the western hemisphere since Dota 2 organizers began moving events online. Bringing together the five best North American teams and three best South American teams has resulted in a good bit of excitement, albeit alongside a little bit of lag-related disappointment. CR4ZY and Evil Geniuses have been two of the bigger surprises at the event for different reasons, …
Dota 2
Sparking Arrow Gaming bested China’s top teams in CDA League Season 1
Nina Forneloza
Sparking Arrow Gaming had an impressive run in CDA League Season 1. The unheralded team surprised fans as it went undefeated through the first three weeks of competition. The team lost its first series against Invictus Gaming in week four. The team suffered another loss against top-ranked Chinese team Vici Gaming, but that wasn’t enough to knock Sparking Arrow Gaming out of the top spot. That strong start kept them …
Dota 2
ppd announces his immediate retirement from Dota 2
Steven Rondina
Ninjas in Pyjamas captain Peter “ppd” Dager has announced his retirement from competitive Dota 2. He announced the news in a statement on Twitter. “I’ve spent just about the entirety of my twenties competing in video game competitions and at this point in my life…I’m looking for something else that I do not think I can find in my current position,” ppd said. ppd went on to state he is …
Dota 2
N0tail made these huge plays as hard support in OG’s ESL One LA run
Steven Rondina
OG may not have won ESL One Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean that Johan “N0tail” Sundstein played poorly. The OG captain was a serious playmaker throughout the European and CIS league and put on a master class when it comes to showing how to make high-impact plays as a hard support player. Some were big and some were small, but fans can learn a lot of lessons away from …
News
The International 2020 Battle Pass might be launching very soon
Nina Forneloza
With a big question mark on The International 2020, fans wonder if Valve will continue to release the T10 Battle pass as expected. There is an interesting pattern of the Battle Pass release date from the previous iterations of The International. A Dota 2 enthusiast pointed out on Reddit that Valve released the Battle Pass five days before the deadline of workshop submissions. Valve released The International 2020 Call to …
Virtus.pro wins ESL One Los Angeles with dramatic win over OG
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Virtus.pro is back on top of the Dota 2 scene, at least for the time being. The CIS region’s top team posted a huge victory in the ESL One Los Angeles European and CIS league. The team defeated OG in a back-and-forth grand finals series, taking a 3-2 victory. Virtus.pro took first blood in the finals. Two kills on Syed “SumaiL” Hassan’s Terrorblade in the first three minutes gave VP …
OG vs. Vikin.gg ESL One Los Angeles lower bracket match prediction
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
ESL One Los Angeles has featured some of the best Dota 2 action since the game was paused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the best part of it has been the European and CIS league. After taking the holiday season off, top squads are back in action and lesser-known teams are making real noise. The lower bracket finals are coming up tomorrow, with The International champions OG set to take …
EternaLEnVy’s Cloud9 breaks brutal losing streak at BTS Pro Series
Steven Rondina
News
At long last, Cloud9’s new Dota 2 team has found its way to a victory. After stumbling out of the gate, Cloud9 has finally found its first series win. In the BTS Pro Series: Americas, the organization posted two series victories over Evil Geniuses and Furia Esports. This kicked a 0-10 skid to start off the team’s time with Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao at the helm. The series with Evil Geniuses …
Vikin.gg scores big upset over Team Secret at ESL One Los Angeles
Nina Forneloza
Dota 2
Vikin.gg eliminated ESL One Los Angeles favorite Team Secret in a clean 2-0 sweep. Vikin.gg dominated Team Secret in a do-or-die series in the lower bracket. The team pulled off a huge upset in the Europe and CIS regional league. Team Secret had an impressive run in the group stage, advancing to upper bracket with an undefeated record. However, two-time The International champions OG knocked them down to the lower …
Nigma picks hard support Sniper, gets eliminated from ESL One LA
Nina Forneloza
Dota 2
Chicken Fighters wound up defeating Team Nigma in ESL One Los Angeles’ Europe and CIS league, thanks in part to a failed support Sniper draft in game two. Chicken Fighters and Team Nigma were pitted against each other in a do-or-die lower bracket series. Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi’s team kicked things off with a convincing win against Chicken Fighters. Chicken Fighters evened the field when Nigma tried to experiment with …
Valve wants to shorten Dota 2 game lengths with update 7.26
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Dota 2 update 7.26 has arrived, and it’s a very strange one. While actual version changes typically consist of a slew of sweeping changes to the game including changes to heroes, items, and buildings, the 7.26 update is exclusively composed of core gameplay changes. The full patch notes are short enough to be included here: Attributes no longer provide Magic Resistance, Spell Amplification, and Movement Speed for Strength, Intelligence and …
Virtus.pro, Team Secret go undefeated in ESL One LA group stage
Nina Forneloza
Dota 2
Virtus.pro and Team Secret have ended the ESL One Los Angeles Europe and CIS league’s group stage with perfect 7-0 records. Virtus.pro is peaking right now. After several roster shakeups and underwhelming tournament results, the Russian team is finally bringing its A-game. The team was grouped with back-to-back The International champions OG and Kuro “KuroKy” Salehi Takhasomi’s Team Nigma. Despite that stiff competition, Virtus.pro posted an impressive 7-0 score in …
CDEC’s Xm is the first Chinese Dota 2 player to reach 10,000 MMR
Nina Forneloza
Dota 2
Guo ‘Xm’ Hongcheng has become the first Chinese player to reach the highly coveted 10,000 MMR ranking. Indeed, the 10k MMR club is growing bigger and bigger. China recorded its first Chinese member of the 10k MMR club as Xm joined the elite list of players with five-digit MMR. ???? Congratulations to CDEC.Xm on reaching 10K MMR!#StarLadder #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/hAbc6ZkaMK — StarLadder Dota 2 (@StarLadderDota2) April 14, 2020 Malaysian player Cheng …
These are best heroes in Dota 2 after ESL LA, according to pro players
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
It’s been a long few months for the Dota 2 pro scene. After grinding to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pro calendar has started returning to life with a number of online leagues. Among those events is ESL One Los Angeles, which featured action across all six Dota 2 regions. There have been numerous patches over recent weeks, but few international events around that can be used …
Team Liquid, B8 first eliminations from ESL One Los Angeles Europe
Nina Forneloza
Dota 2
Team Liquid and B8 are out of the ESL One Los Angeles Europe and CIS online league. Fans of Team Liquid are undoubtedly disappointed in the team’s performance, as Liquid was one of the strongest teams in the event and one of the few that wasn’t forced to compete with substitutes or players that had only recently been added to its roster. Unfortunately, the team was mathematically eliminated from the …
Epulze reveals Epulze Global Dota 2 League for teams in 7 regions
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Online leagues are making a huge comeback in Dota 2 right now. Part of that can be chalked up to the ongoing pandemic forcing events offline, but part of it is just a natural return to Dota 2’s early years as a major esports title. Dota 2 has seen a number of tournament organizers, both old and new, step up to keep the professional, regional, and amateur scenes going. Among …
Epic Prime League kicks off, boasts top CIS teams Virtus.pro, B8
Nina Forneloza
Dota 2
EPICENTER will host the first season of Epic Prime League, a new online league featuring top teams from the CIS region. The full list of participants includes the following: Virtus.pro Team Spirit VP.Prodigy FlyToMoon Winstrike Team Team Unique Cyber Legacy B8 Virtus.pro headlines the list of participating teams, with the Russian squad loaning Igor “iLTW” Filatov from Team Spirit. iLTW has replaced Zaur “Cooman” Shakhmurzaev, who was benched after Virtus.pro’s …
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.
