Dota 2
Dota 2
Valve tries to kill core Io, Alchemist in Dota 2 patch 7.22g
Steven Rondina
The dust has finally settled from The International 2019, but Valve has made things a bit messy once again. Dota 2’s latest update has arrived in 7.22g. The update tackles many of the most powerful and popular heroes of TI9, as well as a handful of items. The list of changes isn’t as long as some past updates but should heavily impact the meta once the competitive scene heats back …
Dota 2
Fnatic prepares for new DPC season with a new Dota 2 roster
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Fnatic has announced its new Dota 2 roster for the upcoming 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season. Fnatic’s Dota 2 roster is now joined by Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon and Kam “Moon” Boon Seng, while Abed “Abed” Yusop and Kim “DuBu” Doo-young will no longer be a part of the team. Anucha “Jabz” Jirawong will be returning to the support position. The news of Fnatic shuffling its roster comes as no surprise …
Dota 2
pasha released by Virtus.pro after TI9 flop, joins Na’Vi
Steven Rondina
Big changes were expected for Virtus.pro’s Dota 2 team and they have started to arrive. The organization announced the release of longtime offlaner Pavel “9pasha” Khvastunov. The news of 9pasha’s release was broken by competing team Natus Vincere, who announced that they had signed him to replace their own offlaner, Evgeniy “Blizzy” Ree. “Pasha is a true veteran and one of the most respected players of CIS Dota,” Virtus.pro GM …
Dota 2
Dendi starting his own esports org after leaving Natus Vincere
Steven Rondina
Danil “Dendi” Ishutin is not done with Dota 2 just yet. The popular player sat down for a lengthy interview on his past year, including his time as a journeyman and his gig as an analyst for The International 2019. He also opened up on his plans for the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season. “I have very serious plans for the season,” Dendi said. “After some time and many people …
Dota 2
Drama swirls in Chinese Dota 2 scene over alleged roster tampering
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
The International 2019 is now behind us, but the drama continues. A few enduring Dota 2 organizations have accused Royal Never Give Up of shady dealings during the year’s largest event. This played out over the course of a few days on Chinese social media platform Weibo. Things started off with Newbee CEO Tong “CU” Xin stating that other Chinese organizations were attempting to poach his players in underhanded ways. …
Dota 2
EternalEnVy reveals new Dota 2 team for upcoming season
Steven Rondina
Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao is back in action. The controversial carry player has formed a new team for the 2019-2020 season, which was unveiled on Twitter. Joining him are a number of former teammates including offlaner David “MoonMeander” Tan and supports Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu and Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling. Playing in the mid lane is Jonathan Bryle “bryle” Santos De Guia. The team is currently without a sponsor and has not revealed …
Dota 2
The International 2019 is the most viewed Dota 2 event ever
M Alzamora
The International 9 was the most-watched Dota 2 broadcast to date, according to new stats revealed by Esports Charts. The statistics firm says at least 1.96 million people tuned in for the matchup between OG and Team Liquid in the grand finals. A million of those viewers visited the English broadcast, while Russian language streams accounted for a very respectable 670,000. Remarkably, these stats don’t include figures from Chinese platforms …
Dota 2
The International 2019 All-Star Game brings laughs, gaffes
gabhernandez
Team Radiant took the victory in The International 2019 All-Star Match. As always, the show match took place with a unique rule set, with the game being competed under All Random Death Match rules, which sees players change heroes with each death and teams limited to 40 respawns. The game can be won by destroying the enemy ancient, or completely wiping out the enemy team. For TI9, the teams were …
Accusations of racism shroud success of Infamous at TI9
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Dota 2
Controversies surrounding racist behavior are unfortunately nothing new to the Dota 2 community, especially when different regions meet every year at The International. TI9 hasn’t been different, and the eyes have most recently turned towards Hector Antonio “K1” Rodriguez. Infamous’ Peruvian player K1 often turns to rage in his public Dota 2 games, and that rage sometimes results in racial and other inappropriate slurs towards teammates and opponents alike. A …
Post-TI9 roster shuffle begins with Complexity and Mineski
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The International 2019 is now over, and with that comes a reboot of the professional Dota 2 scene. The post-TI9 shuffle is officially underway and two teams have been turned upside down. Mineski is set to undergo heavy changes while Complexity Gaming’s roster has disbanded entirely. Over the last few days, a number of Mineski players have taken to Twitter and posted that they are looking for a new team. …
Dota Underlords update changes odds for high tier units
William Davis
Dota 2
A new Dota Underlords update went live on Sunday. The most recent update of the game introduces a hotfix to the update from August 23. The hotfix changes completely the odds of getting Tier 4 and Tier 5 units at while higher levels. In the previous patch, the Tier 5 units were available starting at level eight with a 5% chance of appearing. In the recent patch, that number went …
OG roster become five top earners in esports history after TI9 win
Syed Mujtaba Naqvi
Dota 2
With back-to-back wins at The International, OG’s Dota 2 players now stand as the five highest-earning esports players in history. The European squad beat Team Liquid 3-1 in the grand finals of The International 2019, taking the Aegis of Champions and a cash prize worth over $15.6 million. This is the second year in a row the team has won Dota’s most prestigious event. When they were crowned world champions …
OG wins The International 2019, becomes first repeat TI champion
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
OG are the champions of The International 2019. The European squad completed its second Cinderella run at the world’s largest Dota 2 tournament, defeating Team Liquid in the event’s grand finals. The victory caps a dominant run at the event and nets the team $15,578,510 from the record-breaking prize pool. OG took the Aegis of Champions with a strong 3-1 victory, overcoming some early adversity before closing out the event in …
The International 2020 will take place in Stockholm, Sweden
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The International 2020 is heading to Stockholm, Sweden. The reveal was made during a special announcement ahead of the grand finals to The International 2019. “Next year, Stockholm is excited to host this global celebration by welcoming the tenth International Dota 2 Championship to our wonderful city. Stockholm is bursting with creativity, and the passion for Dota runs deep,” Stockholm mayor Anna Konig Jerlmyr said in a short video. “We …
OG and Team Liquid set for The International 2019 grand finals
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The grand finals to The International 2019 are now set. Upper bracket winners OG will take on Team Liquid for the Aegis of Champions and the top prize of $15,578,100. The two teams started this Dota 2 season in the same spot, but landed where they are by taking very different paths. OG had a rocky 2018-2019 season. Despite coming in hot off a win at The International 2018, the …
Team Liquid advances to TI9 grand finals after beating PSG.LGD
Steven Rondina
News
The participants for the grand finals of The International 2019 have been decided. In a hardfought three-game series, PSG.LGD was dispatched by Team Liquid. The squad led by Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi will face upper bracket winner OG for the largest prize in esports history. Liquid are now poised to complete one of the most surprising runs in The International history, playing their way to the finals despite starting in the lower bracket. …
OG defeat PSG.LGD in TI rematch to qualify for grand finals
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Once again, the TI8 champions have proved that they can break a TI curse and potentially become the first two-time holders of the Aegis. History repeated itself as OG knocked down PSG.LGD to the lower bracket finals. The best-of-three series was a tight one that came down to the wire. The first game brought much hype, especially for the Chinese Dota 2 fans watching in the arena. Their home team …
Team Liquid advance to TI9 top three, eliminate Team Secret
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi seems to have Clement “Puppey” Ivanov’s number. In the lower bracket semifinals of The International 2019, Team Liquid eliminated Team Secret 2-0 in quick fashion. It is the third year in a row that Secret has been eliminated from TI by Liquid. Game one was a signature performance from KuroKy. The Liquid captain helped his team win The International 2017 with crafty drafts that were defined by …
Team Secret run over Vici Gaming, move to TI9 lower semifinals
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Team Secret have finally hit their stride. Facing Vici Gaming in the lower bracket, the two-time major winners scored one of the most lopsided series wins of The International 2019 to this point. Though Vici Gaming was held up as one of the favorites to win the tournament, Secret steamrolled them for a 2-0 victory. Secret took a page out of OG’s book in game one, putting carry player Michał …
Void Spirit is the new Dota 2 hero at The International 2019
Jared Wynne
Dota 2
Another new Dota 2 hero is premiered at the biggest esports tournament of the year. Dota 2 developer Valve showed off the second of two new heroes making their debut at this year’s edition of The International. This latest hero is named Void Spirit, and he brings with him clear links to a few existing heroes already in the game. Three spirit heroes have long been present in Dota 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.
