Dota 2
Dota 2
TI9 direct invite hopefuls set to compete in StarLadder Minor
Steven Rondina
The lineup of teams for the last two events of the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season is now set. The qualifiers for the StarLadder Minor are officially done, which finalizes the list of competitors for the final major cycle before The International 2019. The last four direct invitations to the event will be handed out at the Epicenter Major, and some of the favorites to take those spots have a …
Dota 2
Virtus.pro Solo gives ultimatum after Ceb racism controversy
Steven Rondina
Another racism controversy has hit Dota 2’s professional scene. OG offlaner Sébastien “7ckngMad” Debs is under fire for insensitive remarks made during a recent pub game. During a losing effort, Ceb went on a lengthy rant about a pair of Russian teammates through the in-game chat as well as in the post-game menu. Among other insults, he refers to the players as “animals from Russia,” “third world dogs,” and “Russian …
Dota 2
Dota 2 update brings Aghanim’s Scepter abilities for every hero
Steven Rondina
The latest Dota 2 update is here, albeit a bit late. Dota 2 version 7.22 brings a number of changes based on the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. Like most post-major patches, 7.22 brings significant changes to heroes, items, and a number of other elements to the game. The most interesting change comes to Aghanim’s Scepter. All 117 Dota 2 heroes now have scepter abilities, with the 24 heroes previously without …
Dota 2
The International 2019 ticket sale dates are announced, prices are up
gabhernandez
Tickets to the most-awaited event of the year’s Dota 2 calendar will be made available on May 24. This year’s The International will take place in the Asian region for the first time. From 2011 to 2017, the biggest esports tournament in the world was held in Seattle, Washington. Last year, Valve took the event outside of the United States and brought it to fans in Vancouver, Canada. Now, The …
Dota 2
Disneyland Paris Major sets new Dota 2 viewership records
Olivia Richman
After Valve decided to rework Dota 2’s professional circuit schedule for the 2018-2019 season, there’s been a major jump in viewership. The Mar’s Dota 2 League Disneyland Paris Major played host to the two most-watched Twitch channels that week, on a weekend that resulted in Dota 2’s most-watched day of the entire year on the streaming service. From May 4 through 12, the main English broadcast recorded an average of 57,000 …
Dota 2
Epicenter Major regional slot distribution is finally announced
Steven Rondina
The Epicenter Major qualifiers kick off in just a few days, and teams are just now finding out their chances of qualifying directly to the event. After weeks of confusion and silence, Epicenter revealed the qualifier slot allocation for the event on Twitter. Three teams each from Europe and China will compete in the event, while the North America, South America, Southeast Asia, and CIS regions will send two apiece. The …
Dota 2
Team Secret run over Team Liquid in MDL Disneyland Paris Major final
Steven Rondina
Team Secret often cools down around this time of the year, but that hasn’t been the case in 2019. The Clement “Puppey” Ivanov-led squad won their second major of the season by defeating Team Liquid in the grand finals of the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. The win capped an exceptional run for Secret that saw them defeat a number of Dota 2 elites in impressive fashion. The first game was …
Dota 2
Team Liquid and three other teams earn invites 2019 International
Steven Rondina
Team Liquid scored a huge win over PSG.LGD at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, and it was about more than just moving into the finals of that event. By beating PSG.LGD, Team Liquid became the eighth team to secure a spot in The International 2019. Though Liquid has long been regarded as one of the top teams in Dota 2, the champions of TI7 haven’t looked great to this point …
Two major winners eliminated from MDL Disneyland Paris Major
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The competitive field of the MDL Disneyland Paris Major is shrinking rapidly and elite teams are starting to get sent home. Just six teams remain at the event and the latest set of lower bracket games saw previous major winners Vici Gaming and Virtus.pro sent home. They share a seventh-place finish at the event, which is good for $40,000 and 450 Dota Pro Circuit points. Vici Gaming’s elimination came at …
The International prize pool hits new 24-hour high with Battle Pass
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Within just 24 hours of its release, sales of the latest Dota 2 Battle Pass have skyrocketed. The long-awaited Battle Pass season has come in Dota 2 and players did not waste time getting their hands on the exclusive rewards contained within. The hype around the Battle Pass release stirred on top of the ongoing MDL Paris Disneyland Major. As expected, the Dota 2 community converged to boost the huge …
Chaos kicks two of its Brazilian players and leaves South America
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Chaos Esports Club’s South American Dota 2 experiment seems to have ended in failure. The organization announced that it is leaving the region and has released Brazilian players Otávio “Tavo” Gabriel and Danylo “Kingrd” Nascimento. This comes just two days after the team’s early elimination from the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. “Following disappointing results at the MDL Paris Major, we are releasing Kingrd and tavo as the first step of …
Everything we know inside the International 2019 Battle Pass
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The International 2019 Battle Pass has finally arrived and brings with it a number of new skins, items, and features. For the most part, this year’s battle pass is identical to 2018’s, only with the cavern motif being dropped in favor of an overgrown jungle. That said, there are a few interesting new features and several aesthetics worth highlighting for fans interested in getting the battle pass. The International 2019 Battle …
EternalEnVy and Beastcoast are first eliminations at Disneyland Major
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao and Beastcoast had a chance to shut people up at the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, but they couldn’t do it. The rebranded and retooled Team Team made their debut at the major and flopped mightily. The team came in last place without winning a single series. The elimination came on the first day of the playoffs with a loss to CompLexity Gaming. Playing in an elimination match …
The International 2019 Battle Pass release date has been announced
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The International 2019 Battle Pass will be arriving soon. Valve has officially announced the release date for the TI9 Battle Pass on the official Dota 2 Twitter account. According to a short tweet, the long awaited feature will arrive “tomorrow,” May 7. The tweet also features a GIF showing the Aegis of Champions adorned with flowers on a purple background. This seems to confirm previous leaks that suggested the theme for …
Team Team reveals new Dota 2 roster and announces new sponsor
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Team Team has a new roster and a new sponsor. The organization has announced the addition of mid laner Eric “Ryoya” Dong and support player Timothy “tmt” Ong. Additionally, Team Team has found a sponsor in Beastcoast. The addition of Ryoya and TMT comes after Team Team’s controversial release of Nico “Gunnar” Lopez and Jason “Newsham” Newsham. After qualifying for the MDL Disneyland Paris Major, the squad dropped the pair …
Pieliedie joins Forward Gaming as new captain and support player
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
One of Dota 2’s top free agents has found a new home. According to an announcement by the team on Twitter, Johan “pieliedie” Åström is the new captain of North America’s Forward Gaming. The move reunites him with former Cloud9 teammates Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling and Arif “MSS” Anwar. Pieliedie is a familiar name for any longtime fan of Dota 2. A staple of the European scene from 2012 to 2017, …
Valve releases schedule for 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
There are still two majors between now and The International 2019, but Valve has officially laid the foundation for next year’s Dota 2 season. On the official Dota 2 blog, Valve put out a notice to tournament organizers that the company is now accepting applications to arrange the official major and minor tournaments of the 2019-2020 Dota Pro Circuit season. Though the information provided is limited, the notice includes a …
New season patch brings Dazzle, Io, more changes to Dota Auto Chess
gabhernandez
Dota 2
The first season of Dota Auto Chess has concluded and Drodo Studio has released some huge changes to the game. Major changes were added to the popular Dota 2 custom game as it closed its first season. These include reworking hero synergies, rebalancing of existing heroes, and adding new chess pieces to the game. Drodo Studio also marked April 30 as an “offseason” day. This means that all games played …
Former Team Liquid coach Heen joins up with TNC Predator
gabhernandez
Dota 2
TNC Predator has announced the addition of a former Team Liquid coach to its organization. Lee “Heen” Seung Gon is popularly known for coaching Team Liquid for more than two years. Team Liquid had found several tournament successes under his guidance since his joining in 2016. His coaching for Team Liquid debuted at The Manila Major 2016 where the team took second place behind OG. From there, Liquid found its …
Ninjas in Pyjamas win OGA Dota PIT Minor, head to Disneyland Major
Steven Rondina
News
Ninjas in Pyjamas are going to Disneyland. The European squad fought their way through the OGA Dota PIT Minor to capture the last available spot in the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. The team took the victory with an impressive 3-2 win over EHOME in the grand finals. The first game was a wild one. NiP held a considerable lead over EHOME, taking every team fight that came about. EHOME managed …
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.
