Dota 2
Dota 2
Chinese Dota 2 event hit with allegation of cheating by veteran player
Steven Rondina
The games played by iG.Vitality at a recent tournament aren’t sitting well with Su “super” Peng. The veteran player and current staff member for the team accused a number of recent opponents of cheating during the China Future Cup tournament. Though iG.Vitality posted a solid second-place finish at the event, Super took to social media and blasted the players and the tournament organizer. “Unfortunately for us, we only achieved second …
Dota 2
Alliance to ESL One Birmingham after GG.BET Birmingham triumph
gabhernandez
Alliance captured the last spot at ESL One Birmingham by winning the GG.BET Birmingham Invitational. Eight teams from Europe and CIS fought for the last ticket to ESL One Birmingham. Natus Vincere, Gambit Esports, and Alliance were among the biggest names invited to participate in the GG.BET Birmingham Invitational for a chance to qualify to the bigger event. After a group stage bloodbath, Alliance and Gambit Esports topped their respective …
Dota 2
First Dota Auto Chess mobile keys start rolling out in China
Steven Rondina
Dota Auto Chess developer Drodostudio has launched the alpha build of its mobile port of the popular game. A number of Chinese streamers have been broadcasting their play of the early version of the game. Though details of the mobile Auto Chess release are still unknown, fans of the game can now get an early look at what is in store. From a gameplay perspective, the mobile version of Auto …
News
J.Storm takes first place, wins title at WSOE 6: Serenity’s Destiny
Steven Rondina
J.Storm are the new champions of the World Showdown of Esports. The North American team took the WSOE Dota 2 title with a dramatic victory over Team Serenity at WSOE 6. The squad earned a crack at the proverbial belt by navigating a tricky field of opponents in the challengers bracket, last defeating Infamous. The series opened with a tough loss for J.Storm. Despite a solid laning phase from the …
Thunder Predator cruises through Mekansm League Season 1
Steven Rondina
News
Thunder Predator has long been the king of its regional Dota 2 tournaments, and it maintaind that reputation in the Mekansm League. The Peruvian team cruised through the tournament to take the first-place prize of $3,500. It did so by defeating Kingao+4, an impromptu team built around Chaos Esports Club player Danylo “Kingrd” Nascimento in the grand finals. That grand finals kicked off with an excellent showing from Leonardo “LeoStyle-” …
Winstrike reveals new Dota 2 lineup that includes Virtus.pro, OG alums
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The clock is ticking on teams looking to qualify for The International 2019, and that is prompting some heavy roster shakeups. One organization making serious changes is Winstrike Team. The CIS staple recently suffered a series of departures, but have put together a compelling new roster for a push into the EPICENTER Major. Joining Winstrike are longtime Virtus.pro player Ilya “Lil” Ilyuk and former OG carry Igor “iLTW” Filatov. The …
OpenAI Five dominate reigning Dota 2 champions OG, threaten humanity
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Artificial intelligence has already beaten the best in the world at board games like chess and go, but now it is beating the best in Dota 2. In a showmatch best-of-three series, OpenAI Five defeated reigning The International 2018 champions OG in lopsided fashion. Though the game used a special set of rules that barred certain items and included only a fraction of Dota 2’s hero pool, the human side …
Dota Auto Chess developer shows off new designs for pieces
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Dota Auto Chess has taken the world by storm as a user-made game mode in Dota 2, but fans are getting a small taste of its upcoming standalone mobile release. Auto Chess developer Drodo Studio has been rolling out concept art for the characters in the mobile port of the game on Twitter. The new pieces let players see the title’s general art style, but also let fans know that …
Natus Vincere bring in Misha to sub for captain Sonneiko
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Natus Vincere captain Akbar “SoNNeikO” Butae will be benched temporarily. For the team’s upcoming tournaments, Na ‘Vi tapped Mikhail “Misha” Agatov to stand in for the side. Misha will be playing for Na ‘Vi in two tournaments outside of the Dota Pro Circuit: ESL One Mumbai and the GG.BET Birmingham Invitational. The reason behind this decision was revealed to be an ongoing health issue a recent press release. “During the …
ESL One Mumbai rocked by multiple withdrawals due to Dota PIT Minor
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The ESL One Mumbai Dota 2 tournament is fast approaching, but many of the teams set to participate in it have peeled off and headed elsewhere. According to a statement from ESL, the event set to take place in India was rocked hard by a series of withdrawals, largely surrounding those teams qualified for the OGA Dota PIT Minor. Though the event will continue on, it will feature a reduced …
A quick guide to Auto Chess, the popular new Dota 2 game mode
gabhernandez
Dota 2
The hype around Dota 2 custom game Auto Chess continues to build. But just what is it all about? Since its January 4 release, the new custom game has generated significant attention around the Dota 2community. New players have even installed Dota 2 just to play the custom game. Developer Drodo Studio consistently maintains interest around the game with its regular balance updates and content additions. Auto Chess is a …
Dota PIT Minor teams confirmed include Ninjas in Pyjamas, Alliance
Steven Rondina
News
The field for the OGA Dota PIT Minor is set and the tournament is looking to be an exciting one. The regional qualifiers for the event have concluded and the eight teams set to compete in Kiev have been decided. The lineup consists of European representatives Alliance and Ninjas in Pyjamas, Chinese teams EHOME and Royal Never Give Up, and North America’s Forward Gaming. Rounding things out are Gambit Esports, …
Final Dota 2 major of the season receives surprise qualifier shakeup
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Something strange is going on with Dota 2’s Epicenter Major. The event organizer made a surprise announcement that the qualifier slot allocation for the final event of the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season is being changed. Epicenter announced the news on Twitter. “Europe, China and CIS will each have 2 slots on The EPICENTER Major due to an uncertainty in regional slot distribution and in communication with Valve on that …
Valve takes measures against fake free Dragonclaw Hook scam pages
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
After months of inaction, Valve is finally taking measures to combat one of Steam’s most aggressive phishing scams. In a news post on the official Steam Community page, Valve announced that it was changing its policies regarding the Dota 2 workshop. The workshop will now require users to take an extra email verification step. “First-time submissions to the Dota workshop will now require email verification before the item can be …
EternalEnVy backdoors his way into spot at MDL Disneyland Paris Major
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao is heading to Disneyland after taking a long, strange path to get there. Team Team has overcome the odds and qualified for a spot in the MDL Disneyland Paris Major. Working through the North American qualifiers, it will join fellow teams from the region Evil Geniuses and CompLexity Gaming. The sudden union of EternalEnVy and Team Team may come as a surprise to fans that haven’t been …
Mars and Zeus join the field in latest Auto Chess update
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Drodo Studios has released another eagerly anticipated update to Auto Chess, and it features two new heroes and a new species. Last week, Auto Chess’ developers teased the release of two new heroes in a Twitter post. The silhouettes of the new characters depicted Mars and Zeus. As expected, the new patch brought in the two heroes. Mars is a God Warrior with 650/1300/2600 health and five armor. However, he …
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
News
News
Dota 2
