Dota 2
Dota 2
Torte De Lini brings end to popular Dota 2 hero build guides
gabhernandez
The top hero build guide creator in Dota 2 has officially ended his long-running project. Michael “Torte De Lini” Cohen is the famed creator for his Dota 2 Hero Builds Project. This has long been recognized as one of the most helpful resources for Dota 2 players. Torte De Lini started the initiative in 2013, providing players with potential item builds for every hero in the complex MOBA. He has …
Dota 2
WESG confirms Chinese government ban of Dota player Kuku
gabhernandez
Implications continue to unfurl following TNC Predator captain Carlo “Kuku” Palad’s involvement in a racial controversy last year. Kuku is in the middle of another career shakeup following his use of a racial slur in a public Dota 2 game. The slur and the ensuing controversy resulted in a ban from the Chongqing Major. Kuku took a break from the professional scene following the scandal. After the Chongqing Major, he …
Dota 2
EG, PSG.LGD, Liquid among DreamLeague major qualifiers
gabhernandez
With the season’s third Dota 2 major only a few weeks away, the event’s coveted slots are being filled out by the world’s strongest teams. Forward Gaming and Flying Penguins both had strong starts in the group stage of the North American qualifier for DreamLeague Season 11. Each team won two series without dropping a single game. During the playoffs, Forward Gaming faced regional powerhouse Evil Geniuses in a best-of-three …
Dota 2
The New Bloom event comes to Dota 2
gabhernandez
Valve is kicking off the Lunar New Year with the New Bloom event, accessible to all Dota 2 players. The event includes the New Bloom rewards line. Players will be able to track their progress throughout the event, totalling the number of points earned by winning a normal, ranked, or turbo matches. Each day, an additional of 1,250 points will be rewarded to the player’s first won match. A normal …
Dota 2
Na’Vi earns first major spot after parting with Dendi
Steven Rondina
Natus Vincere is headed to Stockholm for a major opportunity. After an up-and-down start to the 2018-2019 Dota Pro Circuit season, the Ukrainian team scored a huge victory by successfully qualifying for the DreamLeague Season 11 Major. It is the organization’s first berth in a Dota 2 major since the removal of mainstay Danil “Dendi” Ishutin from the team’s active roster. Victory in the qualifier didn’t come easily to Na`Vi. …
News
Dendi, Tigers flop in open qualifiers to DreamLeague Major
Steven Rondina
Danil “Dendi” Ishutin’s run with Tigers is off to a rocky start. Fans of the legendary Ukrainian player were interested to see how his team would look upon Dendi’s debut. Tigers made its competitive debut in the Southeast Asia open qualifiers to both the DreamLeague Major and ESL One Mumbai. Despite facing a thin field of opponents, Tigers failed to advance to the regional stages of either event, dropping games …
Dota 2
Dota 2 team kicked from Major qualifiers during finals
Steven Rondina
The North American open qualifiers for the DreamLeague Dota 2 Major had an unceremonious ending. Just before the deciding game in the final series pitting Jacky “EternalEnVy” Mao’s Flying Penguins against a mysterious stack labeled as Natus Vincere North America, the game was called off. With a 1-1 score in the series, Flying Penguins was declared the winner by forfeit as Na’Vi.NA was disqualified due to a lack of North …
Dota 2
Kuku returns to TNC following racism controversy
gabhernandez
It has not been a good start to the season for TNC’s Carlo “Kuku” Palad, but things may finally be looking up. The end of the Chongqing Major marked the conclusion of Ryo “ryOyr” Hasegawa’s short stint with the team as Kuku has been welcomed back to the starting roster. After a poor showing at The International 2018, things started to fall apart for Kuku. Despite a better performance at …
Creep gold and movement speed change in Dota patch
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Dota 2’s latest patch is here and players are going to feel it in a big way. The full patch notes for version 7.21 dropped on the official Dota 2 website, marking the end of the three-month run for version 7.20. With that shift comes a list of changes that tackle some of the features the development team has been addressing since The International 2018. The first change that Dota …
Mid star Maybe takes leave from PSG.LGD
gabhernandez
Dota 2
PSG.LGD find themselves in a tough spot after a star player’s departure.Following a somewhat disappointing fourth-place finish in front of the team’s home crowd at the Chongqing Major, PSG.LGD is in turmoil. LGD star mid laner Lu “Maybe” Yao announced that he will be taking a step back from the competitive Dota 2 scene due to personal and physical reasons.The grueling training schedules and immense pressure that come with life …
Team Secret emerge victorious at Chongqing Major
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Team Secret earned a position atop the Dota Pro Circuit standings by winning the Chongqing Major. After getting bumped out of the upper bracket finals by Virtus.pro, Team Secret’s star players found their tournament lives at stake. Evil Geniuses was a threat coming off of a great lower bracket run, but Team Secret quickly asserted their dominance and eliminated the NA hopefuls. The grand finals would then see a rematch …
EG knock out China’s best in Chongqing
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Evil Geniuses’ Dota 2 team has again proven to be the scourge of China. Evil Geniuses eliminated three Chinese teams in the lower bracket to continue their run at The Chongqing Major. EG had a dominant run in the lower bracket of the tournament. The team was pushed out of the upper bracket by Virtus.Pro only to turn around and stomp South American side Thunder Predator 2-0 fashion. This win …
Dendi might have found a new home at Tigers
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Danil “Dendi” Ishutin has found a new home. Maybe. On its official Twitter page, Southeast Asia’s Tigers organization announced that Dendi has joined the team. This is in addition to the signing of fellow legendary Dota 2 player Chai “Mushi” Yee Fung, who rounds out the Tigers roster following the departures of Lai “Ahjit” Jay Son and Muhammad “inYourdreaM” Rizky. Dendi established himself as the most popular player in Dota …
Illness rocks players at Chongqing Major
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Players falling ill in the midst of the Chongqing Major are forcing their teams to play some of the year’s most important games at a disadvantage. The major tournament’s main event opener was a best-of-three series between Team Liquid and Team Secret. Unfortunately, Team Liquid’s Chu “shadow” Zeyu was already not feeling well. Before the main event started, Shadow took to Weibo and posted that he’d been vomiting all morning. …
J.Storm and Fear off to rocky start in Chongqing
gabhernandez
Dota 2
After seven years with Evil Geniuses, Clinton “Fear” Loomis’ first major venture beyond EG is off to a rocky start. J.Storm parted with Milan “MiLAN” Kozomara after qualifying to the Chongqing Major and finishing second in the North America qualifier of ESL One Katowice. Fear left EG on in May of 2018 noting his exhaustion and his hopes to spend more time with his family. But by the end of …
Miracle out in Chongqing for Team Liquid
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Team Liquid are playing short-handed at the Chongqing Major. The team announced on Twitter that its mid player, Amer “Miracle-” Al-Barkawi, will not be attending the event. No specifics were given but Liquid stated that his absence was due to “an urgent personal matter” which “occurred at the last minute.” According to Fox Sports Asia a number of rumors cropped up alleging that visa issues, likely related to the recent …
EHOME heads to Chongqing Major after Bucharest win
gabhernandez
Dota 2
EHOME is the last team heading to the Chongqing Major. As the winning team in the Bucharest Minor, EHOME has received a coveted slot in the upcoming Dota 2 major, along with 120 Dota Pro Circuit points and $125,000. The Bucharest Minor boasted a total prize pool of $300,00 USD and 500 DPC points were up for grabs. EHOME faced Gambit Esports in the final. The first game went to …
Former Digital Chaos organization returns to Dota 2
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Chaos has returned to the Dota 2 scene. The esports organization previously known as Digital Chaos revealed on Twitter that it has acquired the Dota 2 roster of South America’s PaiN Gaming. The move reunites the organization with former players Aliwi “w33” Omar and Rasmus “MISERY” Filipsen, and also marks Chaos’ return to South America following the release of its ill-fated Digital Chaos.SA team. The announcement comes as something of a …
Latest edition of True Sight relives the epic TI8 final
gabhernandez
Dota 2
Valve has delivered the latest edition of its lauded True Sight documentary series. Previous editions of True Sight have received high praise for their great cinematography and storytelling, highlighting key moments at some of the world’s biggest Dota 2 tournaments. The newest installment of the series was revealed January 15 via live premier in Copenhagen, Denmark and streaming on both SteamTV and Twitch. Watching True Sight brings fans back to …
Early GG call prematurely ends pro Dota 2 game
gabhernandez
Dota 2
A premature GG call from BOOM ID provided a tragic ending to the team’s Bucharest Minor run. The Dota Pro Circuit tournament’s playoff stage commenced with a lower bracket series between BOOM ID and TEAM TEAM. The first game was close, with the two teams trading kills and the gold advantage. At the 20-minute mark, BOOM ID successfully caught the cores of TEAM TEAM out of position. BOOM ID took …
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.
