Dota 2
Dota 2
Marci is ana’s new unbeatable carry, here’s how to play her
William Davis
Marci is a perfect position four, but a new carry strategy from double-The International champion Anathan “ana” Pham proves she’s a top-tier carry as well. One of the best parts of The International qualifiers is seeing what wacky strats pro players cook up when under that much stress. In the case of T1, which has both ana and Topias “Topson” Taavitsainen, there’s not quite as much pressure. Not content with …
Dota 2
We know the Diretide release date, and it’s after TI11
William Davis
The Diretide 2022 release date is designed to keep Dota 2 players entertained after The International, and it will likely let Valve keep a few extra millions of dollars from the pro scene. Diretide is one of the most memetic events in Dota 2. Starting in the early days of the game, it’s one of the few seasonal events that Valve continues to reiterate on. Diretide is confirmed to be …
Dota 2
Why Arkosh forfeited in The International 2022 NA qualifiers
William Davis
Arkosh Gaming may be an icon of North American Dota 2, but the squad won’t show up at The International 2022 after a sudden qualifiers forfeit. The International 2022 qualifiers are the most stressful time of the year for professional Dota 2 teams. With massive stakes and numerous opponents, there’s a lot to worry about. In the case of Arkosh Gaming, the team chose to not even try. Here’s why …
Dota 2
TI11 qualifier team penalized for player’s racist courier name
William Davis
A courier is supposed to be a trusty battlefield companion, but one Dota 2 pro has paid a steep price for giving it a racist name. South American Dota 2 team Infamous received a penalty in the qualifiers for The International 2022 for using a Name Tag item to apply a racial epithet name onto a courier. As a result of Leonardo “Leostyle-” Sifuentes’s poor name choice, Infamous completely lost …
Dota 2
Dota 2 streamers won’t be showing TI11 qualifiers, here’s why
William Davis
Looking forward to watching The International 2022 qualifiers with your favorite streamer? Well, don’t get too excited because not many prominent streamers will be broadcasting the TI11 qualifiers. The most important qualifiers of the Dota 2 season have started with South America and Eastern Europe as the first regions to brawl. While the official stream is present as expected, big Dota 2 streamers have barely touched the event. This is …
Dota 2
All the features Valve removed from the TI11 Battle Pass
William Davis
Dota 2 fans have had time to dig into the TI11 Battle Pass, but it’s hard not to notice that there are tons of features missing. The battle pass for The International is when Valve is supposed to go all-out convincing Dota 2 players to spend some cash. In addition to supporting the game’s competitive scene, it also includes several time-limited arcanas, immortals, personas, and more. But despite the new cosmetics, …
Dota 2
Here are the best TI11 Battle Pass qualifiers predictions
Steven Rondina
The International 2022 qualifiers are a part of the TI11 battle pass, and players can get some free levels by making correct predictions. TI11 has a different format this year, where the regional qualifiers will send three teams apiece to The International. One team will directly qualify to the event while the second and third-place teams from each region will play in a last-chance qualifier at the event. Unfortunately for …
Dota 2
We know why Team SMG was DQed from the TI11 qualifiers
William Davis
Team SMG fans are already disappointed at the team missing The International 2022, but at least know they know why. According to official statements from Team SMG, the Southeast Asian squad missed out on The International 2022 qualifiers due to miscommunication. As a result, the squad has no chance at the most lucrative event of the Dota 2 season. The impact is strong enough that the company even ousted its …
Here’s your guide to the TI11 Battle Pass week 1 missions
William Davis
Dota 2
Free levels for The International 2022 battle pass are valuable, and week 1 players can grab a ton by completing missions. The battle pass is finally here, which means tons of cool cosmetics and complaints from fans. It also means opportunities to earn free levels, which is strong incentive to clear the missions board every week. Although it’s possible to earn 18 stars, Dota 2 players only need 15 to …
The International 2022 may have the smallest TI prize pool in years
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Valve has been slowly divesting from Dota 2 esports in many ways over recent years, but it could be ready to cash out entirely. The International 2022 Battle Pass is guaranteed to result in TI11 having the smallest prize pool for the popular event in years. The TI11 Battle Pass was something Dota 2 fans were anxiously awaiting. It’s likely an even more anxious time for Dota 2 esports pros, …
TI11 Battle Pass adds gender-bent Phantom Assassin hero persona
William Davis
Dota 2
Hero personas make big changes to Dota 2 heroes, and the upcoming Crystal Maiden and Phantom Assassin sets in the TI11 Battle Pass are among the biggest twists yet. Getting an arcana announced for your favorite hero is fun, but there’s only so much Valve can do with the hero in their current state. Personas are where Dota 2 designers get to go all-out, transforming heroes into completely different states. …
TI11 Battle Pass adds arcanas for Faceless Void and Razor
William Davis
Dota 2
Arcanas are a Dota 2 battle pass tradition, and the TI11 Battle Pass doesn’t disappoint with arcanas for Faceless Void and Razor and hero personas on the way. Faceless Void and Razor are both getting an arcana in the new battle passs. Faceless Void’s Claszian Apostasy turns him into a Lovecraftian creature while Razor’s Voidstorm Asylum grants him a full set of armor and a new weapon. Here are all …
We now know when the TI11 Battle Pass will come out
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
UPDATE: The TI11 Battle Pass is here, make sure to check out the incoming arcanas and hero personas The International 2022 Battle Pass is coming out in the immediate future. Here are the details and release date for the TI11 Battle Pass. The TI11 Battle Pass is the biggest highlight of the year for most Dota 2 players. Valve has largely stopped releasing major updates to the game outside of …
Techies is really good now, here’s how OG is building them
William Davis
Dota 2
Support Techies is going to ruin your pubs soon in Dota 2, so why not learn how to play it yourself first? Pro Dota 2 team OG is known for its explosive and innovative style of play and that mindset extends to the team’s coaching and drafts. This includes unexpected picks like support Techies. This wacky strat didn’t show up in just a throwaway match either. OG saved the strategy …
These are the 3 best new mids to play in Dota 2 after 7.32
William Davis
Dota 2
The best mids in Dota 2 have already figured out the lane in 7.32, and they’ve discovered three of the best heroes just days into the patch. The sweeping changes brought to heroes in version 7.32 has turned some of the worst mids into the best. The changes to the lane itself are also massive and completely rewrite the game’s tempo. If you’re feeling lost in the new mid lane, …
You should try these Aghanim’s Scepter abilities in Dota 2 7.23
William Davis
Dota 2
The new Aghanim’s Scepters may be the wildest part of Dota 2 7.23 and these three abilities are the most absurd of them all. Dota 2’s newest update has a lot to dig into. Massive building and mechanics changes point towards longer games, which means more chances to pick up a luxury item like Aghanim’s Scepter. Several heroes got buffs, nerfs, or reworks to their 4,200-gold powerup, but three in …
Your Dota 2 games will take much longer after 7.32 update
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
The long-awaited 7.32 update has arrived in Dota 2 and major system changes, including a new kind of creep, are about to make your games last longer. Dota 2 has largely been the same game for the better part of two years. That’s not the worst thing ever, as most exploitable and overpowered strategies have been patched out or rendered obsolete. Still, fans are always wanting something new. Icefrog and …
This Dota 2 streamer was banned live on Twitch for smurfing
William Davis
Dota 2
Russian streamer meepgor_off booted up his computer for another day of streaming Dota 2, but his smurfing earned him a big surprise instead. Smurfing is one of the worst parts of online gaming, and every Dota 2 player has fallen victim to it. It’s often treated as a bad player’s problem, but it affects everyone from newbies to big streamers. Some smurfs profit off streaming their gameplay, but Valve also …
Justin Bieber is set to interrupt The International 2022
William Davis
Dota 2
The small subset of Dota 2 fans who both love Justin Bieber and plan to attend The International 2022 will have the best week of their lives come October. The International 2022 is changing up a ton of things about Dota 2. The event’s last chance qualifiers are back, the annual battle pass will be late, and there’s a strange four-day gap in the middle of the playoffs. This initial …
Valve throws Outsiders out of TI11, Fnatic invited instead
Steven Rondina
Dota 2
Despite having a berth to The International 2022 seemingly locked up through the Dota Pro Circuit, the Outsiders squad sponsored by Virtus.pro will have to work its way in through the TI11 qualifiers while Fnatic takes it’s spot. The Dota Pro Circuit standings were finalized by the Arlington Major, which concluded with Team Spirit taking the title with a 3-1 win over PSG.LGD. The actual invites were mathematically secured a …
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.
