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Dota 2 Update 3/28/2024Mar 28, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsMatchmade lobbies will no longer share the account information of any members until the lobby is accepted by all players. Fixed certain cases where Revenant's Brooch would still allow critical hits. Gameplay Patch 7.35d And Matchmaking FeaturesMar 21, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/168f2b245354ff66177462580a6f29d2e007bca4.jpg We've just released Gameplay Patch 7.35d (Chen had it coming), and with it a new set of features. Matchmaking Hero Ban Rework Over the last year or so, we've taken a number of visible actions against users of third-party cheats. As we investigate each cheat, we're primarily focused on understanding what they're doing and how we can track and stop it. But while we're doing that, we also ask ourselves why some cheaters feel compelled to use these tools in the first place. The most common explanation is "to get an unfair advantage", which obviously runs counter to the desires of the Dota community and the sense of competitiveness and fairness at its heart. Even so, sometimes there are still things we can learn, and use to improve the Dota experience for everyone (or at least everyone who hasn't been banned for cheating). Pre-game hero bans are an example of this. Many cheats last year focused on gaining an advantage during the ten-second hero ban phase at the start of each game. We stepped back to look at the original goals of this phase — letting players express a preference for what heroes they didn't want to play against, but without creating scenarios where players with small hero pools get permanently locked out — looked at some data, and asked if there was a way we could better serve these goals while solving other problems at the same time. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/9176222f2c8de1b62450dd341e79cfa22b98afd3.png With today's update, we've removed the start-of-match ban phase and replaced it with ban preferences stored with your account. If you load the heroes tab, you can select the four heroes you don't want to see in your games. You're guaranteed when you join a matchmaking game that at least one of them will be banned. You can change your list of banned heroes whenever you want. (If you leave some ban slots empty, it's possible the empty slot will be selected as your "banned hero". In other words, there's no advantage to leaving slots empty.) This new system addresses a number of problems the previous system had: you can't forget to ban; you don't have to learn that sometimes suggested bans are ignored by the game; you're not on a tight clock to make a stressful decision that, in the end, most players make the same way almost all the time. As an added bonus, it also makes targeted bans impossible, whether those bans are against known personalities or random players in a pub match for which you've looked up data. Some game modes (ie., Captains Mode, Captains Draft, Ability Draft, Turbo) either didn't have a pre-game ban phase, or already had non-standard ban rules. These modes are unchanged. Dota Plus Pre-Match Matchmaker Analytics Millions of Dota players interact with the matchmaker every day and every single one has different priorities when looking for a game. Some prefer to get into a match as quickly as possible, and are willing to accept a higher skill variance in...The International 2024Mar 8, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/040f3cd7b283452e7939cf075284647905cbb900.png War banners are being washed clean of blood stains and scorch marks. Trumpets are being tested for their ability to sound the imminent approach of battle. Lanes are getting swept clean of body parts, and the Ancients are getting a good crack replastering and surface buffing. The forest air itself crackles with anticipation, because we had new forest air shipped in at considerable cost that crackles on command. The stage is being set, is the point we’re trying to get across here. And why? For The International, returning this September to Europe, where the best Dota teams from around the world will clash for the Aegis in Copenhagen's Royal Arena. The sixteen participating teams will be a mix of open qualifiers, regional qualifiers, and direct invitations, similar to how invitations worked for the first few years of The International. The invited teams will be announced leading up to the event, and chosen based on team performance during the year. And there's a lot of performance to consider. This year's calendar is packed, with half a dozen major tournaments already announced and more on the way, including studio and arena tournaments in Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East. We even hear rumors Midas Mode might be making a grand return. (The more teams that are eligible to participate in a tournament, the higher our consideration: Cross-regional tournaments generate more useful data than intra-regional tournaments, tournaments with qualifiers generate more useful information than invitation-only tournaments, etc.) We'll be announcing ticketing and scheduling information for The International 2024 in the next few months. Until then, why not go watch a game of pro Dota to get back in the competitive spirit?Dota Plus Update — Spring 2024 (And Dota Labs)Mar 5, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/e11198d52372bf87ada1c5495fe8ec9539716096.png Dota Plus Seasonal Update As Spring blooms to life around us, it transports us here on the Dota team to the springs of yore, when the world was new and vibrant. Who could forget climbing that old oak tree by the bridge? Or stealing carrots and turnips from cranky old Farmer Maggot? Or taking that ring to Mordor, and casting it into the fiery pits of Mount Doom where it was forged? Dota Plus Seasonal Treasure That last part of our spring memory trilogy is especially relevant today, since we’ve uncovered another priceless treasure. And this time it’s too good to throw into a volcano. The Spring 2024 Seasonal Treasure is here and available for purchase with shards. This treasure features all new sets for Disruptor, Dark Willow, Spectre, Chaos Knight, Doom, Earth Spirit, Underlord, and Nyx Assassin. There's also a chance to unlock the Sir Molestach Irondrill courier, who arrives in the lanes bearing random prismatic and ethereal gems. We've also taken sets that were available in the Summer Treasure 2022 and made them available for direct purchase for 15,000 shards each as part of the collection of legacy sets in the Shard Shop. Updated Seasonal Quests & Guild Rewards Today’s update also comes with a new set of Dota Plus quests to shore up your shard stash for new relics and the Seasonal Treasure — offering up to 115,200 shards over the course of the season. Guild rewards have also been updated, making new emoticons, sprays, and chat wheels available to high-scoring guilds. Guild Tier Rewards Silver Emoticon - lion_bounce Emoticon - rainbow_phoenix Emoticon - riki_peaceout Gold Spray - Aghanim - Push Spray - Bounty Hunter - Riches Spray - Hoodwink - Acorn Platinum Chat Wheel - "Что это?! Какая жесть!" Chat Wheel - "Ooooh, por dios!" Chat Wheel - "你行你行,你上你上" Introducing Dota Labs In addition to the Dota+ content, today's update introduces a set of experimental features available to all Dota players, and a new way for us to ship experiments like them: Dota Labs. (We had fun coming with names like "Unstable Concoctions" and "Tinker's Tinkerings" but ultimately decided we'd rather have the name be boring and clear and the features themselves be interesting.) If you load up your options menu, you'll see a new tab with the Dota Labs label. Features here are experimental, and less polished than many other features we ship, so they're all in a special menu and disabled by default. These are features where our playtesting has produced mixed or ambiguous data. We can't really know if they're good or how to make them better without seeing real Dota players using them, so we're shipping them in an earlier form on purpose so you can tell us whether they're worth continuing to invest in. The initial set of Dota Labs features includes: Overlay Map. It's sort of just like the minimap, but it's large instead of small, and transparent instead of solid, and is full-screen instead of being isolated t...Between the Lanes: Denying Denial of ServiceMar 5, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/4d7209c869530f3e0f737e28a1156e7017314660.jpg Welcome back to Between the Lanes, a blog feature where members of our development team walk through some of the challenges, bugfixes, and occasional happy accidents we encounter while working on a game as unique as Dota. This is a story about the internet, and how it doesn’t work like it should, when it works at all, except when it doesn’t. It’s a story about how the internet stopped working for our customers, and how we fixed it. The internet is more of a wild frontier than we give it credit for being. Stray from the safe confines of your two-factor identification and trusted cookies, and it can be a bit of a wilderness out there, full of random trolls with the maliciousness—and, increasingly, the ability—to make your life pretty miserable for no other reason than because they can. Back in 2014, the method those trolls were using was distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. “Distributed” refers to a large number of internet hosts maliciously flooding a particular target IP with traffic in an effort to overwhelm the network stack. This is called a volumetric attack, and the intent isn’t to try to get into the network. It’s just trying to deny service. A distributed denial of service means that legitimate people who want legitimate service are crowded out by the bad traffic. The problem with DDoS attacks was that, by late 2014, they weren’t being committed by data-exfiltrating super-hackers with advanced computer science degrees. They were being committed by just about anybody who wanted to pay a service or a bot to do it for them. And it’s pretty obvious why. Although some people were happy to do it purely for vandalism’s sake, others had a motive: A DDoS attack was a surefire way to shut down a match that either you or someone you were rooting for were losing. This wasn’t just an occasional irritation anymore. It was turning into an outright assault on any game where players competed. By the opening months of 2015, we were seeing a huge uptick in DDoS attacks on Dota and CS:GO, with other companies reporting a huge jump as well. Someone had, very suddenly, made it very easy for anyone to do this. In August 2015, The International was disrupted with DDoS attacks. Although the pros playing the match weren’t affected, for more than two hours, the broadcasters couldn’t get into the matches to give play-by-play and color commentary. Sending out the stream as a TV broadcast became an issue. The players were suddenly playing in a void. This was a professional gaming event with millions watching and millions of dollars on the line, and it was being disrupted by random people with five-dollar software. It was a problem Valve couldn’t ignore. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/c63292d66774594361f081935573b7567dbfe7b6.jpg We tried several solutions to deal with DDoS attacks before we arrived at one that worked. Initially, we attempted to filter the traffic with a powerful network switch....7.35c Gameplay PatchFeb 21, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsPatch 7.35c is out now. You can check out the patchnotes here. Additionally, a few updates were made to the Ancient Dragon King cosmetic. You can now High Five the Ancient Dragon King, featuring a custom high five effect. Ancient Dragon King now performs a global celebratory roar every time your team makes a rampage. Ancient Dragon King will now be usable permanently and not only during the Year of the Dragon. The Dragon's GiftFeb 8, 2024 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/bf8677f142d7185726d462842d1fc9f7a4e70ecb.png We're hard at work on an upcoming update we're calling "Crownfall", and we're excited to get it finished so you can see what we've been working on. We looked at a calendar and noticed it had been more than a few weeks since the Frostivus update, and we didn't want to make you wait until Crownfall before you got any new content. Luckily, the calendar gods came through with another holiday just in time: Happy Lunar New Year! People who are born in the Year of the Dragon are known for their generosity, prosperity and good luck. Must be nice. For those of us who don't have a magical dragon granting us gift-giving super powers, we've introduced red enveloped-themed Dragon's Gift, available from now through March 7th. These work exactly how they’re named: treasures that can only be given, and opened by whoever you choose as the recipient. And for those of you who would rather not wait around on the generosity of others, we've got traditional Dragon's Hoard treasures as well. Each treasure or gift contains one of 17 new Lunar New Year-themed cosmetic sets, and a bonus chance for a Dragon's Gift or new unusual effect. Lastly, every treasure (and gift) has a chance to contain The Ancient Dragon King, the first ever cosmetic for your Ancient, with unique Dire and Radiant styles. Now you'll finally have a chance to adorn your ancient with a mythical dragon, just like, presumably, you've always wanted. Plus, if anyone in your match has one, everyone can see it. In keeping with this "spirit of giving" theme, we have another gift for (almost) everyone: We've rolled out some new cheat detection code. Well, actually, we rolled it out a few weeks back, and we've spent the time since accumulating quite the set of cheaters. You'll probably notice fewer of them in your games as the automated ban waves roll out. As is tradition, this update also includes a number of other fixes and improvements: General Fixes: Fixed a number of issues that would prevent guides from loading in-game (If you manually enabled Steam background downloads to try to work around this problem, you can safely disable it again) Fixed another case where Roshan could go walkabout: Night Stalker casting Dark Ascension while Roshan was channeling a Twin Gate Fixed an issue where already-captured Outposts could be channeled Fixed an issue where the neutral item picker would hide on key release under some Quick Cast modes Fixed Doubloon having only +2 instead of +2.5 mana regen Fixed Eternal Shroud's magic resistance applying to illusions Fixed Eternal Shroud's interactions with Medusa Mana Shield Fixed Safety Bubble's tooltip not mentioning that the barrier bypasses self-inflicted damage Fixed an issue with the effects on Shiva's Guard Fixed Chen's Holy Persuasion not taking Turbo's creep bounty multiplier into account when giving gold on cast Fixed Legion Commander's Aghanim's Shard still giving bonus armor and duration for Over...Dota 2 Update - 1/8/2024Jan 8, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsSome items from the Frostivus 2023 Treasure Chest were missing unusual variants. Those have been added. Over the next couple days, unusual items from these sets that should have been dropped will be granted. In addition, over the last few days we've addressed several gameplay issues: Fixed Frostivus wards not being selectable/attackable Fixed an issue where pinging certain items in quickbuy could cause the game to lag for teammates Fixed an issue where Arc Warden Tempest Doubles could gain gold by selling Midas Fixed Doom Devour Neutral abilities not leveling up automatically at the time when neutral abilities would scale Fixed Lina permanently gaining Fiery Soul stacks until she casts another spells if she was broken when supercharging with Laguna Blade Fixed Tiny Tree particle showing at the wrong time Fixed a rare server crash with motion controlled abilities (e.g. Spirit Breaker Charge of Darkness) Fixed an issue with Profile Showcase where items could appear floating before the rest of the hero loaded and fixed an issue with anchor points on ultrawide monitors Added missing descriptions for various recipes Fixed some bugs in the tutorials in the Learn tab caused by the 7.35 Gameplay Patch 7.35b Gameplay PatchDec 21, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsPatch 7.35b is out now. You can check the notes here. Over the last few days we've also addressed several gameplay issues: Fixed tabbing through selections being in creation order, rather than reverse creation order Fixed the combat log not displaying instances of damage that occurred on the same frame from the same source to the same target Fixed Block of Cheese not entering cooldown when receiving damage Fixed Parasma going on cooldown when denying Fixed Granite Golem's Granite Aura not correctly adjusting health when removed Fixed Batrider's Sticky Napalm applying damage from Mage Slayer Fixed Centaur Warrunner keeping the Work Horse ability after selling Aghanim's Scepter Fixed Centaur Warrunner's Hitch A Ride ability being in the wrong slot if applying Aghanim's Blessing Fixed Medusa having any damage shield making Dagger items unmuteable Fixed Meepo's Earthbind talent not giving the intended 2.5s cooldown reduction Fixed Meepo levelling Divided We Stand on a clone not giving Meepo the correct stats Fixed Muerta's Dead Shot interrupting some movement abilities on units that are debuff immune Fixed enemies being able to see Slardar's Bash of the Deep modifier stack count changing when he's hidden in the Fog of War Fixed Storm Spirit's Attack Range when Overloaded talent not working correctly with Aghanim's Shard Fixed Vengeful Spirit's Nether Swap barrier not being refreshable Fixed Viper's break particles being shown incorrectly Fixed Wraith King's Skeletons following invisible units Fixed inconsistencies in Spell Amplification/Damage tooltips Dota 2 Update - 12/18/2023Dec 18, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsOver the last few days we've addressed several gameplay issues: Fixed Bloodstone Area of Effect bonus still active on passive abilities if it was dropped or sold Fixed Bloodthorn mana regen being 3.0 instead of 3.5 from the sum of its components Fixed Butterfly not counting hero's base attack speed for its bonuses Fixed Cleave not working on magical attacks (i.e. Revenant's Brooch) Fixed a rare server crash when toggling Doubloon Fixed Khanda not doing lethal damage correctly Fixed Khanda and Phylactery not sharing cooldowns Fixed Tree Throw, Toss, Snowball, Soul Assumption and Sticky Bomb not triggering Phylactery/Khanda Fixed incorrect interaction between Phylactery/Khanda and and Spectre's Spectral Dagger Fixed Phylactery/Khanda working on illusions Fixed Meteor Hammer incorrectly giving more Agility than Intelligence Fixed Parasma not granting 1.5 mana regen from its components Fixed Revenant's Brooch incorrectly giving true strike Fixed a server crash caused by interaction between Abaddon's Aphotic Shield expiring, Safety Bubble, and Blade Mail Fixed Arc Warden's Tempest Double not cloning Royal Jelly Fixed Dawnbreaker's Starbreaker sometimes not going in the targeted direction Fixed non-ranged units getting true strike benefits of Drow Ranger's Glacier Fixed some cases where Drow Ranger could get stuck trying to leave her Glacier Fixed Chen's Penitence granting bonus attack range to Chen's melee creeps Fixed Chen's Divine Favor regeneration not applying to Chen's creeps Fixed Chen's level 10 talent Divine Favor Teleport Delay not applying correctly Fixed Invoker not being able to pick up Lotuses from the Lotus Pools Fixed Juggernaut's Blade Fury attack rate not updating if Juggernaut's attack speed changes. Fixed Juggernaut's Omnislash/Swiftslash not damaging ethereal units even with Revenant's Brooch Fixed Juggernaut's Blade Fury incorrect interaction with Harpoon Fixed Lich's Chain Frost not being affected by AoE increase Fixed items in the Bear's stash becoming lost when Lone Druid upgrades the Bear Fixed Omniknight's Guardian Angel charges not updating properly upon acquiring and dropping Aghanim's Scepter Fixed Pangolier's Shield Crash damage type not being correctly changed to Physical damage Fixed a rare serve crash with Pudge's Dismember Fixed Silencer's Last Word dealing less damage to creeps than intended Fixed Black Dragon's Splash Attack not working correctly Fixed a few server crashes Fixed various tooltip issues Re-added Hero Names as an option for heroes on the minimap Fixed minimap settings preview not scaling the arrow when scaling the icon Fixed a bug where previewing Persona items would sometimes show them on the base model (or vice versa) in Armory / Loadout Valve hands out lumps of coal to naughty Dota 2 playersDec 18, 2023 - GamingOnLinuxIn possibly one of the funniest moves I've seen from Valve recently, they're handing out lumps of coal when banning Dota 2 players. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/12/valve-hands-out-lumps-of-coal-to-naughty-dota-2-players Caught cheating in Dota 2? You're getting a permaban and a lump of coal for FrostivusDec 16, 2023 - VG247Dota 2 is celebrating Frostivus 2023 by handing out goodies to all. You can earn goodies in matches, fill up your Frostivus Spirit Meter, and get a locked Frostivus Treasure Chest and a random Stocking Stuffer, which covers everything from sprays to emoticons to stickers. You can also buy keys to unlock chests. You can also expect all-new item sets for your favorite heroes, plus the return of some holiday favorites. Expect a visit from the Wraith King Arcana and the Crystal Maiden Persona, too. Read more Valve lures thousands of Dota cheaters into bans with fake Christmas presents as it declares 'this year is gonna be a bloodbath'Dec 15, 2023 - PC GamerIt's ten days to Christmas, and you know what that means: It's time for the world's most famous jolly, bearded man to draw up naughty and nice lists, handing out rewards to the latter and pitiless justice to the former. That's right, Gabe Newell is sticking it to Dota 2 cheats once again... Read more.Valve is banning Dota 2 accounts in the Christmasiest way possibleDec 15, 2023 - PCGamesNSmurfing, the practice of creating fake accounts to play lower-level players, is a bannable offence in Dota 2. After previously banning 90,000+ accounts in the last wave, Valve has given thousands more the boot, but they've done it a wonderfully Christmassy way. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2's hottest custom game is a legally iffy Vampire Survivors clone Dota 2 TI 2023 still on track for lowest ever prize pool Celebrate a decade of Dota 2 with new movie and limited-edition drinks Dota 2 Update - 12/14/2023Dec 14, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsWe've fixed a number issues since the initial Frostivus release: Fixed an issue with client-side display of Royal Jelly's buff stats Fixed Safety Bubble having its shield reset to full when dropped and re-equipped Fixed Unwavering Condition not working properly Fixed some testing items being purchasable ingame Added Roshan's Banner to the Glossary Fixed King Kringle's Skeletons not having the correct hats! Fixed King Kringle's Skeletons' hoods and portraits Fixed King Kringle's Skeletons not showing as Frostivus-appropriate in some locales Fixed the particles for Roshan's Banner sometimes not being properly removed Improved the look of the Tower Range indicator based on player use and made the danger threshold vary based on player hero level Fixed various small issues with the 7.35 patchnotes Fixed an issue with the Vampiric Spirit spell icon for King Kringle Fixed Jingle Fist Immortal display on the treasure screen Fixed an issue with movie previews while the Frostivus carousel was cycling during the treasure opening animation For clarity, Frostivus Gift contents vary per account: For accounts shared with other users or services: a game ban For alt accounts used for smurfing: a game ban For main accounts associated with a banned smurf account: a piece of coal For all other accounts: free cosmetic items, with higher behavior score accounts receiving higher-tier items The Frostivus 2023 Update is Here!Dec 14, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/22be4ece0013e6a79ccc4e4203a2f5f643378010.png Another Frostivus is upon us, and that means King Kringle has awakened from his hibernation under the wine-dark Blood Seas surrounding Frostivus Castle; sent his legions of abducted goblin-child toy miners to dig in his toy mines; hooked up his twin glowing red-eyed direwolves Lumpo and Rupertus to his bone sleigh; and is likely either on top of your house or inside of it right now. So if you’re on his Nice List, prepare to have your frosty halls decked with new and returning Frostivus cosmetics, a ton of quality-of-life client features, new Dota Plus premium sets, and gameplay patch 7.35, all of which you can read all about right here. On the other hand, if you’re on the Naughty List, we’ve got great news for everybody else and bad news for you, because this year is gonna be a bloodbath. You might remember back in September, we got out the ban hammer and permanently banned 90,000 smurf accounts. Since then, we've continued to invest in player behavior monitoring, on both the manual and automatic analysis fronts. Over the last few weeks, we've engaged in an even more aggressive ban wave, including many tens of thousands of smurf account bans today alone. At The International, some pro players reached out to us to talk about their smurf accounts. Those conversations have continued, and there’s broad agreement amongst pros that banning pro smurf accounts is a win for Dota as a community: The rules should apply to everybody, and from now on they will. And smurfing isn’t even the only naughty thing players are getting up to. Amongst other questionable choices, some bad actors are playing like jerks, ruining games and losing behavior score because of it, then hiring behavior score farmers to drive it back up. Regardless of how you’ve been naughty, we've been watching you (not while you're sleeping, calm down) and we’re cracking down on all of it. Punishments will be handed out for all of the above, including behavior score penalties — and in serious cases, main account bannings. As we’ve said before, smurfing (and other negative behavior) makes matches worse, and we want to make sure your matches are as good as possible as we head into the new year. So we’d like to wish everyone a Happy Frostivus Update! Except smurf accounts, who we assume will not enjoy the update as they choke on their richly-deserved coal-flavored just desserts. Frostivus 2023 Treasure Chest: Each chest contains one of 30 items split across 4 Tiers, or a Cosmically Rare Baby Roshan courier. Items of the same Tier have equal rarity. You will not receive duplicate items from each Tier until you have received each item once. Five items from the same Tier can be traded up for a random item from the next Tier. The Cosmically Rare item is contained in 1 out of 100000 chests. Other chests contain an item from one of the 4 Tiers. Starting with Tier 1, each item has a 10% chance to upgrade to the next Tier. When openin...The Dark Night Before FrostivusDec 13, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/3de4244cdbd1c7dfed426be198ee088b15ff5550.png 'Twas Frostivus Eve, and all 'cross the map, The neutrals were quiet, their camps left unstacked. We'd gorged on a feast of bluehorn and spiced creep, And had just settled in for a peaceful night's sleep. When up on the roof, with a house-shaking thud A creature had landed, and sniffed for our blood. A sword could be heard being dragged 'cross the shingles; Then the chimney exploded, and in came King Kringle. His silhouette stalked through the splintered debris Of branches and cinders where'd once been our tree. He righted an armchair (still quietly smoldering) And sat down with three sacks he'd been up till now shouldering. "A DARK INCANTATION," his hollow voice boomed Like a sepulchral drum being banged in a tomb. "A SACK OF GIFTS PRESENT, A SACK OF GIFTS PAST, A SACK OF GIFTS TAKEN (BUT OFTEN BROUGHT BACK)." "Excuse me," I said, crawling out from the rubble, "The gift that I'd like, if it's not too much trouble: Please don't kill my children. Please don't kill my wife. We'd rather you left and spared everyone's life." He emptied a sack and adjusted his helm. "THIS FIRST SACK OF GIFTS IS UNKNOWN TO THIS REALM: THE NEMESIS CURSE, THE WHISPER OF DREAD, THE MOONLIGHT TIARA, AND MUCH MORE," he said. In the ensuing silence not a lone breath was drawn. I coughed to help jog him. "Well, please do go on." His gauntleted hand dumped sack two on our floor. It was full of new items! Wait, I'd seen these before... "SOME GIFTS I'VE IMPROVED, AND SOME I'VE DERANGED. ALL THAT NEED CONCERN YOU IS THAT THEY HAVE CHANGED. THE ORB OF CORROSION, ARCANE BOOTS, BLOODTHORN. THESE AND MORE I HAVE ALTERED SINCE LAST THEY WERE WORN." We looked through the items he'd spilled on the floor. "These are lovely," I told him. "But you'd hinted there's more?" "THE THIRD GIFT," he said as he grabbed the last sack, "IS MY FAVORITE KIND... THE GIFT I TAKE BACK." "Not Ring of Aquila! Please not Titan Sliver!" "Not Penta-Edged Sword!" I sobbed with a quiver. "I'M TAKING THEM ALL," he said with a laugh. "AND QUICKENING CHARM AND GOOD OL' QUARTERSTAFF." Two sacks were now empty; the third one was stuffed. He grabbed them and back up the chimney he huffed. He sprang to his bone sleigh and winked a goodbye. Then flew from the roof and tore open the sky. And we heard him exclaim, as he left the facilities— "THE TORMENTOR AND ROSHAN SHALL HAVE NEW ABILITIES!"Gameplay Update 7.34e and What’s Up NextNov 20, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/899e8493d00724b9b3b22ba2a5588fe1ed7ee03d.png After nearly a year of coordination and production, the multi-week, arena-sized monster that is The International 2023 has come to an exciting close. We've locked up Climate Pledge Arena, we've all seen enough of Spirit Breaker, and we've just shipped Gameplay Update 7.34e. Time for the Dota team to settle down for a long winter's nap, and... But hark! What's that sound in the festive distance? No, that jingling of sleigh bells you hear isn't early onset tinnitus. It's the magical year-end event we call Frostivus — looming large on the December calendar, and arriving with a sack stuffed to bursting with new features, new cosmetics, and some surprises. "...and the Arcanas?" little Timmy asks hopefully, holding up his tiny Dickensian gruel bowl. Phew, this is awkward. No, Timmy, not yet. All cards on the table, the event surrounding the Arcanas this year has gained a few more moving parts than we initially planned. Enough that we haven't finished everything yet, and won't this year, but we're looking forward to releasing it in the next few months. And that's not even getting into all the other updates we've got planned, like... Hark again! We almost said too much. Suffice it to say, with TI2023 safely in the books, we've got a ton of stuff our Frostivus elves are furiously polishing to get ready for the new year. Until then: Merry Imminent Frostivus, everyone!Dota 2's hottest custom game is a legally iffy Vampire Survivors cloneNov 10, 2023 - PCGamesNWhat do you get if you take Vampire Survivors, throw in some Auto Chess, put it inside Dota 2, and sprinkle on a little intellectual property crime? Why BroDota, of course! It sounds like a hellish combination, with Vampire Survivors being one of the most action-packed games in recent memory, while Auto Chess is all about strategy, but somehow it all comes together and, like the games it takes inspiration from, it is incredibly addictive. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2 TI 2023 still on track for lowest ever prize pool Celebrate a decade of Dota 2 with new movie and limited-edition drinks Dota 2 TI 12 prize pool looks like it might be the lowest ever The International Grand ChampionsNov 1, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/04db0e2af5e77d1d501e46d48b7b86e0a173c421.jpg Congratulations to Team Spirit, Grand Champions at The International 2023 and just the second team ever to claim the Aegis twice. This fearsome squad dropped only two games the entire tournament — finishing with a decisive 3-0 performance in the Grand Finals to secure their spot as the best Dota team in the world. The Road to The International - Group Stage The Road to The International began with a dominating 8-0 showing from Spirit, as they racked up 2-0 series wins over 9pandas, SMG, Entity, and Evil Geniuses in the Group Stage. The seeding round would be no different, as Team Spirit endured some early pickoffs from Shopify Rebellion in game one before marching away with another 2-0 series victory on their way to the Playoffs. The Road to The International - Playoffs There, they faced their first major test of the tournament, as Virtus.pro snatched a quick victory in game one to force Spirit onto their heels for a change. The following match was a bloody affair in which Spirit built and lost a sizeable lead before reclaiming momentum to force a game three. VP managed to keep the rubber match close for 30 minutes, despite never earning a lead, but after that Spirit took control — choking out VP and sealing the series with a late-game team wipe to earn some well-deserved rest before taking their run to the main stage at Climate Pledge Arena. The International Team Spirit's first opponent on the main stage was the consistently-strong Team Liquid, who were looking to make their own deep run to the finals to erase a heartbreaking stretch of second-place results. Team Spirit harried Liquid's supports and bullied their cores in a game-one stomp, but Liquid fought back with a spectacular showing to take game two. Liquid then managed to scratch out a small lead by the middle of game three, but Spirit overcame a kill deficit to build their own insurmountable lead, taking the deciding match to set the stage for a clash with powerhouse LGD Gaming — an intimidating lineup that had only dropped a single match of their own at that point in play. Game one was a 76-minute brawl. LGD was aggressive early, but Team Spirit held firm before starting to take control. LGD kept clawing back, but Spirit skewered their chances, handing LGD their first loss on the main stage. Game two was Spirit's from the outset, as they steadily built an advantage and forced a tap-out from LGD. After a disappointing showing in Singapore in 2022, Team Spirit showed they'd regained top form as they stormed into the Grand Finals. Their opponents: the dangerous Gaimin Gladiators, the squad that swept this year's Major tournaments and whose in-your-face early-game tactics had already shattered the hopes of so many lower bracket teams. Unfortunately for Gaimin and their fans, Team Spirit had their own plans to make short work of their foes — they ran away with a relatively quick game one, building a huge gold and kill l...Dota 2's The International 9 was the Game's Most Watched Event Ever with Over 1 Million Viewers on TwitchAug 26, 2019 - GitHypThe International 2019 made headlines earlier this month when it became the biggest prize pool ever for an esports tournament with $34 million on the line. And with so much at stake, early Sunday morning, Dota 2 set even more records with its first-ever back-to-back champions and its highest viewer count ever on Twitch. Last year’s champions, Europe’s OG, absolutely dominated this year’s event which went late into Saturday night and peaked with 1.1 million viewers early Sunday morning during their 3-1 Grand Final victory over Europe’s team Liquid. After last year’s TI8 Grand Finals saw a 100k decline in viewers, this year’s TI9 had an impressive comeback with a 51% increase in viewership on Twitch. But what was most impressive about this year’s record-breaking stream for Dota 2 was the timing of the live stream on Twitch. With most of Twitch’s regular viewer base still asleep in the United States when this year’s main event ended at 8AM ET/ 5AM PT, TI9 crushed Dota 2’s previous peak of 845k viewers that took place during more normal hours two years ago at TI7 in Seattle.Dota 2’s Player Base is the Highest it's Been in 2 YearsFeb 11, 2019 - GitHypOnce Steam’s most popular game (before PUBG took over), Dota 2’s player base has been on a steady decline since peaking with over a million concurrent players back in 2016. But a new user-created custom game mode and less competition from Blizzard have resulted in Steam's second most popular game making a comeback with Dota 2's player counts now the highest they’ve been in two years. Similar to Dota’s own origin story, a custom map created by Chinese developer, Drodo Games, called “Auto Chess” has captured the attention of Dota 2’s player base in a way that Valve once dreamed only Artifact could. In Auto Chess, players fight across an 8x8 field that mimics a chessboard using Dota’s own heroes for game pieces. Auto Chess' gameplay has been able to create its own little niche of MOBA players who want a greater focus on strategy and less emphasis on fast-paced APM. Dota 2’s in-game counter for Auto Chess has at times shown over 200k concurrent players, which helps explain Dota 2’s own 17% increase in players from January’s 491k average to an average of 573k over the past 30 days. And while Auto Chess can account for most of Dota 2’s new/returning players, another factor has been Blizzard’s announcement that they’ll be shifting focus away from Heroes of the Storm. Considered the third most popular MOBA in the world behind League of Legends and Dota 2, news of Blizzard moving developers to other projects and canceling HotS’ major esports events has made Dota’s community look even more appealing to HotS players looking to abandon ship. Auto Chess isn’t likely to become the next Dota or PUBG creating a new genre overnight, but with its popularity increasing among players, streamers, and catching on even more in China, Valve shouldn’t take any chances letting this developer get away – especially not with Artifact dropping outside of Steam’s top 100 most played games.Dota 2’s The International 2018 Finale was Down Over 100k Viewers Compared to Last Year on TwitchAug 27, 2018 - GitHypEven with a better first day, bigger prize pool, and an epic storybook ending, this year’s biggest Dota 2 event couldn’t manage to top last year's viewers on Twitch. The International 8’s grand finals brought in a peak of 730k concurrent viewers as Europe’s OG took China’s PSG.LGD all the way to the very last game of a best-of-five heart-pounding finale. But while OG’s Cinderella story had Dota 2’s analysts, commentators, and viewers all on the edge of their seats in what many consider TI’s greatest grand finals, it fell short of last year’s peak of 845k viewers. TI7’s far less exciting finale featuring EU’s Team Liquid taking home the victory over Newbee in just 3 quick games. And resulted in an impressive 44% increase in viewership compared to TI6 on Twitch which is still Dota 2’s most watched stream ever. Known for having the biggest single event prize pool in all of esports, The International once again set a new peak of $25 million this year with OG taking home $11 million for first place. However, the $23.9 million contributed by players just barely topped last year’s player contribution of $23.2 million. And surprisingly, it was Day 1 of TI8 that had 100k more viewers than last year’s event. But with player counts down 35% since Dota 2’s peak two years ago and other games like Fortnite taking over Twitch, we predicted that TI8 wouldn’t be able to top TI7’s finale. One thing we didn’t see coming, however, was Valve’s unexpected and accidental reveal of their own streaming service, Steam.tv, which contributed to the decline in viewers on Twitch. Their new site pulled away over 80k viewers from Twitch during TI8’s final matches – but even with the numbers combined, TI7’s viewership still fell short of last year's record-setting peak.Dota 2’s Viewer Base and Prize Pool is Bigger Than Ever at The International 2018Aug 21, 2018 - GitHypWith a peak of 1.3 million players back in March 2016, the decline of Dota 2’s player base and the rise of PUBG on Steam has led to many claiming that Valve’s popular MOBA is a "dead game." But even with the player base at half of what it once was, Dota 2 is far from dead when looking at the game’s stats and popularity as a competitive esport. Last year's biggest Dota 2 event, The International 7, saw its peak viewers on Twitch increase by 44% compared to TI6's grand finals going from a peak of 588k viewers to 845k viewers. This year, TI8 on Twitch is already off to a better start with a peak of 645k viewers on its first day. An increase of 100k viewers when compared to 2017’s first day peak of 546k viewers. Dota 2’s remaining player base have also proven their loyalty and demand for more in-game content by contributing $23 million towards the free-to-play game's Battle Pass system and increasing TI8’s total prize pool to $25 million – the largest it's ever been and an increase of over $200k compared to last year. The International 8’s grand finals are set for this Saturday, August 25th, and while it might not see another 44% increase in viewers, the event should be able to continue its growth and top last year’s peak concurrent viewers on Twitch.Dota 2 Hits New Viewer Peak with The International Up 44% Compared to Last Year on TwitchAug 15, 2017 - GitHypMore Dota 2 viewers than ever tuned in over the weekend to watch The International 7 on Twitch. And with good reason. The Valve-sponsored event for their multiplayer online battle arena game had its highest prize pool ever with a shocking $24 million on the line and the champs taking home over $10 million. Getting into the Twitch numbers, Dota 2 brought in a peak of 845k viewers as Team Liquid defeated Newbee in Saturday's Grand Final. This was an impressive 44% increase in viewers compared to last year when TI6 brought in 588k viewers at its peak. [caption id="attachment_284426" align="aligncenter" width="770"] Dota 2's Peak Viewer Counts on Twitch via GitHyp[/caption] The increase in popularity has also brought Dota 2 closer than ever to topping its biggest competition, League of Legends. Riot’s MOBA hit its own all-time peak of 988k viewers back in 2015, but compared to 2016, LoL’s viewership for its own World Championship event was actually down 5% last October on Twitch. TI7 also helped put Dota 2 over 1 billion total views on Twitch. An impressive number, however, LoL still more than doubles that with 2.1 billion as Twitch's most watched game. But in terms of big eSports competitions, both MOBAs still have a way to go before dethroning Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s record-setting 1.1 million peak viewers that the Valve shooter brought in earlier this year.Steam's Most Played Games of 2016Jan 7, 2017 - GitHyp2016 was another great year for games, but it was also a year filled with the the rise and fall of many new games that over-promised and under-delivered. As a result, Steam's list of most played games in 2016 ended up looking almost the exact same as it did in 2015. Last year's top titles held their spots as newcomers who started off strong quickly lost their player bases by the end of the year. Looking at new releases on Steam in 2016 tracked hourly by GitHyp, the highly hyped and highly controversial, No Man's Sky, had the highest peak player count with 212k concurrent players in a single hour.
  1. Dota 2 / 1,286,617 peak players (#1 in 2015)
  2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive / 845,806 peak players (#2 in 2015)
  3. No Man's Sky / 212,321 peak players (new)
  4. XCOM 2 / 132,834 peak players (new)
  5. Dark Souls III / 129,922 peak players (new)
Other newcomers such as XCOM 2 (132k players) and Dark Souls III (129k players) also had great launches, but only peaked at half of NMS' record-setting number to round out the top 5. While No Man's Sky, XCOM 2, Dark Souls III, and others such as Tom Clancy's The Division and Total War: Warhammer all had strong launches, none were able to hold their ground and each had huge drops in players that made headlines. Other previous heavy-hitters also made headlines due to under-performing launches such as Call of Duty which was down 76% from last year and Watch Dogs 2 which dropped 61% since the last entry in the series. When looking at the more stable average players per hour metric, 2016 ended the same as 2015 with the exception of Fallout 4 -- which didn't just fall out of the top 5, but also the top 10 at #12.
  1. Dota 2 / 636,607 avg. players per hour (#1 in 2015)
  2. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive / 360,600 avg. players per hour (#2 in 2015)
  3. Team Fortress 2 / 50,802 avg. players per hour (#4 in 2015)
  4. Grand Theft Auto V / 40,258 avg. players per hour (#5 in 2015)
  5. Sid Meier's Civilization V / 37,885 avg players per hour (#9 in 2015)
Dark Souls III dropped to #21 on Steam with an average of 14,186 players per hour. No Man's Sky dropped all the way down to #41 on Steam with an average of 8,393 players per hour. And XCOM 2 barely made the top 50 coming it at #44 with an average of 7,815 players per hour. When looking at the average players per hour, it was actually the free-to-play team-based shooter, Paladins, that ended as 2016's strongest new release ranking in at #15 on Steam with an average of 22,809 players per hour.