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The International 2023 Celebration UpdateSep 27, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/4ff438f53339fe12849e788e3902b319d2b0828c.jpg We're excited to release the International Compendium for The International 2023. Because this is a new shape to previous years’ Compendiums, we wanted to walk you through what it is, how it works, and why we built it. As we described a few months back, looking at Dota's history made it clear that Battle Passes had steadily grown to consume all the content in a given year, and were inhibiting our ability to ship creative things throughout the year. We wanted to fix this, and so made a deliberate choice several months ago to ship new things more often in a wider variety of forms. This year has been full of experiments: We released a brand new player behavior system, free items to celebrate the 10th Anniversary, a number of gameplay patches, a collection of community sets, and more. This Compendium is another example of something new. Event-Focused Features, Event-Focused Rewards Every Dota update has a variety of goals and part of the work of designing and building an update is choosing where to put the emphasis. An update can be focused on delivering cosmetic content or refining balance. An update can try to generate the largest prize pool possible. Instead of these goals, we chose to focus this update more narrowly: To elevate the players, the teams, and the artistry that is high-level Dota played at The International. We focused entirely on creating a set of activities to make TI more fun while games were going on, and another set of activities to make TI more fun when games weren't going on. And so that's what this year's Compendium is: a collection of challenges that we've built around the pro players and the event itself. We've brought back and improved some old favorites like Fantasy and Predictions. We're also introducing some new activities, ranging from the light-hearted (Bingo) to the seriously formidable (The Road to the International Challenge). Everything you'll accomplish through the Compendium earns you progress towards rewards. Like the Compendium challenges, all the rewards this year are built around the players and the event. There's an International 2023 HUD, permanent chatwheel lines, and a physical collector's Aegis, along with lots of new content for your Profile Showcase (see below), including team and player stickers. Something For Everyone In line with the goals we established earlier this year, we've been intentional about ensuring that every update we ship has something for all Dota players, whether that's new gameplay or new features. This update is no different: If, like many, you're a huge fan of watching the spectacle of the International but aren't familiar with the old legends of Arteezy on a cliff, or Emo's research into the deep lore and many varied uses of the question mark, that's alright, too — we've got stuff in this update for you as well. This update also includes the Profile Showcase, free and available now to all players. Whether you...Community Events at The InternationalSep 23, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/f02b91fbac5c245039b252487d3a72eb10aba13e.png Invitations have been sent, plane tickets have been reserved, and our old friends the soundproof booths are undergoing their final maintenance and inspections: In just a few short weeks the first teams arrive in Seattle for The International. Most of the tickets have been sold: Tickets for the Road to the International (Oct 20-22) are completely sold out, and only about a thousand remain for The International (Oct 27-29). As TI approaches, we have a couple announcements (and reminders of past announcements): Pubstomps: For as long as there have been Dota tournaments, there have been Dota pubstomps: opportunities to gather with friends and fans and watch together. This year, for the first time, we're planning on including some of the pubstomps from around the world live in the TI broadcast. We'll be back closer to the event to talk more about how this will work and ask interested pubstomps to register. Short Film Contest: We had a record number of entries this year. We've narrowed the ninety submitted films down to about twenty that will be available for viewing and voting in the client from 9/29 through 10/9. The top ten entries selected by the community will be shown during The International, where we'll also announce the overall winners. Cosplay Contest: Sign-ups for this year's cosplay contest are open until midnight CST on Sunday, 10/1. SteelSeries is sponsoring this year's contest, so in addition to $20,000 USD of cash prizes, winners also get a variety of SteelSeries gear. (And, as a reminder, you don't need to be a ticket holder to enter: If you're selected as a top-ten finalist, you automatically get three-day passes for yourself and one guest.) For those of you joining us: We can't wait to welcome you to the Seattle Convention Center's Summit Building and Climate Pledge Arena as we once again follow the best Dota team in the world on their path to the Aegis. For everyone who'll be following along from home, we're looking forward to releasing the new International Compendium next week.Dota 2 Workshop Fall Call-to-ArmsSep 22, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsBetween emoji-encoded patch notes, our 10-Year Anniversary celebration, and massive updates to Dota's Armory and behavior system — and of course The International rapidly approaching — there's a lot happening both in and out of the lanes. Plus, we're already hard at work on more updates to come, which means we're thinking about new community treasures to help fill out that aforementioned Armory. To that end, the Dota team would like to invite all workshop contributors to dream up some new sets for any of your favorite heroes. Submissions are already open, and we're looking forward to seeing your full craft on display. This round of submissions also welcomes designs for Muerta, Crystal Maiden's Conduit of the Blueheart Persona and the Exile Unveiled Phantom Assassin Persona, which are all now included in the workshop. We request that all submissions be on the Dota 2 Workshop by the end of the day on November 26th, 2023 PDT. Please make sure to mark your work with the "Fall 2023" tag when tendering items to the Workshop to ensure they aren't overlooked. Please note that any unreleased "Spring 2023" submissions already on the workshop will also be considered for this round of selections. As always, please avoid concepts involving human skulls, blood, and gore. We'd like to remind all Dota fans to regularly visit the Workshop and vote through the Queue to ensure your voices are heard in the polling process. The Dota Pro CircuitSep 14, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/c0bf0ec8450254a0a3f5ec602e0f92c6a8f3efb9.png We started the Dota Pro Circuit in 2017 to answer a question that was coming up more and more frequently: How do you earn an invite to The International? Up until then, invitations were driven by a handful of regional qualifiers and “golden ticket” invites from Valve. Distribution of these invitations created an exciting moment every year for fans, but it was hard for pro players (and their fans) to know the exact path to The International. Understanding that every invitation system has trade-offs, we set out to create a system with more clarity and transparency. When it came to that one limited goal, we succeeded. The DPC demystified the invitation criteria, and made it easier for pros to understand their path to The International. Unfortunately, the DPC brought with it a set of rules and regulations, and those have come with a cost that’s become clearer to us over time: The world of competitive Dota has grown less exciting, less varied, and ultimately much less fun. By existing as the only official league, the DPC has a stranglehold on the event calendar for the year and what it's filled with. Event organizers are innovating less, because that's effectively what we've been asking them to do: Instead of competing for viewers and players by producing compelling and inventive tournaments, organizers now compete for compliance with Valve’s long list of rigid requirements (team count, broadcast languages, event format, and more). Relaxing those requirements doesn't help. No matter how well-intentioned our event specifications, or the actions of the event organizers in meeting them, it distracts from what the goals of these events used to be: showcasing Dota in the most entertaining way possible, enticing players to participate and the audience to watch. The best world is the one where event organizers aren’t competing for our attention, but for yours. Before we introduced these constraints, the world of competitive Dota was healthier, more robust and more varied than the one we have now. Events used to be less rote and more creative, and there was more room in the calendar for them. Everything was open for exploration: event length and themed venues and team participation and even the basic assumptions of tournament design. There was a beautiful unregulated insanity to it all — casual house parties and oyster prize pools coexisted alongside the Dota Asia Championships and one-off invitationals. It would be too simplistic to say that the slow drift of the Dota competitive scene away from this focus on fun and creativity towards the sterile, near-monoculture of today is entirely the fault of the DPC, but the DPC has generated significant pressure and incentives that led us here. The Dota community has decades of grassroots experience coming up with innovative and entertaining events, and right now the DPC is getting in the way. With that in mind, we're ending the Dota Pro Circuit:...Between the Lanes: The Sound (Proof Booths) of SilenceSep 11, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/e304b0f91e80750ffb234438d7cc89e83f23595d.jpg Welcome back to Between the Lanes, a blog feature where we let 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, and an event as unique as The International. The International is an unbelievably huge endeavor, watched by millions of people around the world. It’s easy to forget that the first ever TI was a modest, honestly pretty unrecognizable event held at Gamescom 2011 in Cologne, Germany, and took place in a trade show booth. In honor of TI’s humble beginnings, we decided to dedicate this installment of Between the Lanes to an often forgotten, rarely celebrated (and occasionally very poorly ventilated) piece of equipment that’s been with us since the very beginning, and ever since (except last year): the soundproof booth. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/261b47a8227e6cdea53d69ba67150c23dfe61fec.png From TI1, we knew we’d need booths with sufficient insulation so the players wouldn't overhear anything from the crowd or casters that’d give them an unfair advantage during the match. Back then, that was the only requirement of the soundproof booths: They needed to be soundproof. And because the first TI was so small, there wasn’t that much audio slamming the booth at any given time. But those early booths fulfilled their one requirement: none of the pros could hear anything. Of course, they failed utterly in every other area, which meant that, by the time future TIs rolled around, we needed them to do a lot more. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/86752a002abb5184bde662445de1156c205db022.png The first TI was a real learning experience in general for us. The desks the pros were playing on ended up being too narrow and too high. So the players had to sit on stools with their elbows hanging off the edge of the desk, which it turns out is just about the worst way to play DOTA. We also had these enormous PCs that Nvidia had lent us, and we’d placed them into a series of cabinets under the players. These cabinets, it turned out, were unventilated. The Nvidia PCs ran unventilated for seven days straight. It was so hot in those cabinets, when you opened the doors you could smell the insulation on the wires melting. Amazingly, they never stopped working all week. (It's entirely possible the only reason they didn't overheat was because one of the players accidentally spilled some ice water into the cabinets.) {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/68c0ea74d4c5835d516926c0df7111b0682b02ba.jpg So now we had a second booth requirement for subsequent TIs: Air conditioning. It turned out that five PCs, five monitors, five humans and various lighting rigs, all sealed in an insulated unventilated box, generates a LOT of heat. Being able to reduce that heat was both essential and non-trivial. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/cf15ae6c4323598a9d05a10e533cb298e5976439.jpg Another new requirement we’d never consider...7.34c Gameplay PatchSep 8, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsPatch 7.34c is out now. You can check the notes here. Oracle saw too far into the future. That is now fixed. Over the last few days we've addressed several gameplay issues: Fixed an issue where using Armlet could lead to double death bounties Fixed Soul Ring not removing temporary mana at the end of its buff duration Fixed enemy flagbearer creeps sometimes not showing their banners Fixed shield rune not being visible on enemy units until they attack or get attacked Fixed Ion Shell sometimes not being visible Fixed Terrorblade illusions appearing the same as the real Terrorblade Fixed buffs like Haste, God's Strength, and Fire Remnant not showing on the status bar of heroes Fixed backdoor protection not being shown as a buff on towers nor the shield icon next to their health Fixed the invisibility effect not showing on enemy heroes under a friendly Sentry Ward Fixed Haste rune not showing as a buff on the status bar or being shown visually on the hero Fixed Pudge Rot being invisible Fixed an issue where Rubick stole Death Pact for free when stealing Skeleton Walk from Clinkz Fixed Lone Druid's Spirit Bear counting towards Monkey King's Jinggu Mastery stacks Fixed Lone Druid's Spirit Bear death counting towards permanent stacks for Axe, Necrophos, Slark, Lion, and Tidehunter Fixed Desolator gaining damage when killing Spirit Bear Fixed Spirit Bear attacks counting as Hero attacks when attacking Clinkz Skeletons, Lich Ice Spire, Phoenix Supernova, Pugna Nether Ward, Tidehunter Dead in the Water anchor, Undying Tombstone, Zeus Nimbus. Fixed Spirit Bear death refreshing Axe Culling Blade and lowering Windranger Focus Fire cooldown with Level 25 talent Fixed Lone Druid Spirit Bear displayed as the unit name on the Minimap Fixed Tormentor not granting Spirit Bear a Shard if Lone Druid already has one, and not allowing allies to get Tormentor gold bounty if all allies already have the Shard Fixed Tormentor particles sometimes showing in fog of war Fixed a bug where inventory item icons would sometimes disappear when dragging them Fixed a number of items' ability effects failing to equip in the Armory/Loadout Fixed some free event reward items not showing up in the Armory Fixed an issue saving the Taunt slot on custom sets Fixed the default global light and shadow colors on the Autumn terrain Fixed a display-only bug where certain magic resistance and physical resistance percentage values were being incorrectly rounded down a point below their actual values Fixed a display-only bug where units with zero health or mana regeneration values would display as negative zero due to network-encoding quantization effects Fixed a crash in Workshop Tools 10th Anniversary Event ExtendedSep 7, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/fa00589062f919ff0e0032bb7af8819400be004d.png We know what you’re thinking: You’ve only got three treasures remaining to get all the 10th Anniversary Rewards… except you’ve been at three treasures remaining for days now. There’s no end in sight. You’ve played core. You’ve played support. You’ve played mid. (Once you even tried jungling.) Nothing. Three weeks just isn’t enough time to get all of those 10th Anniversary Rewards. You know who agrees with you? Gabe Newell. You know who’s fired if we don’t extend the event so he can get his Ursa set? According to Gabe: us. So we’re happy and relieved and still employed to announce that the end date of the 10th Anniversary event is now September 18th. Valve goes for the smurfs banning 90,000 people in Dota 2Sep 5, 2023 - GamingOnLinuxAfter the rather exciting launch of the Summer Update bringing with it new matchmaking and tools to get rid of bad experiences, Valve goes for the smurfs next. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/09/valve-goes-for-the-smurfs-banning-90000-people-in-dota-2 Valve banned 90,000 smurf accounts from Dota 2—then got the main accounts tooSep 2, 2023 - PC GamerValve's been going pretty hard on Dota 2 this year, and the latest is targeting those who start fresh accounts in the free-to-play game so that they can play easy games and stomp rookies. Valve has also traced the accounts back to their main accounts, and says that from now on "a main account found associated with a smurf account could result in a wide range of punishments, from temporary adjustments to behavior scores to permanent account bans.".. Read more.Valve bans thousands of Dota 2 smurfing accounts, threatens greater future punishmentsSep 2, 2023 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunEarlier this week, Dota 2's summer update was released and included new tools for filtering toxic and unwanted players fromy our matches. Now Valve have taken an extra step of their own by declaring that "smurfing is not welcome in Dota," and permanently banning 90,000 accounts involved in the practice Read more Valve stamps out Dota 2 smurfs and threatens main account bansSep 2, 2023 - PCGamesNAs Valve bans 90,000 Dota 2 smurf accounts, the Steam developer says the use of alternate accounts to dodge your intended rank, cheat, or grief other players is "not welcome in Dota." It adds that every Dota 2 smurf account banned in this wave has been traced back to its owner's main Steam account, and that in future instances punishments for smurfing in the MOBA will extend to your main account as well. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Valve's Dota 2 summer update boosts your looks and lowers toxicity Valve celebrates a decade of Dota 2 with free gifts galore Dota 2 patch notes outline 7.34 update, but it's in emojis Dota 2 Update - 9/1/2023Sep 1, 2023 - Community AnnouncementsSince releasing The Summer Client Update we've addressed a number of issues: Fixed a bug that would appear to allow you to commend/dislike the same player multiple times in postgame Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause behavior score or communication score to get set to 0 incorrectly (the affected accounts have had their appropriate scores restored) Re-added the ability to rotate your hero with mousewheel in the Armory and pregame Re-added the ability to demo custom terrains In games where the majority of connected players have a behavior score too low to allow them to pause the game, those players will now be able to unpause if the game has been paused for at least 5s Added persona selector to pregame loadout Added slot headings to pregame loadout Re-introduced Hero Relics into the shard shop Disabled rebundling for items with unlocked styles, or which unpack with dynamic gems Owned world items can now be demoed through the item details popup Improved the display of chat wheels in the new Armory Commending a player no longer prints a chat message every time (to prevent post-game commend sprees from pushing all actual chat offscreen) Added a new, distinct sound for disliking a player Fixed grouping by item type in the All Items tab in the Armory Fixed announcer packs not loading properly when entering pregame Fixed places in the new Armory where fonts would sometimes display at an incorrect size Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause dead units to not stay dead (Undying, Spirit Bear, Wraith King) Fixed multikill banners not being accessible in the new Armory Fixed an issue that would cause the game to change monitors when running in fullscreen on multi-monitor displays Fixed Dark Seer's "More Than Mental Mass" taunt not playing sounds Fixed Phoenix's Crimson Dawn set only changing the appearance of the head instead of the full set Fixed server crashes involving abilities from Dark Seer, Razor, and Hoodwink Fixed a client crash when displaying certain tooltips (including Tranquil Boots) Fixed custom game JavaScript support Fixed Hammer crashing on startup Fixed a crash when returning to the dashboard after playing a game Fixed some over-bright rendering in Vulkan when color-correction post-processing was enabled Fixed a crash in the Vulkan renderer on Linux Fixed a crash on Linux GPUs with low memory Fixed fullscreen flickering on multi-monitor Linux systems Fixed a crash on MacOS versions older than 10.15 Fixed a hang on MacOS when purchasing certain items in the Armory Fixed a particle crash on older Windows machines without SSE4.1 support Fixed terrain sometimes displaying incorrectly (or being invisible) on low-spec Windows machines Fixed a particle rendering error with Phoenix's Solar Gyre Fixed display of owned Kill Streak Effect in the Shard Shop Fixed incorrect items sometimes appearing under the Tools section in the Shard Shop Fixed some cosmetic particle effects not showing properly when previewing items in the Loadout or in the ...Smurfing is Not Welcome in DotaSep 1, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/f6609be301c649e6fc1f7393300110a152f27bed.png Today, we permanently banned 90,000 smurf accounts that have been active over the last few months. Smurf accounts are alternate accounts used by players to avoid playing at the correct MMR, to abandon games, to cheat, to grief, or to otherwise be toxic without consequence. Additionally, we have traced every single one of these smurf accounts back to its main account. Going forward, a main account found associated with a smurf account could result in a wide range of punishments, from temporary adjustments to behavior scores to permanent account bans. As we said earlier this year in our blog post about cheating, and as we said earlier this week in our Summer Client Update, and as we will continue to say: Dota is a game best enjoyed when played on an even field. The quality of the people in a given match are what makes a match good. We’re invested in making sure your matches are as good as possible, and smurfing makes matches worse. As always, if you suspect someone of smurfing in your game, use the in-game reporting options to flag them. This will help us continue to track offenders and gather data used to inform our anti-smurf efforts moving forward.Dota 2's latest update gives you new tools to filter out jerksAug 31, 2023 - Rock, Paper, ShotgunDota 2 summer update is out now, and among its many additions are several designed to make "Dota a better place to play, together." It includes a "dislike" button that lets you filter out people you'd rather not play with in future, a new reporting system, real-time review of toxic chat, and more. Read more Valve's Dota 2 summer update boosts your looks and lowers toxicityAug 31, 2023 - PCGamesNThe Dota 2 summer update is upon us. Valve has released its latest overhaul to its fantasy MOBA game, giving it a new look for the season. The Dota 2 summer client update includes a brand-new armory that will now handle all your various cosmetic items, along with acting as the place to buy and sell them. There are also new tools aimed at putting a stop to the most toxic players, and a rather lovely graphics update. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Valve celebrates a decade of Dota 2 with free gifts galore Dota 2 patch notes outline 7.34 update, but it's in emojis Valve explains Dota 2's most explosive bug New update for Dota 2 might pull me back in, with new reporting and matchmakingAug 31, 2023 - GamingOnLinuxIt finally seems like it might be time for me to put another 500 hours into Dota 2, as Valve has given the game quite an interesting upgrade for The Summer Client Update. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/08/new-update-for-dota-2-might-pull-me-back-in-with-new-reporting-and-matchmaking The Summer Client UpdateAug 30, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/3728d0dc0f78d43a27b431f8b5607ee31ca0987d.png New Player Behavior System, New Rendering Features, and New Armory Summer is hurtling toward its inevitable, pumpkin spiced end, and we’re seeing it off in style with a whole bunch of pretty sweet quality of life improvements. “I’ll be the judge of that,” you’re probably saying, eyes squinted in skeptical fashion. Well, how would you like to be the judge of not just blog posts, but real people? Like an actual judge. Because we've built a new player behavior and reporting system from the ground up to enable much better judging, and much better games. Plus, just like in the allegory of Plato’s cave, you will now be able to see the shadows of clouds as they pass overhead. How is this possible? The copyright on the collected works of Plato has now just lapsed. We’ve also included a few other cool new rendering features inspired by, but not directly copied from, other pre-modern thinkers. Lastly, we've torn the armory apart and completely rebuilt it to make it easier for you to do, well, everything with your cosmetic items. Epiloguely, we’re also shipping a Collector’s Cache to show all this new stuff off. Honestly, blog posts were simply not designed to convey this much exciting information, so we’ve assembled an update page with all the details. Dota Plus Fall Update As much as we all love playing Dota in sweaty rooms with sunny glares shining off our screens, the capricious gods of weather (or whoever decides these things) demand that our brief summer respite comes to a sudden but predictable end. Meaning that along with everything else, it's also time for the next seasonal release for Dota Plus — the Fall 2023 Dota Plus update for those of you keeping track at home — set to begin on September 1st. Updated Seasonal Quests & Guild Rewards The update comes with a new set of Dota Plus quests to shore up your shard stash — 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 - cozy_courier Emoticon - lancer_sour Emoticon - party_phoenix Gold Spray - Keeper of the Light - Give Mana Spray - Shadowfiend - Shrug Spray - Arc Warden - Stab Platinum Chat Wheel - "Holy Moly!" Chat Wheel - "Да? Да? Да? Нет." Chat Wheel - "3, 2, 1, aaaadios!" The Days Ahead The International is just around the corner, and the final qualified teams will soon be decided. To kick off the celebration ahead of all the action in Seattle, we've got another update in the works tied closely to the event that we'll release in late September. We can hardly wait to cheer on the epic Dota to come. Finally, to cram a bit more Dota into this blog, we wanted to highlight some of the changes and fixes from the last few weeks that are also shipping today: New: Bounty rune spawn locations now show on the minimap before the horn using desaturated icons. New: Added an op...The International 2023 Ticket SalesAug 18, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/16f18c0e3db93cf0de1d674427325397e89ff4aa.png The International is fast approaching, and for those of you planning on going, we wanted to give you some important dates so you can start planning your trip. Tickets to join the audience live at The International 2023 in Seattle, WA are going on sale August 25th, 2023. Whether you’re planning on attending in person, or hopping on with millions of viewers from around the world to watch our livestream broadcast, join us in cheering on the best Dota teams on the planet as they battle it out for the Aegis. Like we posted earlier this month, The International Dota 2 Championships will be getting split into two distinct phases this year, over the course of three action-packed weekends: The Road to the International, encompassing Group Stage (October 12th-15th) and Playoffs (October 20th-22nd); and The International itself (October 27th-29th). Both the Playoffs and The International will take place in front of a live audience this year. In an effort to minimize confusion due to the new naming scheme, tickets for each of the events will go live on separate dates. Sales are scheduled to go live on Ticketmaster as follows: The International 2023 at Climate Pledge Arena Tickets will go on sale August 25th at 10 AM Pacific Time on Ticketmaster Tickets will be sold as a three-day pass for the full event, priced at $699 USD + Fees per pass Attendees who bind their Steam account to their pass will be granted one Treasure of the Crimson Witness 2023 (and will continue to have chances to win more throughout the event) The Road to the International - Playoffs at Seattle Convention Center's Summit Building Tickets will go on sale on August 28th at 10 AM Pacific Time on Ticketmaster Tickets will be sold as individual tickets for each of the three days, priced at $99 USD + Fees per ticket Tickets for all events can be purchased here: https://www.ticketmaster.com/the-international-dota-2-championship-tickets/artist/1982004 We're excited to welcome the Dota community back to Seattle for the first time in five years, and millions more of you from all over the world on our livestream broadcast. Whether in person or virtually, we hope to see you there. FAQ When is The International 2023? The International will take place across three days (October 27th-29th) at Climate Pledge Arena. The Road to the International - Playoffs will take place across three days (October 20th-22nd) one weekend prior to The International, at the Seattle Convention Center's Summit Building. How can I buy a ticket to The International? What type of tickets are available? The International three-day pass (Friday/Saturday/Sunday) will be available for $699 USD + Fees. Passes will go on sale on August 25th at 10:00 AM PT on Ticketmaster. All tickets are General Admission. How can I buy a ticket to The Road to the International - Playoffs? What type of tickets are available? Playoffs Day 1 (Friday), Day 2 (Saturday) and Day 3 (Su...Valve celebrates a decade of Dota 2 with free gifts galoreAug 18, 2023 - PCGamesNDota 2 has been around for a full decade, and Valve is celebrating by giving you a whole bundle of free gifts for its landmark MOBA. Just by logging in and playing a few games of Dota 2, you'll be able to snap up a baker's dozen of commemorative treasures for one of the most popular games on Steam. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Dota 2 patch notes outline 7.34 update, but it's in emojis Valve explains Dota 2's most explosive bug Valve is "freeing" Dota 2, so wave goodbye to battle passes 10-Year Anniversary CelebrationAug 17, 2023 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/6e70042d518c9ef41230861320ff8d7312232f95.png There are some elders who whisper that the Ancients have always existed, and always will exist -- unknowable eldritch tentacle-shards of a mad moon, outside of time, doomed to battle forever. Other elders eyeball it at around ten, maybe thirteen years. It really depends what wizard you’re listening to in the forest. Either way, we tend to side with the elders who say “Look, it’s got to be something,” and ten’s a nice round number. So put on your party hats and join us, won’t you, in celebrating Dota 2’s 10-year anniversary, commemorating the various milestones, semi-milestones, and occasional regular-shaped stones found on the path of Dota’s decade-long journey. And since it wouldn’t be a party without presents, from now until Thursday, September 7, winning a Dota game will grant you a commemorative treasure containing one of thirteen special items tied to each of Dota’s storied years. All you need to do is keep winning Dota games until you’ve collected all thirteen. All jokes aside, we’re really lucky to have a community as supportive as Dota’s. We’re happy to have been able to share this journey with you so far. So for the next couple of weeks, jump in a match and help us celebrate the decade behind us. We look forward to all the games to come. 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.

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