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This week's Dota 2 update delivers flying pig, no new hero

March 21, 2013, 8:14 am
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It’s been six weeks since Valve released a new hero for Dota 2 and the community is getting restless. While there’s still no new hero to speak of, this latest update shows that the unreleased heroes are ticking along.

To placate us, there’s a raft of quality of life improvements to the game, and the first hints that we may be getting a triple hero deployment shortly.

There are plenty of cosmetic changes. More items now have their own miniature version for when they are dropped on the ground and there are some new ability/item visuals. There’s another batch of chests: one featuring the norm community cosmetics, the other offering strange items or rare HUD skins. Valve have also added a mysterious “Bonus Gift” which rewards you for “being awesome”.

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GOMTV to start streaming Dota 2

March 22, 2013, 6:52 am
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Mega-normous South Korean streaming service GOMTV will begin weekly Dota 2 broadcasts from April 3rd at 12pm GMT.

Recent murmuring surrounding GOMTV’s new studio - pictured - have seen Dota 2 crop up in connection with the online TV service. Now an unambiguous message broadcast live by the provider, picked up by Redditors, appears to confirm the speculation:

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Dota 2 update adds Bristleback, UI updates and snails

March 28, 2013, 10:46 am
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After six long weeks, Valve have answered the Dota 2 community’s prayers by releasing a new hero, Bristleback.. Rigwarl the Bristleback is cockney man-pig-hedgehog. A durable initiator, Bristleback can slow his enemies down with his Viscous Nasal Goo (snot), while shooting quills from his back to anyone that stupid enough to pick a fight.

Also in are some new UI updates, renamed heroes, remodeled heroes and another upcoming courier you’re not going to want to miss.

Valves latest hero iteration, Rigwarl the Bristleback is a dirty pig. That’s not just because of his infinite runny nose. What makes Bristleback unique is his fearsome backside, which has the potential to ruin any carries day if they’re not careful. Lets take a quick look at his abilities: 

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Dota 2 bests League of Legends to become most played “core” PC game in the West UPDATE: Salt-pinching time!

April 10, 2013, 2:29 am
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That’s not the Wild West but most of the Western world. In the first quarter of 2013, Dota 2 overtook League of Legends as the most played “core” Western PC game, according to a report from industry research firm DFC Intelligence.

Update: DFC cite Xfire as one of their key sources, but Xfire's very own public stats paint a rather different picture. Their top ten credits League of Legends with a whopping 83,009 hours per day at time of writing, while Dota 2 sits at the lower end of the chart with 6,685. Original story follows.

The report tracks PC game player numbers across Europe and the US by combining data from several sources, including Xfire’s 23 million-strong player base, but excludes casual or browser-based titles. Both Dota and LoL far outstripped their nearest competitor on DFC’s PC Gamer Meter - World of Warcraft.

"Usage of League of Legends has been steady the past year and surprisingly the huge success of Dota 2 did not seem to cut into its popularity as much as would be expected," said DFC analyst Jeremy Miller.

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Riot strike back in League of Legends player numbers row

April 11, 2013, 1:56 am
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Yesterday, industry research firm DFC Intelligence released a fascinating report. Via a variety of sources they’d discovered that, in the first part of 2013, Dota 2 had overtaken League of Legends to become the most-played “core” PC game in the Western world. Amazing, yes?

No, say Riot Games, pointing to their own statistics. Party hats off. “You can see how we would have some issues with the accuracy of this report," said a spokesperson for the LoL developers.

Riot approached original source GamesIndustry with their own numbers, which paint a rather different picture of the two games’ respective Western player bases. League of Legends sees "over 500,000 peak concurrent players every day on just the EU West shard," say Riot, which excludes the game's sizeable US following.

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No Tidehunter plus NaNiwa equals Alliance, a new force in eSports

April 12, 2013, 5:13 am
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Dota 2 veterans No Tidehunter and StarCraft 2 independent Johan ‘NaNiwa’ Lucchesi have been spliced together to form a new eSports team: the Alliance. The new organisation has been pulled together beneath the banner of gaming hardware specialists Razer, will focus its efforts on both Dota and SC2, and is actively looking to expand its StarCraft roster in the coming months.

"Being involved in the creation of a brand new professional gaming team of this caliber is a very special opportunity and we're honored to have been a part of the creation process," said Razer chief Min-Liang Tan in a statement.

"By supporting and helping to drive the unique opportunities Alliance provides for professional players, we hope to continue to deliver the absolute best of eSports to both a Scandinavian and worldwide audience."

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DDOS attacks disrupt competitive Dota 2 play

April 15, 2013, 1:38 pm
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The qualifying games for the Dota 2 G-1 league, a Chinese competition with a record-breaking prize pool, have been repeatedly disrupted by Distributed Denial of Service attacks, rendering players unable to connect to the game. The culprit is as of yet unknown, although a 4Chan post from the supposed attacker has boasted of directing the attacks to manipulate a bet of $20,000 on a match.

Multiple games have been affected, with admins forced to postpone games or declare winners before the games have been completed. 

The attacks began on yesterday, during the match between Evil Geniuses and Absolute Legends. EG’s players disconnected from the game and were unable to reconnect. Dumbfounded by the situation at hand, the admins had no choice but to postpone the game after a painfully long pause. Absolute Legends were given a default win due to their current advantage at the time of the attack. 

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Dota 2 G-1 League play postponed following DDOS attacks

April 16, 2013, 2:44 am
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The organisers of Chinese Dota 2 league G-1 have been forced to suspend play for the rest of today and tomorrow after repeated Distributed Denial of Service attacks crippled qualifying games.

“Over the past few days, the G-1 Western Qualifiers has been the subject of DDoS attacks from unknown sources, which has caused players to continuously disconnect and made it impossible to carry out the competition,” read an official statement, translated by Redditors. 

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Dota 2 update adds Skywrath Mage; everyone is now afraid

April 18, 2013, 1:35 am
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Today’s Dota 2 update sees a new hero, Skywrath Mage added to the game after Valve return from their spring holiday. He excels at doing massive amounts of magical damage in a very short amount of time, coining the nickname “Giga Mage” in the original Dota. Also in is a new replay tab, where you can view all your downloaded replays in a nice orderly fashion.

Skywrath Mage is the glassiest or all glass cannons. All of his abilities either do damage, or amplify damage, which makes him a hero to be feared.

Lets take a look at exactly why you should quake in your boots:

Arcane Bolt: A slow moving projectile, it deals a flat 60/80/100/120 damage but is also scaled by Skywrath Mage’s intelligence. This means this spell hits hard early, mid and late game, so you shouldn’t ignore it when you see it coming your way. 

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Dota 2 G-1 League to tentatively resume April 23 following DDOS attacks

April 18, 2013, 5:03 am
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G-1 organisers 17173 will pick up the League where it left off after a week’s DDOS-enforced hiatus on Tuesday, GosuGamers report. Absolute Legends and Team Liquid will be the first to test whether the attacks, which crippled last week’s games, will continue.

Absolute Legends v Team Liquid is the first best-of-three match of the tournament’s second round, and is scheduled to begin at 10am CEST.

G-1 targeted DDOS attacks began on Sunday, when Evil Geniuses were disconnected from their match with Absolute Legends. After repeated attempts to reconnect failed, admins were forced to declare Absolute Legends winners due to an early advantage.

The attacks continued until Tuesday, when 17173 declared a temporary suspension of all scheduled matches.

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Chinese Dota 2 server beta going live on April 28th

April 19, 2013, 11:58 am
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Dota 2 is opening it’s Chinese servers on April 28th to anyone who can grab a beta key from Perfect World, the Chinese based developer and operator that acquired the licensing rights to Dota 2 back in October last year. The servers will not being using Steam, sparking worries about whether the Chinese version will be closed off from international involvement.

The news comes from an on-going Perfect World event, where CEO Robert Hong Xiao confirmed that the first round of beta invites will be going out at the end of the month, on April 28th. 

This will see the Chinese servers running independently from Steam for the first time, which won’t be used. It remains unclear on how the Chinese version of Dota 2 will interact with the rest of the international community, but many hope that it remains open and untouched. 

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Dota 2 patch leaves the Skywrath Mage a bigger target

April 25, 2013, 2:47 am
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What’s the phrase? The bigger they are, the more susceptible they are to AOE. Valve must have been thinking something similar when they widened the hitbox of Dragonus, the new Skywrath Mage.

Dragonus is equipped with some incredibly powerful nuking abilities, but is somewhat brittle, making him the perfect target for gankers. A larger target, now.

Elsewhere in the new patch, Valve have fixed a number of issues with Slark, a couple of which had been granting players some unintended bonuses while using Shadow Dance.

Oh, and this chap’s headed for the shop. The Llama Llama courier:

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Half-Life Houndeye courier spotted in Dota 2 update

April 25, 2013, 6:46 am
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Valve legend has it that the Houndeye, the grub/canine first spotted sonic-booming its way about the halls of Black Mesa, was originally intended to be a neutral witness to the game’s events - until the team discovered that playtesters shot their frogspawn-faces off regardless. I suppose, then, that this is the Houndeye as it was originally envisioned - a Xen creature docile enough to carry your bags.

The Houndeye courier was spotted in the entrails of last night’s Dota 2 patch by the inimitable Cyborg Matt. Despite consisting of little but three legs, a thorax and some turquoise go-faster stripes, it carries a weighty-looking keg on its back:

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Dota 2 International 3 to be kicked off by Invictus on August 7

April 26, 2013, 3:18 am
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Valve have announced the second sequel to Dota 2’s official championships, due to run across five days in August at the Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. Qualifier events will begin some two-and-a-half months before that, on May 13.

Only one team have been invited to this year’s International so far - returning Chinese heroes Invictus Gaming. 12 more teams will be announced in the coming days.

A smiling Invictus celebrate their invites (l-r): Faith, Zhou, Chuan, YYF, Ferrari_430.

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Dota 2 ushers in the Elder Titan via new patch

May 2, 2013, 3:01 am
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Some of you might know the new Elder Titan by the maiden name he sported in the original Dota, Tauren Chieftain, which he’s since relinquished to Blizzard. In the process, though, he’s picked up some rather dramatic lore - it seems our Titan was accidentally responsible for shaping creation itself.

“In honing his skills, [the Elder Titan] shattered something that could never be repaired, only thrown aside,” reads his entry. “He fell into his own broken world, a shattered soul himself. There he dwelt among the jagged shards and fissured planes, along with other lost fragments that had sifted down through the cracks in the early universe”.

Cor. In the interests of balance, his battlefield skillset is somewhat less far-reaching.

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Has Dota 2's amazing growth peaked?

May 2, 2013, 9:01 am
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Whether or not Dota 2 has overtaken League of Legends in the player number stakes (clue: it hasn’t), the question is, how big could Dota 2 be? Valve’s MOBA is massive, in a way that dwarfs every other game available on Steam. At its busiest point today, 261,609 people were playing Dota 2. Its nearest competitor, Football Manager 2013, boasted 56,981. But while we’re talking numbers, you’d better take a look at Dota’s trajectory over the past year.

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Dota 2 International tickets up for grabs from Tuesday

May 3, 2013, 6:38 am
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For this year’s third official Dota 2 championships, Valve have decided to break from form and put all tickets up for sale at once on May 7. Fans will descend on the official Dota store in droves at 10am PDT for a chance to watch the top 16 teams in the world play at the finals in Seattle.

The event will run from August 7 to August 11 at the Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. Qualifying matches begin sometime earlier on May 13, and are available to watch for free via DotaTV in the game’s client.

Thirteen of the 16 teams to play during the event have already been confirmed as follows:

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Valve introduce The International Interactive Compendium: 25% of cost goes to prize pool

May 7, 2013, 5:48 am
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Valve want to guide you through this years International with the introduction of The International Interactive Compendium. It’s a fancy virtual book that is host to a wide range of functions including betting on matches, MvP polls, up to date results/fixtures. Buying it will make you eligible for special item drops throughout the tournament. What’s more interesting is that Valve are adding 25% of all sales to the already gargantuan 1.6 million dollar prize pool, making the worlds biggest Dota 2 tournament just that little bit bigger.

A blog post broke the news, with only five hours to go until tickets for The International are set to go on sale. Speaking of tickets, every ticket purchase will come with a free compendium. Valve admit that the majority of their fans watch The International over the internet, and the Interactive Compendium is their way of getting those fans more involved with the action.

So what do you get with this flashy book? 

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The International 2013 tickets are now on sale

May 7, 2013, 11:13 am
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As of right now you can now go and purchase a ticket to The International, Valve’s very own Dota 2 tournament sporting a massive $1.6 million prize pool, and then some thanks to the Interactive Compendium. If you want to be there in person between August 7th-11th, then you’re going to want to buy a ticket. They’re selling faster than a charging Spirit Breaker.

Update: And they're gone...

You can buy a ticket from here although expect the store to grind to a halt as everyone piles in for a ticket. Tickets go for $49.99 and the new Interactive Compendium sells for $9.99. 

While you wait for that store page to load, check out exactly what you’re in for with a Valve made documentary on last years International:

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Dota 2 International 2013 tickets listed on the Steam Marketplace

May 8, 2013, 4:31 am
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Last night, the tickets for the Dota 2 International 2013 sold out in two short hours, leaving many fans disappointed. However, tickets have begun to show up on the Steam Marketplace: if you’re prepared to pay over the odds. 

While the tickets have now vanished, they were listed for as much as £180.

It was inevitable that getting your hands on a ticket would be a tough feat. Benaroya Hall holds roughly 2,500 seats, and there are roughly three million people playing Dota 2. So, like any other high-demand ticket sale, we can probably expect touts.

What’s unexpected is how the Steam Marketplace is being used to fleece Dota fans, or that the tickets themselves can be traded. 

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