Dota 2: news and videos

When I bought into Dota 2's $9.99 Siltbreaker campaign (which includes a host of convoluted The International 2017 Battle Pass extras), it felt like I was taking a step into a timewarp when "use map settings" custom games ran supreme in Sta...   read

I don't play Dota 2, but the prospect of a four-person cooperative campaign for this type of game sure is enticing. As previously detailed, Valve is putting out a two-act "Siltbreaker" campaign for Battle Pass owners. The pass is still $10,...   read

Since Dota 2's inception, Valve has held a massive event, named The International, to highlight the best players of the game in a gigantic battle for supremacy. Players form teams and duke it out for a chance to win an insane amount of mone...   read

In an effort to combat smurfing (more on that in a sec), Valve has implemented a new feature for Dota 2 -- if you want to play ranked mode (the be all end all for pros and upcoming pros), you'll need to give them your phone number to a...   read

Going back as far as the '90s, there has been a small collective of modders in the community that either have a successful side hustle, or a full-time gig providing content on top of what the development team already offers. Valve is pretty...   read

I'm uhh, not even sure where to begin here. Fresh off of the Boston Major, Valve has just released the update page for Dota 2's newest patch: 7.00. The community has anxiously been awaiting the patch just for the brand new Hero of Monk...   read

Valve has put out some new guidelines for the upcoming "Discovery 2.0" update to the Steam store and misleading screenshots will no longer be allowed. The guidelines specify that all screenshots must be from actual gameplay. Valve won't be ...   read

Valve just put out a new trailer for all of the upcoming Steam experiences on its "Steam VR" landing page, and it involves Dota 2 in some capacity. The video initially pans in on the virtual screen showing the action in front of the pl...   read

Recently, Valve introduced paid-for passes for custom games in Dota 2, where for $1 players are given extra content or features to some of the most popular custom game-modes on official Valve servers. It’s very similar to Valve&r...   read

Valve famously "didn't understand exactly what [it] was doing" when it tried letting people charge money for their The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mods on Steam. There was enough of a backlash that those plans quickly fell through, and refunds...   read

Gabe Newell, co-founder of Valve and patron saint of Steam, has taken to reddit to address the Dota 2 subreddit's complaints about the Shanghai Major tournament currently taking place in China. "Two things: 1) James. We've had issues with ...   read

The announcer packs for Dota 2 are easily some of the best purchases available within the free-to-play game. Personally, I go back and forth between the Stanley Parable and Bastion announcers. Not only are they high quality,...   read

Last week saw Dota 2’s annual championship The International take place in Seattle, with a huge $18 million being up for grabs in prize money. It is by far one of the biggest events in eSports, and recent years have seen the game be ...   read

The was major buzz surrounding this year's all star match at The International 5. Aside from pitting the best Dota players in the world against each other, there has been a history of major announcements at the match. Last year, Techies wer...   read

As announced on the Dota 2 blog, the official website for The International 5 has launched. TI5's website showcases prize pool breakdowns, the teams that will be competing, replays, and a link to the web store. According to t...   read

If you've been wanting a new eSports documentary, Red Bull is currently producing one centered on DOTA 2. The doc will focus on Jimmy 'DeMoN' Ho as well as his former Team Liquid (he's currently with Champions of Summer's Rift) a...   read

Want to get in on Dota 2 Reborn? Feel free to chek out Valve's new landing page for it, which will provide the instructions for launching the new client. Changes include a new Source 2 engine, reduced input lag, better performance on b...   read

Valve has announced a massive update for their mind bogglingly popular MOBA, Dota 2. Dota 2 Reborn will be a top-to-bottom overhaul, reworking and tweaking just about every aspect of the game. Chief among these changes is a brand new engine...   read

The prize pool for the 2015 International Dota 2 tournament is now at $11,617,319, making it the largest eSports prize pool in history. The previous record was held by last year's tournament, which capped off at $10,930,698. The crowdf...   read

Dota 2's prize pool for the upcoming Internaltional 2015 tournament has just passed $10M. The pool is increased each time players buy a Compendium, which allows players to make predictions and bask in the glory of all of the tiered rewards....   read

Yesterday, May 10, Steam hit a new record for highest concurrent players. 9.5 Million People were logged in at midday PST. That’s more than the population of Belarus, and it’s rapidly catching up to that of the United Arab Emira...   read

The newest Dota 2 Interactive Compendium has been revealed for this year's upcoming International tournament. Just as in past years, 25% of each Compendium purchase goes towards the prize pool and stretch goals. This year, the highest ...   read

Not that I've been counting, but I'm sure I've spent more time with Awesomenauts and SMITE than I have with traditional multiplayer online battle arenas like League of Legends and Dota 2 . Hey, I like what I like! I also dig when modd...   read

Dota matches have a reputation for becoming grindy slogs, but I'm pretty sure they aren't supposed to resemble the intractable grind of WWI trench warfare. On Friday a qualifying match between competitive teams Cloud9 and SFZ stretched on f...   read

The Dota 2 Asian Championships' (DAC) main event is underway now, and currently boasts a prize pool of just under $3,000,000. This brings it to the second highest prize pool ever, behind the 2014 Dota 2 International tournament wh...   read

Combining the huggable head of Valve and the perpetual time sink that is Dota 2 in a single Steam Workshop submission -- it seems so obvious now, bringing these two internet loves together. Shopkeeper Gabe Newell deserves a thumbs up and i...   read

Frostivus is not coming this year, but that doesn't mean Dota 2 goes stale! While there may not be a big gameplay event, we've got some big gameplay changes taking place. Lifestealer takes a lot of the focus in this update with his rew...   read

While you're sitting there, not admitting that you love Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off," why not get down to this. Sick. Beat? Seriously though, this is an amazing parody of a catchy song for all Dota 2 fans.   read

A new Dota 2 update hit today, and THEY CHANGED EVERYTHING. Two runes. New rune. THE MAP IS DIFFERENT. Reworked Heroes. Chen can take over Ancients. Something happened to Riki, I'm not sure what exactly? THE MAP IS DIFFERENT. Did I mention ...   read

Techies, the explosive and suicidal Dota 2 Hero, is finally coming to the game next week, as detailed in the latest Dota 2 blog update. I've never played Techies in DOTA, but here's what I've gathered so far: Techies is literally ...   read

Believe it or not, in all my time spent in Dota 2, I've never played a single solo matchmaking game. I've played plenty of team games, but the anxiety that comes with playing alone with strangers gets to me while playing Dota 2. Well, ther...   read

Valve has released an alpha build of its Dota 2 Workshop Tools which will enable folks to create, share, and play custom maps and game modes for Dota 2. That's going to be huge and if you played custom games in Warcraft III, I think you'll ...   read

[Update: It's over! Newbee has been named champion of The International 4 and will take home $5,028,308 in prize money. For reaching second place, ViCi Gaming will bring home a still-impressive $1,475,699. Watch the final matches over here ...   read

Note: there will be no spoilers in this post for day one or two, but expect them in the comments!  Yesterday was as exciting as it was heartbreaking for some, but that's just the way things go when over $10 million is on the line. This...   read

You can watch the $10+ million Dota 2 tournament The International on Twitch, or in-game, or, huh, even on ESPN. Valve is collaborating with the sports network for coverage this weekend. Notably, ESPN2 will have an exclusive preview of Mond...   read

Eight teams are left fighting for the $5 million first prize in Dota 2's International tournament. The grand final will be played Monday, July 21. Among the teams fighting for it are ViCi, NewBee, Evil Geniuses, Team DK, Cloud9, 2011 c...   read

The day has finally arrived! The biggest Dota 2 tournament of the year is about to officially begin! Today, four wildcard teams will battle it out for one remaining position in the tournament and their shot at a prize pool that is...   read

Have you ever been in the heat of a good Dota 2 teamfight, enjoying yourself as you're blasting away your enemies, and wondered -- you know what would go great with Dota? Mario Kart! Well, you're in the right place. D2Modd.In has...   read

The 2014 website for The International Dota 2 Championships is now live, and with it comes some great new information. The best of which is that there will be a specific stream for players brand new to the esport. This stream will be d...   read

The Dota 2 prize pool for the upcoming International 2014 tournament is now at $10 million dollars. With zeroes that looks like this: $10,000,000. All of the newly added stretch goals have been reached, the most recent of which is a "...   read

Ten bucks gets you the Dota 2 Compendium, which guy who actually knows about Dota 2 Patrick Hancock says is better than last year's. A portion of the purchase also goes towards raising The International tournament prize pool. Last year, the...   read

The Dota 2 community, along with most MOBAs, gets a bad rap for being mean jerks. While yes, there are plenty of mean jerks out there, it's moments like these that prove that we can really band together to...spend money. The Dota 2 com...   read

The penultimate stretch goal, environmental effects, has been reached for Dota 2's International 2014 tournament after only a single week of raising money. Nearly $4,000,000 has been contributed by the community, making this the bigges...   read

Your Dota 2 announcer of choice might just change today now that the narrator from The Stanley Parable is available for purchase. Normally $9.99, this announcer pack is currently a dollar off. I'm not a Dota 2 player by any means, but I ac...   read

The time has come to for Dota 2 players all around the world to spend their $9.99 in preparation for this year's International tournament! Buying the Dota 2 Compendium grants the purchaser a slew of things, much more than last yea...   read

A new update just hit Dota 2, and it brought with it another slew of balance changes in the form of the 6.81 patch. Buffs and nerfs abound, and the future of the game has changed once again. Many have claimed that the 6.80 version of the ga...   read

The Spring Cleaning update for Dota 2, which seemingly was announced a little bit earlier than Valve wanted, is now live on the main client of the game. A metric butt-ton of bugfixes are included, along with new chests and balance changes. ...   read

Valve's DOTA 2 tournament, The International, is taking place on July 18 through July 21 in Seattle at the KeyArena this year. General admission tickets are $99, floor seats are $199, and a VIP package for $499 will get you access to all si...   read

Yesterday, a new game mode, the Hero Terrorblade, and balance changes were introduced for the newest Dota 2 update, scheduled to go live tomorrow. Today we get another Hero, Phoenix, a new feature, and HATS! The new cosmetic items...   read

The Chinese New Year is upon us, and everyone knows that that means: a new Dota 2 event! The update was vaguely outlined yesterday, but today we can get a much better idea of what the New Bloom update will have in store. First up is a ...   read