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156-514: The Dota Pro Circuit ( DPC ) was the professional league used in Dota 2 , a competitive five-on-five video game . Active between 2017 and 2023, the DPC was organized by the game's developer, Valve and consisted of seasonal "Major" tournaments and Regional Leagues from North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. Points were earned by the top six teams playing in

312-422: A crowdfunded prize money system that has seen amounts in upwards of US$ 40 million, making Dota 2 one of the most lucrative esports. Media coverage of most tournaments is done by a selection of on-site staff who provide commentary and analysis for the ongoing matches similar to traditional sporting events. In addition to playing live to audiences in arenas and stadiums, broadcasts of them are also streamed over

468-672: A mobile game in 2014 that used characters from the Dota universe. uCool, who was previously involved in a lawsuit with Blizzard in 2015 for similar reasons, along with another Chinese company, Lilith Games, argued that the forum post invalidated any ownership claims of the intellectual property, stating that the Dota property was an open-source , collective work that could not be copyrighted by anyone in particular. Judge Charles R. Breyer denied uCool's motion for summary dismissal , with Blizzard filing motions to dismiss all claims against uCool and Lilith with prejudice . An early goal of

624-456: A 40% point penalty. A team that plays five or more Regional League matches with a substitute will become disqualified from the season. Dota 2 Dota 2 is a 2013 multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game by Valve . The game is a sequel to Defense of the Ancients ( DotA ), a community-created mod for Blizzard Entertainment 's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos . Dota 2

780-436: A 50% chance to win in any given game. Ranked game modes with a separately tracked MMR are also available, which primarily differ from unranked games by making MMR publicly visible, as well as requiring the registration of a phone number to their accounts, which help foster a more competitive environment. To ensure that each player's ranking is up to date and accurate, MMR is recalibrated around every six months. Players with

936-696: A MOBA with a third-person perspective. Heroes of the Storm was released in 2015, featuring hero characters from Warcraft III and other Blizzard's franchises. Blizzard adopted their own personal dictation for their game's genre with "hero brawler", citing its focus on action. With the expansion of the smartphone market, numerous MOBA titles have been released for portable devices , such as Vainglory (2014), and Honor of Kings (2015). An international adaptation of Honor of Kings developed by TiMi Studios and published by Tencent Games for markets outside mainland China, rebranded as Arena of Valor (2016),

1092-437: A Windows-only open beta phase that began two years prior. The game is fully free-to-play with no heroes or any other gameplay element needing to be bought or otherwise unlocked. To maintain it, Valve supports the game as a service , selling loot boxes and a battle pass subscription system called Dota Plus that offer non-gameplay altering virtual goods in return, such as hero cosmetics and audio replacement packs. The game

1248-762: A continuous, but small stream of gold over the course of a match. Dota 2 features multiple game types which mainly alter the way hero selection is handled; examples include "All Pick", which offer no restrictions on hero selection, "All Random", which randomly assigns a hero for each player, "Captain's Mode", where a single player on each team selects heroes for their entire team and is primarily used for professional play, and "Turbo", an expedited version of All Pick featuring increased gold and experience gain, weaker towers, and faster respawn times. Matches usually last around 30 minutes to an hour, although they can last forever as long as both Ancients remain standing. In Captain's Mode games, an additional " GG " forfeit feature

1404-471: A day-night cycle, with some hero abilities and other game mechanics being altered depending on the time of the cycle. Present on the map are "neutral creeps" that are hostile to both teams, and reside in marked locations on the map known as "camps". Camps are located in the area between the lanes known as the "jungle", which both sides of the map have. Neutral creeps do not attack unless provoked, and respawn over time if killed. The most powerful neutral creep

1560-476: A hero runs out of health points and consequently dies, they are removed from active play until a respawn timer counts down to zero, at which point the hero respawns in their base. The amount of time required to respawn generally increases as the game progresses and/or the players level up. Heroes typically fall into one of several roles, such as tank, damage dealer, and support, each of which having unique designs, strengths, and weaknesses. MOBAs typically offer

1716-401: A large number of viable playable heroes for the player to choose from – League of Legends , for instance, began with 40, and has continued to add characters over the game's lifespan, reaching 100 in 2012 and 150 in 2020. This adds to the overall complexity of the game as players must be aware of an ever-increasing list of available characters. Choosing the correct character to play is itself

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1872-465: A map creator named Meian created a DotA variant closely modeled on Eul's map, but combining heroes from the many other versions of DotA that existed at the time. Called DotA: Allstars , it was inherited after a few months by a modder called Steve "Guinsoo" Feak, and under his guidance it became the dominant map of the genre. After more than a year of maintaining the DotA: Allstars map, with

2028-555: A million concurrent players at its peak. The popularity of the game has led to merchandise and media adaptations, including comic books and an anime series, as well as promotional tie-ins to other games and media. The game allows for the community to create their own gamemodes, maps, and cosmetics, which are uploaded to the Steam Workshop . Two spinoff games, Artifact and Dota Underlords , were released by Valve. Dota 2 has been used in machine learning experiments, with

2184-416: A move that brought the game's ranked system closer to ones used in other competitive games such as Global Offensive , StarCraft , and League of Legends . For most of 2018, Valve decided to handle gameplay balance updates for the game in a different way. Instead of releasing larger updates irregularly throughout the year, smaller ones would be released on a set schedule of every two weeks. Around

2340-476: A player's account in order to play them, an anti- griefing and smurfing practice they had previously implemented in their first-person shooter game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . Further changes to the game's matchmaking were brought in an update in November 2017, where the old numerical MMR system was replaced by a seasonal one based on eight ranked tiers that are recalibrated around every six months,

2496-412: A player's account until they win a specific number of games, and only groups them with other players who have the same punishment. Other features include an improved replay system from Defense of the Ancients , in which a completed game can be downloaded in-client and viewed by anyone at a later time, and the "hero builds" feature, which provide integrated guides created by the community that highlight to

2652-513: A precursor to, or an early example of, the MOBA genre. It uses a similar formula, where each player controls a single command unit in one of two opposing sides on a battlefield. Herzog Zwei ' s influence is apparent in several later MOBA games such as Guilty Gear 2: Overture (2007) and AirMech (2012). Herzog Zwei was also cited as an inspiration to the developers of Warcraft and Starcraft . 1998's Future Cop: LAPD has

2808-411: A primary attribute which adds to their basic non-ability damage output and other minor buffs—with four attributes including Universal, which rewards extra damage for attribute points. Heroes have an ability augmentation system known as the "Talent Tree", which allow players more choices on how to develop their hero. If a hero runs out of health points and dies, they are removed from active play until

2964-596: A product line that would include statues, weapons, and armor based on characters and items from the game. In February 2013, the National Entertainment Collectibles Association announced a new toy line featuring hero-themed action figures at the American International Toy Fair . At Gamescom 2015, an HTC Vive virtual reality (VR) tech demo based around the shopkeeper of the game's item shop

3120-484: A prominent esports game. IceFrog and Mescon later had a falling out in May 2009, which prompted the former to establish a new community website at playdota.com. Rob Pardo , the executive vice president of Blizzard Entertainment at the time, stated that the company had discussed with IceFrog in person the possibility of developing a MOBA but that they felt they were not ready to commit to such an endeavor. Valve's interest in

3276-537: A report by the Anti-Defamation League found that up to 79% of the game's playerbase had reported being harassed in some way while playing it, which topped their list. Following its reveal in 2011, Dota 2 won IGN 's People's Choice Award. In December 2012, PC Gamer listed Dota 2 as a nominee for their Game of the Year award, as well as the best esports game of the year. In 2013, Dota 2 won

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3432-428: A reserved slot in the associated Major. Valve also removed roster locks that previously prevented teams that made changes mid-season from qualifying for points for the season. Instead, all points are directly assigned to teams rather than individual players. Removing a player from the roster reduces the team's total points by 20 percent, with adding a replacement player having no penalty. In addition, Valve also implemented

3588-405: A resounding manner, with the first victory occurring before the five-minute mark and Dendi conceding before ninety seconds had passed in the second match. Open AI returned to The International 2018 , this time fielding an entire team of five AI players in two games against professional players, but ultimately losing both games. Despite this loss, OpenAI continued to work to improve OpenAI Five, and

3744-586: A rule that only allows for a single team owned in an multi-team organization to compete in The International and the qualifiers leading up to them. The rule also includes cases in which individual players have financial ties to other teams. The 2021 DPC season consisted of two legs instead of three, with points from the suspended 2019–2020 season not being used. The Minors were also replaced by Regional Leagues that are six weeks long, in which teams competed for qualifying positions to attend Majors. Instead,

3900-460: A seasonal Elo rating -based matchmaking system, which is measured by a numerical value known as "matchmaking rating" (MMR) that is tracked separately for core and support roles, and ranked into different tiers. MMR is updated based on if a player won or lost, which will then increase or decrease respectively. The game's servers, known as the "Game Coordinator", attempts to balance both teams based on each player's MMR, with each team having roughly

4056-514: A sequel with the already-identifiable brand. Holding the Dota name to be a community asset, Feak and Mescon filed an opposing trademark for Dota on behalf of DotA-Allstars, LLC (then a subsidiary of Riot Games ) in August 2010. Rob Pardo similarly stated that the Dota name belonged to the mod's community. Blizzard acquired DotA-Allstars, LLC from Riot Games and filed an opposition against Valve in November 2011, citing Blizzard's ownership of both

4212-490: A single powerful unit and, aided by weak computer-controlled units, compete against a stronger computer. Defense of the Ancients ( DotA ) was created in 2003 by the Warcraft III modding community for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, The Frozen Throne , with a map based on AoS. DotA was one of the first major titles of its genre and the first MOBA for which sponsored tournaments were held. It

4368-434: A skill in the MOBA genre, as players must weigh the available options to decide which character best suits their skill set, teammates, and opponents. Players usually find at least one hero they excel at playing, often referred to as a "main", and familiarize themselves with the remaining roster. Additionally, each hero is deliberately limited in the roles they can fulfill. No single hero is supposed to be powerful enough to win

4524-436: A strategic "Precinct Assault" mode similar to Herzog Zwei in which players can actively fight alongside generated non-player units. This could be regarded as the first example of MOBA gameplay, depending on the definition of the genre. The Windows version of Future Cop: LAPD allows online competitive play. In the same year, Blizzard Entertainment released its best-selling real-time strategy game StarCraft (1998) with

4680-610: A suite of game editing tools called StarEdit . These tools allowed players to design and create custom maps with non-standard rules and gameplay. A modder known as Aeon64 made a custom map named Aeon of Strife ( AoS ) that became popular. Some of the key features introduced in AoS became the foundation of the newborn genre. In the Aeon of Strife map, players controlled a single powerful hero unit fighting along three lanes which were protected by defensive towers. The terrain outside these lanes

4836-464: A team gets, the more capable they are at destroying the enemy team and their base, as well as protecting their own. In most MOBAs, playable characters have assigned classes such as "tank" , "bruiser", "marksman", "mage", "fighter", "assassin", "support" and "healer" , with each classification denoting various different skill sets and proficiencies. During the match, characters can be played in roles such as "carry", "support" and "ganker" ; however,

Dota Pro Circuit - Misplaced Pages Continue

4992-543: A team of bots known as the OpenAI Five showing the capability to defeat professional players. Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game in which two teams of five players compete to destroy a large structure defended by the opposing team known as the "Ancient" whilst defending their own. As in Defense of the Ancients , the game is controlled using standard real-time strategy controls , and

5148-614: A ten-versus-ten mode, a Halloween -themed capture point mode "Colosseum", a combat arena mode "Overthrow", "Siltbreaker", a story-driven cooperative campaign mode , and "The Underhollow", a battle royale mode. The move to the Source 2 engine in 2015 added the "Arcade" feature, which allows for community-created game modes, with the more popular ones having dedicated server hosting by Valve. One popular example, known as Dota Auto Chess , had over seven million in-game subscribers by April 2019. Owing to its popularity, Valve met with

5304-574: A timer counts down to zero, where they are respawned in their base with only some gold lost. The two teams—known as the Radiant and Dire—occupy fortified bases in opposite corners of the map, which is divided in half by a crossable river and connected by three paths, which are referred to as "lanes". The lanes are guarded by defensive towers that attack any opposing unit who gets within its line of sight . A small group of weak computer-controlled creatures called " creeps " travel predefined paths along

5460-418: A times a day for months in a system that OpenAI calls "reinforcement learning", in which they are rewarded for actions such as killing an enemy and destroying towers. Demonstrations of the bots playing against professional players have occurred at some events, such as Dendi , a professional Ukrainian player of the game, losing to one of them in a live 1v1 matchup at The International 2017 . A year later,

5616-406: A type of in-game battle pass called the "Compendium", which raises money from players buying them and connected lootboxes to get exclusive in-game cosmetics and other bonuses offered through them. 25% of all the revenue made from Compendiums go directly to the prize pool, with sales from the 2013 battle pass raising over US$ 2.8 million, which made it the largest prize pool in esports history at

5772-415: A year later. Valve adopted the word " Dota ", derived from the original mod's acronym, as the name for its newly acquired franchise. Johnson argued that the word referred to a concept, and was not an acronym. Shortly after the announcement of Dota 2 , Valve filed a trademark claim to the Dota name. At Gamescom 2011, company president Gabe Newell explained that the trademark was needed to develop

5928-413: Is an ongoing topic of research. Similar to real-time strategy games, MOBAs provide a highly complex environment for AI because of their large amount of possible variables, states, and decisions. One of the first known research-based MOBA AI agents was published around 2015 for League of Legends. The agent used influence maps to navigate the map and compute positioning risk. A similar agent to assist players

6084-600: Is available to end games early. Dota 2 occasionally features limited-time events that present players with alternative game modes that do not follow the game's standard rules. Some of these included the Halloween -themed Diretide event, the Christmas -themed Frostivus event, and the New Bloom Festival, which celebrated the coming of spring . Other special game modes have been created by Valve, including

6240-788: Is done by a selection of dedicated esports organizations and personnel who provide on-site commentary , analysis, and player interviews, similar to traditional sporting events. Coverage of Dota 2 tournaments have been simulcast on television networks, such as ESPN in the United States, BBC Three in the United Kingdom, Sport1 in Germany, TV 2 Zulu in Denmark, Xinwen Lianbo in China, Astro in Malaysia, and TV5 in

6396-422: Is featured in the game. Activating an ability costs a hero some of their " mana points ", which slowly regenerates over time. Using an ability will also cause it to enter a cooldown period, in which the ability can not be used again until a timer resets. All heroes have three attributes : strength, intelligence, and agility, which affect health points , mana points, and attack speed, respectively. Each hero has

Dota Pro Circuit - Misplaced Pages Continue

6552-505: Is home to neutral monsters that are hostile to both teams and appear in marked locations on the map known as "camps". Defeating neutral monsters brings various benefits to the players and their team, such as growth in power, buffs, or assistance in pushing the lane. The games are usually played on a battlefield shown from an isometric perspective , but certain MOBAs are played from a third-person or side-view perspective. The battlefield

6708-581: Is named "Roshan", who is a unique boss that may be defeated by either team to obtain special items , such as one that allows a one-time resurrection if the hero that holds it is killed. Roshan will respawn around ten minutes after being killed, and becomes progressively harder to kill as the match progresses over time. Runes, which are special items that spawn in set positions on the map every few minutes, offer heroes temporary, but powerful power-ups when collected, such as double damage and invisibility. In addition to having abilities becoming stronger during

6864-447: Is played in matches between two teams of five players, with each team occupying and defending their own separate base on the map. Each of the ten players independently controls a character known as a hero that has unique abilities and differing styles of play. During a match, players collect experience points (XP) and items for their heroes to defeat the opposing team's heroes in player versus player (PvP) combat. A team wins by being

7020-441: Is presented on a single map in a three-dimensional isometric perspective . Ten players each control one of the game's 126 playable characters , known as "heroes", with each having their own design, strengths, and weaknesses. Heroes are divided into two primary roles , known as the core and support. Cores, which are also called carries, begin each match as weak and vulnerable, but are able to become more powerful later in

7176-488: Is represented in the interface by the mini-map . A player controls a single powerful in-game unit, called a "hero" or "champion", with each utilizing a unique set of abilities and style of play. When a hero stands near a killed enemy unit or kills an enemy unit, they gain experience points and gold which allow the hero to level up and buy items at a store. When a hero levels up, they grow in power and may strengthen one of their abilities which they typically have four of. If

7332-494: Is used by heroes to buy a variety of different items that range in price and impact. For the most part, this involves improving the combat viability of the hero, although there may be other items that support the hero or team as a whole in different ways. As the heroes of each team get stronger, they can use multiple strategies to gain an advantage. These strategies can include securing objectives, killing enemy heroes and gaining levels by killing computer-controlled units. The stronger

7488-565: The Dota intellectual property began when several veteran employees, including Team Fortress 2 designer Robin Walker and executive Erik Johnson, became fans of the mod and wanted to build a modern sequel. The company corresponded with IceFrog by email about his long-term plans for the project, and he was subsequently hired to design a sequel. IceFrog announced his new position through his blog in October 2009, with Dota 2 being announced

7644-612: The Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation in Malaysia, have held courses teaching students the fundamentals and core skills to use for the game. Dota 2 has been a part of multi-sport events in Asia, such as the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games and Southeast Asian Games . The popularity of Dota 2 led Valve to produce apparel, accessories, figurines , and several other products featuring

7800-479: The Boston Major tournament in late 2016. Several more episodes have since been produced. Valve have also endorsed cosplay competitions featuring the game's heroes, which take place during downtime at some Dota 2 tournaments and feature prize pools of their own. Creation of Dota 2 -themed animations and CGI videos , mostly created by the community with Source Filmmaker , also take place. Similar to

7956-505: The Dota 2 Workshop Tools are a set of Source 2 software development kit (SDK) tools that allow content creators to create new hero cosmetics, as well as custom game modes, maps, and bot scripts. Highly rated cosmetics, through the Steam Workshop , are available in the in-game store if they are accepted by Valve. This model was fashioned after Valve's Team Fortress 2 , which had earned Workshop designers of cosmetic items of that game over $ 3.5 million by June 2011. Newell revealed that

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8112-529: The Dota 2 team was the adaptation of Defense of the Ancients ' aesthetic style for the Source engine . The Radiant and Dire factions replaced the Sentinel and Scourge from the mod, respectively. Character names, abilities, items and map design from the mod were largely retained, with some changes due to trademarks owned by Blizzard. In the first Q&A session regarding Dota 2 , IceFrog explained that

8268-433: The Warcraft III engine, calling the map Defense of the Ancients ( DotA ). Eul substantially improved the complexity of play from the original Aeon of Strife mod. Shortly after creating the custom DotA map, Eul left the modding scene. With no clear successor, Warcraft III modders created a variety of maps based on DotA and featuring different heroes. In 2003, after the release of WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne ,

8424-524: The Warcraft III World Editor and DotA-Allstars, LLC as proper claims to the franchise name. The dispute was settled in May 2012, with Valve retaining commercial rights to the Dota trademark, while allowing non-commercial use of the name by third-parties. In 2017, Valve's ownership of the franchise was again challenged, after a 2004 internet forum post from Eul was brought to light by a Chinese company known as uCool, who had released

8580-402: The mod highly popular, as its dynamic and unpredictable fights, complex map, and hero-centric gameplay create a more competitive environment and opportunities for outplaying the enemy team. By the early 2010s, multiplayer online battle arena has become a prominent genre in esports tournaments. The genre has seen further growth in popularity since the year 2015 – among the top five esports with

8736-419: The "Dota Store", which offers for-purchase cosmetic virtual goods , such as custom armor and weapons for their heroes. It was announced that the full roster of heroes would be available at launch for free. Until the game's release in 2013, players were able to purchase an early access bundle, which included a digital copy of Dota 2 and several cosmetic items. Included as optional downloadable content (DLC),

8892-483: The 2023 season. From late 2015 until early 2017, Valve sponsored a series of smaller-scale, seasonally held tournaments known as the Dota Major Championships. Their format was based on the tournament series of the same name that Valve also sponsored for their first-person shooter game, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . Including The International 2016 and 2017 , which were considered to be

9048-399: The Ancients players would take up Dota 2 and to promote the game to a new audience, Valve invited sixteen accomplished Defense of the Ancients esports teams to compete at a Dota 2 -specific tournament at Gamescom in August 2011, which later became an annually held event known as The International . From The International 2013 onward, its prize pool began to be crowdfunded through

9204-437: The Ancients , as well as the often hostile community. Peter Bright of Ars Technica also directed criticism at the ability for third-party websites to allow skin gambling and betting on match results, similar to controversies that also existed with Valve's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . Using Dota 2 as an example, Bright thought that Valve had built gambling elements directly into their games, and had issues with

9360-511: The Collector's Aegis again the following year for The International 2016, as well as selling a limited edition Dota 2 themed HTC Vive virtual reality headset during the event. In July 2017, an 18-track music soundtrack was released by Ipecac Recordings , including a version on vinyl. A digital collectible card game based on the universe of Dota 2 and designed by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield and Valve, Artifact ,

9516-415: The DPC, teams are awarded qualification points for their performance in sponsored tournaments, with the top twelve earning direct invites to that season's International. To avoid conflicting dates with other tournaments, Valve directly manages the scheduling of them. The primary medium for professional Dota 2 coverage is the live streaming platform Twitch . For most major events, tournament coverage

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9672-636: The MOBA genre focuses on the multiplayer battle in the arena-like environment, whereas RPGs typically revolve around a single-player story and exploration of different locations. Some key features of MOBAs, such as control over one specific character in a party, growth in power over time, learning new thematic abilities, leveling and accumulation of experience points, usage of the mana resource, equipment and inventory management, completing quests, and fighting with powerful boss monsters, are also typical of role-playing games. The 1989 Mega Drive/Genesis game Herzog Zwei has variously been cited either as

9828-458: The MOBA genre has moved away from constructing structures, army building, and controlling additional units in favor of hero-centric gameplay. However, some MOBA games have certain heroes which control a few specialized units, but not on a massive scale commonly found in RTS games. As is the case in real-time strategy games, structures and base defense are important, and destroying the main structure at

9984-497: The Philippines. Dota 2 received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic , and has been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time . In a preview of the game in 2012, Rich McCormick of PC Gamer thought that Dota 2 was "an unbelievably deep and complex game that offers the purest sequel to the original Defense of the Ancients . Rewarding like few others, but tough." Adam Biessener,

10140-552: The Storm , and "Monkey King" in DotA 2. Due to the large volume of matches played on a daily basis around the world and the relatively complicated nature of the genre, MOBAs have become a popular target for the application of big data tools to predict match outcomes based on in-game factors such as hero kill/death/assist ratios, gold earned, time of a match, synergy with other players, team composition, and other, more advanced parameters. The use of artificial intelligence in MOBAs

10296-407: The ability of the bots had increased to work together as a full team of five, known as the OpenAI Five , who then played and won against a team of semi-professional players in a demonstration game in August 2018. Shortly after, OpenAI Five then played two live games against more skilled players at The International 2018 . Although the bots lost both games, OpenAI considered it successful as playing

10452-406: The ability to jump onto the field at any time to see the quarterback 's point of view. Chris Thursten of PC Gamer agreed, calling the experience "incredible" and unlike any other esports spectating system that existed prior to it. Sam Machkovech of Ars Technica also praised the addition, believing that the functionality could "attract serious attention from gamers and non-gamers alike". While

10608-519: The action genre are represented in MOBA games. Players with better mechanical skills and quick reaction times typically excel relative to their peers. MOBAs often have a strong focus on micromanagement , involving mechanical abilities such as positioning, dodging, use of combo attacks, kiting , prediction and target selection. Direction-targeted abilities, or "skillshots", require precise aim and good timing in order to hit an enemy. The MOBA genre resembles role-playing games (RPGs) in gameplay, though

10764-556: The average Steam Workshop contributor for Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2 made approximately $ 15,000 from their creations in 2013. By 2015, sales of Dota 2 virtual goods had earned Valve over $ 238 million in revenue, according to the digital game market research group SuperData. In 2016, Valve introduced the "Custom Game Pass" option for creators of custom game modes, which allows them to be funded by way of microtransactions by adding exclusive features, content, and other changes to their game mode for players who buy it. Dota 2 includes

10920-585: The battlefield. The first team to destroy the opponents' main structure wins the match, though some games have the option of different victory conditions. Destroying other structures within the opposing team's base may confer other benefits. Defensive structures, which are usually automatic "towers", are in place to prevent this. Each team is assisted by relatively weak computer-controlled units, called "minions", that periodically spawn in groups at both bases, marching down predefined paths (called "lanes") toward their enemy base. While their charges are counterbalanced by

11076-420: The best multiplayer game at the 10th British Academy Games Awards in 2014, but lost to Grand Theft Auto V , and was nominated for Esports Game of the Year at The Game Awards at its events from 2015 to 2019, while winning the award for best MOBA at the 2015 Global Game Awards. The game was also nominated for the community created "Love/Hate Relationship" award at the inaugural Steam Awards in 2016. In

11232-417: The bots against some of the best players in Dota 2 allowed them to analyze and adjust their algorithms for future games. In 2019, OpenAI Five was able to defeat the reigning International champion OG . Multiplayer online battle arena The first widely accepted game in the genre was Aeon of Strife ( AoS ), a fan-made custom map released in 2002 for StarCraft , in which four players each control

11388-609: The character most aligned with their skills and preferences. Playable characters blend a variety of fantasy tropes and often feature numerous references to popular culture and mythology . One such figure commonly represented in MOBAs is Sun Wukong , a legendary mythical figure from 16th-century China. Examples of representation of Sun Wukong in MOBAs in the form of playable characters include "Wukong" in League of Legends , Samuro's "Monkey King" skin (custom outfit/costume) in Heroes of

11544-430: The community, and the full replacement of the original Source engine with Source 2. Largely attributed to technical difficulties players experienced with the update, the global player base experienced a sharp drop of approximately sixteen percent the month following its release. However, after various updates and patches , over a million concurrent players were playing again by the beginning of 2016, with that number being

11700-702: The composers of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos , Jason Hayes, was hired to collaborate with Tim Larkin to write the original score for the game, which was conducted by Timothy Williams and performed and recorded by the Northwest Sinfonia at Bastyr University . Valve had Half-Life series writer Marc Laidlaw , science fiction author Ted Kosmatka , and other employees contributed hero dialog and lore. Notable voice actors for heroes include Nolan North , Dave Fennoy , Jon St. John , Ellen McLain , Fred Tatasciore , Merle Dandridge , Jen Taylor , and John Patrick Lowrie , among others. The Source engine

11856-448: The cosplay competitions, Valve holds short film contests every year at The International, with winners of the competition also being awarded prize money. In addition, Valve have created free webcomics featuring some of the heroes, further detailing their background lore. A physical collection of the comics was released as Dota 2: The Comic Collection by Dark Horse Comics in August 2017. An anime streaming television series based on

12012-401: The course of the game, up to a maximum level of 30. Whenever a hero gains an experience level, the player is able to unlock another of their abilities or improve one already learned. The most powerful ability for each hero is known as their "ultimate", which requires them to have an experience level of six in order to use. In order to prevent abilities from being overused , a magic system

12168-675: The cumulative Major of their respective seasons, the series had five other events, which were the Frankfurt Major , Shanghai Major , Manila Major , Boston Major , and Kiev Major . Following the International 2017, the Majors were replaced with the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) format due to criticism by teams and fans for Valve's non-transparent and unpredictable nature for handing out International invitations. In

12324-457: The cumulative Major of their respective seasons, the series had five other events, which were the Frankfurt Major , Shanghai Major , Manila Major , Boston Major , and Kiev Major . Following the International 2017, the Majors were replaced with the DPC due to criticism by teams and fans for Valve's non-transparent and unpredictable nature for handing out International invitations. For the first season (2017–2018), teams' scores were determined by

12480-475: The drafting pool and become unavailable for all other players once one is selected, and can not be changed once the drafting phase is over. All heroes have a basic attack in addition to powerful abilities , which are the primary method of fighting. Each hero has at least four of them, all of which are unique. Heroes begin each game with an experience level of one, only having access to one of their abilities, but are able to level up and become more powerful during

12636-496: The editor who authored the announcement article for Dota 2 for Game Informer in 2010, praised Valve for maintaining the same mechanics and game balance that made Defense of the Ancients successful nearly a decade prior and Quintin Smith of Eurogamer described Dota 2 as the "supreme form of the MOBA which everyone else working in the genre is trying to capture like lightning in a bottle". The most frequently praised aspects of

12792-500: The esport game of the year award from PC Gamer and onGamers . GameTrailers also awarded the game the award for Best PC Game of 2013, with IGN also awarding it the Best PC Strategy & Tactics Game, Best PC Multiplayer Game, and People's Choice Award. Similarly, Game Informer recognized Dota 2 for the categories of Best PC Exclusive, Best Competitive Multiplayer and Best Strategy of 2013. The same year, Dota 2

12948-424: The final restrictions against unlimited global access to Dota 2 were lifted after the game's infrastructure and servers were substantially bolstered. In order to abide by the standards set by the economic legislation of specific countries, Valve opted to contract with nationally based developers for publishing. In October 2012, Chinese game publisher Perfect World announced they had received distribution rights for

13104-458: The first to destroy the other team's Ancient, a large durable structure located in the center of each base. Development of Dota 2 began in 2009 when IceFrog , lead designer of Defense of the Ancients , was hired by Valve to design a modernized remake in the Source game engine . It was released for Windows , OS X , and Linux via the digital distribution platform Steam in July 2013, following

13260-507: The franchise's intellectual property rights after being contested by Riot Games for the DotA trademark. In 2012, Activision Blizzard settled a trademark dispute with Valve over the usage of the DOTA name and announced their own standalone game which was eventually named Heroes of the Storm . Dota 2 was released in 2013, and was referred to by Valve as an "action real-time strategy" game. In 2014, Hi-Rez Studios released Smite ,

13416-539: The game and its professional scene was produced by Valve and released in March 2014. Known as Free to Play , the film follows three players during their time at the first International in 2011. American basketball player Jeremy Lin , who was a media sensation at the time , had a guest appearance in the film and called the game "a way of life". Lin later compared the game and the esports scene in general to basketball and other traditional sporting events, saying that there

13572-660: The game in the country. The Chinese client has a region-specific "Low Violence" mode, which removes most depictions of blood, gore, and skulls in order for the game to follow censorship policies of the country . In November 2012, a similar publishing deal was made with the South Korea-based game company Nexon to distribute and market the game in the country, as well as in Japan. Three years later, Nexon announced they would no longer be operating servers for Dota 2 , with Valve taking over direct distribution and marketing of

13728-419: The game in those regions. In December 2016, Dota 2 was updated to gameplay version 7.00, also known as "The New Journey" update. Prior to the update, the Dota series had been in version 6. xx for over a decade, marking the first major revision since IceFrog originally took over development of the original mod in the mid-2000s. The New Journey update added and changed numerous features and mechanics of

13884-465: The game was originally meant to publicly release in 2012, Valve later scrapped that plan as it would have kept the game in its closed beta state for over a year. Owing to that, Valve lifted the non-disclosure agreement and transitioned the game into open beta in September 2011, allowing players to discuss the game and their experiences publicly. Following nearly two years of beta testing, Dota 2

14040-725: The game were its depth, delivery, and overall balance. Chris Thursten of PC Gamer described the gameplay as being "deep and rewarding". Martin Gaston of GameSpot complimented Valve for the artistic design and delivery of Dota 2 , citing the execution of the user interface design, voice acting, and characterization as exceeding those of the game's competitors. Phill Cameron of IGN and James Kozanitis of Hardcore Gamer both praised Dota 2 for its free-to-play business model including only cosmetic items in contrast to other games such as League of Legends , which charges to unlock better "heroes" to play as, with Kozanitis stating that Dota 2

14196-538: The game without support from their team. This creates a strong emphasis on teamwork and cooperation. The genre rewards players that are capable of cooperating with their teammates to execute an effective strategy, enabling full potential of their individual abilities and mechanical skills. Each player typically receives a small amount of gold per second during the course of the game. Moderate amounts of gold are rewarded for killing hostile computer-controlled units and larger amounts are rewarded for killing enemy heroes. Gold

14352-487: The game would build upon the mod without making significant changes to its core. Valve hired Eul and contracted major contributors from the Defense of the Ancients community, including artist Kendrick Lim, to assist with the sequel. Additional contributions from sources outside of Valve were also sought regularly for Dota 2 , as to continue Defense of the Ancients ' tradition of community-sourced development. One of

14508-496: The game's default soundtrack, such as electronic music artist deadmau5 and Singaporean songwriter JJ Lin . To coincide with the Windows release of Square Enix 's Final Fantasy Type-0 HD in August 2015, a bundle containing a custom loading screen, a Moogle ward, and a Chocobo courier were added the same month. In April 2016, Valve announced a cross-promotional workshop contest for Sega 's Total War: Warhammer , with

14664-406: The game's genre as a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). Also in 2009, IceFrog, who had continued to develop DotA: Allstars , was hired by Valve , in order to design a sequel to the original map. In 2010, S2 Games released Heroes of Newerth , with a large portion of its gameplay and aesthetics based on DotA: Allstars . The same year, Valve announced Dota 2 and subsequently secured

14820-546: The game, Dota: Dragon's Blood , premiered on Netflix in March 2021. The series was produced by Studio Mir and Kaiju Boulevard . Dota 2 has been used in machine learning experiments, with the American artificial intelligence research company OpenAI curating a system, known as the OpenAI Five , that allows bots to learn how to play the game at a high skill level entirely through trial-and-error algorithms. The bots learn over time by playing against itself hundreds

14976-413: The game, including adding the first original hero not ported over from Defense of the Ancients , a reworked map, a redesigned HUD , a pre-game phase that allows for players to discuss their team strategy, and a "Talent Tree" ability augmentation system. In April 2017, Valve announced changes to the game's ranked matchmaking system, with the main one requiring the registration of a unique phone number to

15132-407: The game, players are able to buy items from set locations on the map called shops that provide their own special abilities. Items are not limited to specific heroes, and can be bought by anyone. In order to obtain an item, players must be able to afford it with gold at shops located on the map, which is primarily obtained by killing enemy heroes, destroying enemy structures, and killing creeps, with

15288-440: The game, thus becoming able to "carry" their team to victory. Supports generally lack abilities that deal heavy damage, instead having ones with more functionality and utility that provide assistance for their cores, such as providing healing and other buffs . Players select their hero during a pre-game drafting phase, where they can discuss potential strategies and hero matchups with their teammates. Heroes are removed from

15444-419: The genre's overall popularity. Players are able to download and play AAA -quality games at no cost. These games are generating revenue by selling cosmetic elements, including skins, voice lines, customized mounts and announcers, but none of these give the functional gameplay advantages to the buyer. As of 2012, free-to-play MOBAs, such as League of Legends , Dota 2 , Heroes of the Storm , and Smite were among

15600-402: The heart of the enemy base typically serves as the ultimate victory condition of a given match. Players can find various friendly and enemy units on the map at any given time assisting each team, however, these units are computer-controlled and players usually do not have direct control over their movement and creation ; instead, they move forward along the map's lanes. Many defining elements of

15756-400: The heroes and other elements from the game. In addition, Valve secured licensing contracts with third-party producers; the first of these deals concerned a Dota 2 themed SteelSeries mousepad , which was announced alongside the game at Gamescom 2011. In September 2012, Wētā Workshop , the prop studio that creates the "Aegis of Champions" trophy for winners of The International, announced

15912-521: The highest earning esport game by a margin of nearly $ 60 million at the time. From late 2015 until early 2017, Valve sponsored a series of smaller-scale, seasonally held tournaments known as the Dota Major Championships, which all had fixed prize pools of US$ 3 million. Their format was based on the tournament series of the same name that Valve also sponsored for their first-person shooter game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . Including The International 2016 and 2017 , which were considered to be

16068-463: The highest possible medal rank are listed by Valve on an online leaderboard, separated into North American, European, Southeast Asian, and Chinese regions. The game includes a report system, which allows players to punish player behavior that intentionally provides a negative experience . Players who get reported enough or leave several games before they conclude, a practice known as "abandoning", are placed into low priority matchmaking, which remains on

16224-681: The highest-paying esport games, second to StarCraft II . At E3 2013 , South Korean company Nexon announced the investment of ₩ 2 billion (approximately US$ 1.7 million) into local leagues in the country, which coincided with their distribution partnership with Valve for the game. In February 2015, Valve sponsored and held the Dota 2 Asia Championships in Shanghai , with a prize pool of over $ 3 million raised through compendium sales. In total, professional Dota 2 tournaments had earned teams and players over $ 100 million by June 2017, with over half of that being awarded at Internationals, making it

16380-444: The impending release of an update that significantly changed the map layout, Guinsoo left the development to his adjutant Neichus in the year 2005. After some weeks of development and some versions released, the latter turned over responsibility to a modder named IceFrog , who initiated large changes to the mechanics that deepened its complexity and capacity for innovative gameplay. The changes conducted by IceFrog were well-received and

16536-443: The internet and sometimes simulcast on television, with several million in viewership numbers. Despite criticism going towards its steep learning curve and overall complexity, Dota 2 was praised for its rewarding gameplay, production quality, and faithfulness to its predecessor, with many considering it to be one of the greatest video games of all time . It has been one of the most played games on Steam since its release, with over

16692-477: The lanes and attempt to attack any opposing heroes, creeps, and buildings in their way. Creeps periodically spawn throughout the game in groups from two buildings, called the "barracks", that exist in each lane and are located within the team's bases. The map is permanently covered for both teams in fog of war , which prevents a team from seeing the opposing team's heroes and creeps if they are not directly in sight of themselves or an allied unit. The map features

16848-525: The largest in nearly a year. The move to Source 2 allowed the use of the Vulkan graphics API, released as an optional feature in May 2016, making Dota 2 one of the first games to use it. Dota 2 was made available to the public at Gamescom in 2011, coinciding with the inaugural International championship, the game's premier esport tournament event. At the event, Valve began sending out closed beta invitations to DotA players and attendees. Although

17004-463: The largest prize pools, three have been MOBA titles for three years in row. Distributed prize money in MOBA tournaments reached over US$ 54 million in 2017. A year later, prize pools continued to grow reaching over US$ 60 million, 40% of the year's total esports prize pools. 2018 League of Legends World Championship had the biggest prize pool out of all League of Legends esports championship finals, awarding almost $ 6.5 million. MOBAs are some of

17160-532: The late 2010s, the game was nominated for Choice Video Game at the 2017 Teen Choice Awards , for Esports Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards , and as IGN 's best spectator game. A month prior to its launch, Dota 2 was already the most played game on Steam with a concurrent player count of nearly 330,000, which outweighed the number of players for the rest of platform's top ten most-played games combined. It remained as

17316-499: The latter being an act called " farming ". Only the hero that lands the killing blow on a creep obtains gold from it, an act called " last hitting ", but all allies receive a share of gold when an enemy hero dies close to them. Players are able to "deny" allied units and structures by last hitting them, which then prevents their opponents from getting full experience from them. Gold can not be shared between teammates, with each player having their own independent stash. Players receive

17472-461: The learning curve and players' attitudes as unwelcoming. Benjamin Danneberg of GameStar alluded to the learning curve as a "learning cliff", calling the newcomer's experience painful, with the tutorial feature new to the Dota franchise only being partially successful. In a review for Metro , Dota 2 was criticized for not compensating for the flaws with the learning curve from Defense of

17628-511: The majority of reviewers gave Dota 2 highly positive reviews, a common criticism was that the game maintains a steep learning curve that requires exceptional commitment to overcome. While providing a moderately positive review that praised Valve's product stability, Fredrik Åslund from the Swedish division of Gamereactor described his first match of Dota 2 as one of the most humiliating and inhospitable experiences of his gaming career, citing

17784-552: The mod's developers, the Chinese-based Drodo Studio, to discuss directly collaborating on a standalone version. However, the two companies were unable to come to an agreement, with them both stating that it was in their best interest to develop their own separate games. Valve's version, Dota Underlords , was released in February 2020 and continued to use the Dota setting, while Drodo's game, Auto Chess ,

17940-453: The most played game by concurrent players on the platform for four years, having a peak of over one million and never dropping below first place for any extended period of time until being surpassed by PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds in 2017. Viewership and followings of professional Dota 2 leagues and tournaments are popular, with peak viewership numbers of the International in the millions. Some Asian schools and universities, such as

18096-511: The most popular PC games. The success in the genre has helped convince many video game publishers to copy the free-to-play MOBA model. SuperData Research reported that the genre generated over $ 2.5 billion of revenue in 2017. Similar to fighting games , MOBAs offer a large number of viable player characters for the player to choose from, each of which having distinctive abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. With such wide varieties available, players have numerous choices from which to find

18252-436: The most watched games in the world. Major esports professional tournaments are held in venues that can hold tens of thousands of spectators and are streamed online to millions more. A strong fanbase has opened up the opportunity for sponsorship and advertising, eventually leading the genre to become a global cultural phenomenon . A free-to-play business model, which is used by the largest MOBA titles, have contributed to

18408-441: The number and type of roles can differ depending on the game. The carry role is expected to scale and itemize themselves to do the most damage against enemy characters and objectives, but may also require protection and assistance from their team members. Supports assist their team with abilities that aid allies and disable enemies, rather than dealing damage directly. Some supports have healing abilities which can be vital factor in

18564-555: The number of users on the Dota: Allstars forum is thought to have peaked at over one million. DotA is widely attributed as the most significant inspiration for the MOBA genre in the years to come. By 2008, the popularity of DotA had attracted commercial attention. Since the format was tied to the Warcraft property, developers began to work on their own " DOTA -style" video games. A Flash web game, named Minions ,

18720-419: The opportunity for sponsorship and advertising, eventually leading the genre to become a global cultural phenomenon. Each match starts with two opposing teams typically composed of five players. Players work together as a team to achieve the ultimate victory condition, which is to destroy their enemy's base whilst protecting their own. Usually, both teams have main structures, located at the opposite corners of

18876-416: The opposite team's minions, players can aid them which turns the minions into a useful army for striking the opponents' defenses. There are typically three "lanes" on the battlefield that are the main ways of getting from one base to another. The lanes are known as top, middle and bottom lane, or, in gamer shorthand – "top", "mid" and "bot". Between the lanes is an uncharted area called "jungle". The "jungle"

19032-415: The original Defense of the Ancients ( DotA ), each player controls one powerful unit rather than a large army. While it still kept the large scale, core mechanics, and goals of the real-time strategy games, DotA attempted to avoid "clickfest" gameplay in which high actions per minute scores are mandatory for efficient playing, changing focus to the actual teamwork, coordination, and tactics. This made

19188-410: The particular lane they are focusing on, such as "top laner", "mid laner", and "bottom laner", or by their role in a teamfight, such as "frontliner", "damage dealer", "healer", "flex", and the "offlaner". As a fusion of real-time strategy (RTS), role-playing , and action games , MOBAs have many elements of preexisting genres while still offering unique gameplay. In general, the design philosophy of

19344-435: The player on how to play their hero. In June 2015, Valve announced that Dota 2 would be ported over to their Source 2 game engine in an update called Dota 2 Reborn . Reborn was released as an opt-in beta update that same month, and replaced the original client in September 2015, making it the first game to use the engine. Reborn included a new user interface framework design, ability for custom game modes created by

19500-402: The purchase of tickets from the "Dota Store", which give players in-game access to matches. Ticket fees are apportioned in part to tournament organizers. The game features an in-game fantasy sports system, which is modeled after traditional fantasy sports and feature professional Dota 2 players and teams. Players are able to spectate games in virtual reality (VR) with up to 15 others, which

19656-512: The same time, the game introduced the "Dota Plus" monthly subscription system that replaced the seasonal battle passes that were released to coincide with a Major tournament. In addition to offering everything battle passes previously did, Dota Plus added features such as a hero-specific achievement system that reward players who complete them with exclusive cosmetics, as well as providing hero and game analytics and statistics gathered from thousands of recent games. To ensure that enough Defense of

19812-403: The scheduling. A team's roster is locked for the season, with a 15% DPC point penalty occurring for every player change. Teams who make roster changes after qualifying for a Major will also have an additional 20% penalty added for a total of a 35%. Teams can play four of their seven Regional League matches with a substitute, but any team that does so at a Major without special exception will incur

19968-508: The season beginning in September 2018 and concluding in June 2019. The number of direct International 2019 invites was increased from eight to twelve, with each of the six regions being given a single qualifying slot. The qualifiers for Majors ran first, and teams who failed to qualify for it were eligible to compete in the Minor qualifiers a few days later. The winner of a Minor tournament is granted

20124-432: The second mid-season roster period had passed. Starting with the second season (2018–2019), there were a number of adjustments to the rules, with the primary one being that both Major and Minor events are held in pairs, with qualifiers for each set to run in exclusively scheduled windows, as direct invites to them are now forbidden. In contrast with the previous season, the overall number of them decreased from 22 to 10, with

20280-450: The team composition's success, giving health and sustenance to their allies while limiting the enemy's options in terms of play patterns. Ganker roles are flexible, as they have both carry and support skills that are used to disrupt and eliminate enemies, thus giving their teammates an advantage over their opponents. Gankers can "act as a strategist, decision-maker or supporter depending on the team's needs." Player roles can be classified by

20436-400: The third-party sites as the practice was not allowed by their user agreements or API . Comparisons of Dota 2 to other MOBA games are commonplace, with the mechanics and business model compared to League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm . Contrasting it with League of Legends , T. J. Hafer of PC Gamer called Dota 2 the "superior experience", stating that he thought the game

20592-402: The time to master it. Further comparing it to Heroes of Newerth , players from the professional Dota 2 team OG said that most Heroes of Newerth players were able to transition over easily to the game, due to the strong similarities that both games share. Similar to other highly competitive online games , Dota 2 is often considered to have a hostile and " toxic " community. In 2019,

20748-496: The time. From 2015 until 2021, each iteration of the International surpassed the previous one's prize pool, with The International 2021 peaking at $ 40 million. During its beta phase in the early 2010s several other esport events would begin hosting Dota 2 events, including the Electronic Sports World Cup , DreamHack , World Cyber Games , and ESL . By the end of 2011, Dota 2 was already one of

20904-686: The top four teams from each region were selected to qualify for the upper-division, with qualifiers being used to determine the remaining twelve teams in both the upper and lower divisions. In September 2023, Valve announced the 2023 season would be the last, as they believed the DPC had grown too large in the professional scene and wanted to support smaller, grassroots tournaments. The Dota Pro Circuit originally consisted of three tours that consist of "Major" tournaments and Regional Leagues from North America, South America, Southeast Asia, China, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe. Each Major tournament consists of winners from each Regional League. Points are earned by

21060-413: The top six teams playing in the upper division of a Regional League, as well as the top eight teams of a Major tournament. Earlier tournaments in the season grant teams fewer total points, while the events closer to the International weigh more heavily. The top 12 teams with the most points at the season's conclusion earn invites to that year's International. To avoid conflicting dates, Valve directly manages

21216-444: The total score of the top three point-earning players on them, with points being carried over if a player changes teams during the season. The ranking of a team was calculated only by the accumulation of the top three players with the highest qualifying points. A team was allowed to change its roster twice in a specified time period, but would automatically lose its eligibility to obtain a direct invitation if they changed its roster after

21372-446: The unregulated practice, which he said was often used by underage players and regions where gambling is illegal . Australian senator Nick Xenophon had similar sentiment, stating that he wanted to introduce legislation in his country to minimize underage access to gambling within video games, including Dota 2 . In response to the controversy, Valve and Dota 2 project manager Erik Johnson stated that they would be taking action against

21528-535: The upper division of a Regional League as well as those finishing in the top eight of a Major. The top 12 teams with the most points at the season's conclusion earned invites to The International , the premier tournament for Dota 2 . The DPC was introduced in 2017 as a replacement for the Dota Major Championship series (2015–2016), which was criticized due to Valve's non-transparent process for sending out International invites. The DPC ended following

21684-587: The winning entries being included in the game later that year. In 2017, a cosmetic set based on the Companion Cube from the Portal series was released as part of that year's International battle pass for the hero known as "Io". In December of the same year, the character Amaterasu from Capcom 's Ōkami was included as a courier for those who had pre-ordered the PC release of the game. A documentary on

21840-469: Was "all about counterplay", with most of the heroes being designed to directly counter another. Hafer also preferred the way the game handled its hero selection pool, with all of them being unlocked right from the start, unlike in League of Legends . Comparing Dota 2 to Heroes of the Storm , Jason Parker of CNET said that while Heroes of the Storm was easier to get into, the complexities and depth of Dota 2 would be appreciated more by those who put in

21996-502: Was "the only game to do free-to-play right". Nick Kolan of IGN agreed, comparing the game's business model to Valve's Team Fortress 2 , which uses a nearly identical system. Post-release additions to the game were praised, such as the addition of virtual reality (VR) support in 2016. Ben Kuchera of Polygon thought that spectating games in VR was "amazing", comparing it to being able to watch an American football game on television with

22152-464: Was added in an update in July 2016. The update added a hero showcase mode, which allows players to see all of the heroes and their cosmetics full-size in virtual reality. As part of a plan to develop Dota 2 into a social network , Newell announced in April 2012 that the game would be free-to-play , and that community contributions would be a cornerstone feature. Instead, revenue is generated through

22308-423: Was created by The Casual Collective in 2008. Gas Powered Games released the first stand-alone commercial title in the genre, Demigod (2009). In late 2009, Riot Games ' debut title League of Legends was released. It was initially designed by Steve Feak, one of the original creators of DotA: Allstars, who went on to apply many of the mechanics and lessons he learned from the mod. Riot began to refer to

22464-449: Was developed using no Dota 2 assets. The Dota series began in 2003 with Defense of the Ancients ( DotA )—a mod for Blizzard Entertainment 's Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos —created by the pseudonymous designer "Eul". An expansion pack for Warcraft III , The Frozen Throne , was released later that year; a series of Defense of the Ancients clone mods for the new game competed for popularity. DotA: Allstars by Steve Feak

22620-575: Was followed by two spiritual successors , League of Legends (2009) and Heroes of Newerth (2010), as well by a standalone sequel, Dota 2 (2013), and numerous other games in the genre, such as Heroes of the Storm (2015). By the early 2010s, the genre had become a big part of the esports category. In 2018, prize pools reached over US$ 60 million, 40% of the year's total esports prize pools. Major esports professional tournaments are held in venues that can hold tens of thousands of spectators and are streamed online. A strong fanbase has opened up

22776-527: Was nearly vacant. In early versions of the game, hero units did not have any particular special abilities. Instead, players spent gold on weapon and armor upgrades. In 2002, Blizzard released Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (WC3), with the accompanying Warcraft III World Editor . Both the multiplayer online battle arena and tower defense subgenres took substantive shape within the WC3 modding community. A modder named Eul began converting Aeon of Strife into

22932-510: Was nominated for several awards by Destructoid . While the staff selected StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm , Dota 2 received the majority of the votes distributed between the nine nominees. During the 17th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated Dota 2 for " Role-Playing/Massively Multiplayer Game of the Year ". Dota 2 was later nominated for

23088-413: Was not much of a difference between the two, while comparing various NBA all-stars , such as Stephen Curry , Kobe Bryant , and LeBron James , to different heroes in the game. Starting in 2016, Valve began producing an episodic documentary series titled True Sight , a spiritual successor to Free to Play . The first three episodes followed the professional teams Evil Geniuses and Fnatic during

23244-439: Was ported to the Source 2 engine in 2015, making it the first game to use it. Dota 2 has a large esports scene, with teams from around the world playing in various professional leagues and tournaments. Valve organizes the Dota Pro Circuit , which are a series of tournaments that award qualification points for earning direct invitations to The International , the game's premier tournament held annually. Internationals feature

23400-485: Was published in the same year. Two years later, artificial intelligence research laboratory OpenAI developed the AI project OpenAI Five , which was first showcased at the Dota 2 World Championship, The International 2017 , during a 1v1 demonstration. In this demonstration, OpenAI Five faced off against Dendi , one of the most prolific and popular DotA players of all time. In this 1v1, OpenAI Five defeated Dendi twice in

23556-485: Was released in November 2018. Promotional tie-ins to other video games and media have been added to Dota 2 , including custom Half-Life 2 , Bastion , Portal , The Stanley Parable , Rick and Morty , Fallout 4 , Deus Ex: Mankind Divided , and Darkest Dungeon announcer packs, which replace the game's default announcer with ones based on those franchises. In addition to announcer packs, musical artists have written music packs that can replace

23712-1028: Was released in the western market in 2017. In 2021, the Pokémon series released its first MOBA game in Pokémon Unite . During the last half of the 2010s, video game developers and publishers , following the success of League of Legends and Dota 2 , tried to be part of the next-generation MOBA wave by putting their own twist in the genre, releasing games such as Battlerite (2017), and AirMech (2018). After years of development, many games which were supported by large publishers have not been fully released or their servers were shut down shortly after release. The most notable examples are Dawngate (2015) by Electronic Arts , DC Comics-based Infinite Crisis (2015) by Warner Bros. , Arena of Fate (2016) by Crytek , Gigantic (2017) by Perfect World Entertainment , Master X Master (2018) by NCSoft , and Paragon (2018) by Epic Games . In

23868-488: Was released on Steam for Windows on July 9, 2013, and for OS X and Linux on July 18, 2013. The game did not launch with every hero from Defense of the Ancients . Instead, the missing ones were added in various post-release updates, with the final one, as well as the first Dota 2 original hero, being added in 2016. Two months following the game's release, Newell claimed that updates to Dota 2 generated up to three percent of global internet traffic. In December 2013,

24024-506: Was showcased, allowing participants to interact with various items and objects from the game in VR. The demo, known as Secret Shop , was later included the following year on The Lab , Valve's virtual reality compilation game. After the conclusion of The International 2015, Valve awarded the Collector's Aegis of Champions, a brass replica of the Aegis of Champions award trophy, to those with compendiums of 1,000 levels or more. Valve awarded

24180-407: Was the most successful, and Feak, with his friend Steve Mescon, created the official Defense of the Ancients community website and the holding company DotA-Allstars, LLC. When Feak retired from DotA: Allstars in 2005, a fellow website user under the pseudonym IceFrog , became its lead designer. By the late 2000s, Defense of the Ancients became one of the most popular mods worldwide, as well as

24336-607: Was updated with new features to accommodate Dota 2 , such as high-end cloth modeling and improved global lighting. The game features Steam integration, which provides its social component and cloud storage for personal settings. In November 2013, Valve introduced a coaching system that allows experienced players to tutor newer players with in-game tools. As with previous Valve multiplayer games, players are able to spectate live matches of Dota 2 played by others, and local area network (LAN) multiplayer support allows for local competitions. Some of these events may be spectated via

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