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The International 2024 - Direct Invites and The Road to TI

by kyled

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/040f3cd7b283452e7939cf075284647905cbb900.png Between a massive 7.36 update and Act II of Crownfall, there were a lot of big announcements vying for your attention last week, so we decided to give everybody a few days to process everything before we posted any more big Dota news. But now a new week is upon us, and we're happy to turn our focus from the in-game experience to pro Dota, with the the announcement of the six direct invites to this year's The International! Read on for that unveiling, as well as details on the qualifying road for those still fighting to earn the last ten spots in Copenhagen. From Dubai to Birmingham to Bucharest and beyond, the year has been packed with top-tier Dota tournaments. Befitting their dominant performances across the year so far, we're happy to invite the following teams directly to The International 2024: Team Spirit Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk Denis "Larl" Sigitov Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov Yaros...

7.36a Gameplay Patch

by bananamancer

Patch 7.36a is out now. You can check out the patchnotes here. Additionally, a few non-gameplay bugs were fixed: Fixed Some Crownfall empty dialog lines Fixed Crownfall paths changing their token requirements Fixed Dragon Knight Griffin Knight set having Facet-based coloration swapped Fixed various issues with cloth stretching Fixed watching replays from Broadcaster perspective not displaying heroes Fixed an issue with post-match rewards being delayed Fixed Crownfall Pit Fighter encounter dialog Fixed Crownfall Fishing Spear not being available Fixed Crownfall Graphical issue with Pineapple clickable on Crownfall map Fixed Crownfall Graphical issue with Questing Hearts sign not showing Fixed issue with Act 2's Riki's attribute token being wrong type

Valve casually upends the Dota 2 meta by adding innate powers to all 124 heroes

by Jonathan Bolding

Dota 2 has gotten a particularly game-bending update this month. Despite its simple name, Gameplay Update 7.36 has changed how all 124 heroes in Dota 2 play by fundamentally tweaking the structure of a character: Every single hero now has an innate ability of some kind, up from a mere... 7 heroes before. To boot, every single hero now has two Facets, a binary choice of gameplay styles or bonuses that you choose before the match even starts... Read more.

Update 7.36 and Crownfall Act II

by krAnk0r

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/20246e3ed17e94352b9fdc475c3387d683c9bfe8.png People have been asking about it. They've been waiting for it. They've been guessing for months what would be in it. And now... we're finally shipping it. That's right: Crownfall Act II's fishing game is LIVE! For those of you who didn't just die of adrenaline shock, we also shipped a massive new gameplay patch, which you might want to read up on. Go find out more about 7.36 here. We also shipped the second part of Crownfall, this time taking place in the unforgiving deserts of Druud. There's a new overworld map, a new story, some new characters (and some familiar favorites), new cosmetic items, new minigames, and more than a few surprises. Lastly, in case you got busy last month (it happens) and were wondering if you'll still be able to play Crownfall Act I now that Act II's shipped: You can. All of Crownfall's acts will be available as new acts come online, up to the conclusion of the event. OK, that's probably e...

Dota Labs and Crownfall Collector's Cache Voting

by krAnk0r

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/94c9425912362b852cf6526763e1af3a88a4cc17.jpg Dota Labs Updates We announced Dota Labs a couple months ago, and since then we've continued to iterate quietly on the features in it as we get feedback and data. "Quietly" is fine, but sometimes it can be useful to be a bit louder so today we're turning up the volume a little: We're happy to announce the first promotion of a Dota Labs option out of Labs and into the game itself: high-visibility hero health bars, under Options -> Interface. Over the last weeks (and today), we've shipped a variety of updates to the other features, including additional controls for the overlay map, new data in the pre-match analytics, and the ability to treat targeting modifier keys as toggles rather than holds. Lastly, because we've gotten so many useful submissions from the Feedback button built into the Crownfall map, we've added one to the Dota Labs UI as well. As always, please continue to tell us which parts of the still in-dev...

Dota 2's Pudge becomes the MOBA's first character to be played in over a billion matches

by Rick Lane

Dota 2's Pudge has become the first character in the MOBA's history to be played in more than a billion matches, making the portly butcher the game's most popular character by about 300 million matches... Read more.

Dota 2 Update - 4/22/2024

by DanielJ

Over the last few days since Crownfall's release we've addressed the following issues: Fixed the match history Dota Plus rank change column sometimes displaying zero change for matches where a Ranked Double Down token was used. (The correct rank change was recorded on the server, this was just a display issue.) Fixed Crownfall Ranked Double Down tokens beyond the first not being correctly granted. Missing tokens have been granted to all affected accounts. Fixed voice chat indicators not appearing for some players. Fixed the in-game Ranked Double Down button not appearing for some players. Fixed a bug allowing Shadow Demon to level up his ultimate outside of the correct level points. Fixed the Demo Hero mode Target Dummy being unintentionally killable. Fixed a bug in the combat log that caused an additional tower killed message to be printed along with tower deny messages. Fixed a bug in the combat log that caused barracks kills by creeps being attributed to a player. Fixed a bug in the...

Dota 2 Crownfall is a new, ongoing story event packed with rewards

by editor@pcgamesn.com

While Counter-Strike 2 remains the dominant force on Steam, Valve also resolutely holds onto the number two spot with its other landmark multiplayer game, Dota 2. Few games can unseat the MOBA, with only brief outpacing from PUBG Battlegrounds and Lost Ark and launch peaks from the likes of Palworld, Baldur's Gate 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Elden Ring climbing ever so slightly ahead of it. Now, in an attempt to capitalize on its continued popularity, Valve is introducing Dota 2 Crownfall, an "ongoing story event filled with legendary heroes and unique rewards" that's available to all players of the free Steam game. Read the rest of the story... RELATED LINKS: Valve is banning Dota 2 accounts in the Christmasiest way possible Dota 2's hottest custom game is a legally iffy Vampire Survivors clone Dota 2 TI 2023 still on track for lowest ever prize pool

Welcome to Crownfall

by jaypinkerton

{STEAM_CLAN_LOC_IMAGE}/3703047/60586d77d8c2ddbddf805451c244309a7733e14e.png For over a decade now, Skywrath Mage and Vengeful Spirit have been ambiguously entwined. Eagle-eyed players noticed that they come from the same town, seem to have related backstories, and might even be dating. Pretty mysterious stuff. Earlier, we dropped a comic that solved those mysteries, but introduced an even bigger one: "Why are you posting comics instead of updates?" We can now reveal the answer: Because we've just released The Markets of Midgate, the first act of an ongoing story event called Crownfall, filled with legendary heroes and unique rewards. In this act alone, you can expect dozens of new cosmetic sets, taunts, creeps, emoticons... are we forgetting anything? Oh right, and two brand-new Arcana, one for each of Crownfall's main characters. So what is Crownfall? It's something completely new that we've wanted to try for a while. And when we say new, we mean new— a new way of telling stories, off...

Ascension Day

by kyled

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/ba80108f618e691d184e7eb5579e56c33b9a811b.jpg A young princess, betrayed by her sister on the day of her ascension. Her wings torn from her body. Thrown from the highest tower of the Ghastly Eyrie. Left for dead. Found by a god. Turned into a spirit of vengeance. A Skywrath Mage, sworn to serve the murderer of his beloved. His life and powers forfeit should he betray his captor. Waiting for his moment. To avenge the one he loves. A dying god. Starved of followers by an evil Queen. Wasting in the ruins of a condemned temple. The last of her powers leaving her. One last chance at revenge. Vengeance is coming. The Flightless will rise. A crown will fall.

Dota 2 Update 3/28/2024

by Jeff Hill

Matchmade lobbies will no longer share the account information of any members until the lobby is accepted by all players. Fixed certain cases where Revenant's Brooch would still allow critical hits.

Gameplay Patch 7.35d And Matchmaking Features

by kyled

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/168f2b245354ff66177462580a6f29d2e007bca4.jpg We've just released Gameplay Patch 7.35d (Chen had it coming), and with it a new set of features. Matchmaking Hero Ban Rework Over the last year or so, we've taken a number of visible actions against users of third-party cheats. As we investigate each cheat, we're primarily focused on understanding what they're doing and how we can track and stop it. But while we're doing that, we also ask ourselves why some cheaters feel compelled to use these tools in the first place. The most common explanation is "to get an unfair advantage", which obviously runs counter to the desires of the Dota community and the sense of competitiveness and fairness at its heart. Even so, sometimes there are still things we can learn, and use to improve the Dota experience for everyone (or at least everyone who hasn't been banned for cheating). Pre-game hero bans are an example of this. Many cheats last year focused on gaining an advantage d...

The International 2024

by kyled

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/040f3cd7b283452e7939cf075284647905cbb900.png War banners are being washed clean of blood stains and scorch marks. Trumpets are being tested for their ability to sound the imminent approach of battle. Lanes are getting swept clean of body parts, and the Ancients are getting a good crack replastering and surface buffing. The forest air itself crackles with anticipation, because we had new forest air shipped in at considerable cost that crackles on command. The stage is being set, is the point we’re trying to get across here. And why? For The International, returning this September to Europe, where the best Dota teams from around the world will clash for the Aegis in Copenhagen's Royal Arena. The sixteen participating teams will be a mix of open qualifiers, regional qualifiers, and direct invitations, similar to how invitations worked for the first few years of The International. The invited teams will be announced leading up to the event, and chosen based on te...

Dota Plus Update — Spring 2024 (And Dota Labs)

by ericl_*****

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/e11198d52372bf87ada1c5495fe8ec9539716096.png Dota Plus Seasonal Update As Spring blooms to life around us, it transports us here on the Dota team to the springs of yore, when the world was new and vibrant. Who could forget climbing that old oak tree by the bridge? Or stealing carrots and turnips from cranky old Farmer Maggot? Or taking that ring to Mordor, and casting it into the fiery pits of Mount Doom where it was forged? Dota Plus Seasonal Treasure That last part of our spring memory trilogy is especially relevant today, since we’ve uncovered another priceless treasure. And this time it’s too good to throw into a volcano. The Spring 2024 Seasonal Treasure is here and available for purchase with shards. This treasure features all new sets for Disruptor, Dark Willow, Spectre, Chaos Knight, Doom, Earth Spirit, Underlord, and Nyx Assassin. There's also a chance to unlock the Sir Molestach Irondrill courier, who arrives in the lanes bearing random prismatic an...

Between the Lanes: Denying Denial of Service

by kyled

{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/3703047/4d7209c869530f3e0f737e28a1156e7017314660.jpg Welcome back to Between the Lanes, a blog feature where members of our development team walk through some of the challenges, bugfixes, and occasional happy accidents we encounter while working on a game as unique as Dota. This is a story about the internet, and how it doesn’t work like it should, when it works at all, except when it doesn’t. It’s a story about how the internet stopped working for our customers, and how we fixed it. The internet is more of a wild frontier than we give it credit for being. Stray from the safe confines of your two-factor identification and trusted cookies, and it can be a bit of a wilderness out there, full of random trolls with the maliciousness—and, increasingly, the ability—to make your life pretty miserable for no other reason than because they can. Back in 2014, the method those trolls were using was distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. “Distributed” refers to a large nu...