Dota 2 News

Twenty teams entered Group Stage weekend. And now, four intense days, four eliminations, 57 godlike sprees, six rampages, 104 heroes picked, and 100 total matches later, eight teams now sit in the upper bracket and eight in the lower, with mere hours before the real fight begins.

That’s right: It’s Playoffs time. If you're a ticket holder, doors open at the Seattle Convention Center’s Summit at 9 AM PDT on Friday, October 20th. The pre-show and livestream start at 9:30 AM PDT, with matches starting at 10 AM PDT.

If you missed Group Stage last weekend and want to get caught up on which team to root for, which teams to watch out for, and which team the other teams better watch out for over Playoffs weekend, here's a YouTube playlist featuring insights into the playoff contenders.

If you're a fan of supporting talent and/or spamming their voice lines in every match of Dota you play, we’ve got good news for you. Some talent missed the initial submission window, but luckily were able to get their content submitted during a new redundant backup emergency submission window we created just for them. This means there are some brand new bundles for talent that were missing from the initial set, and also some new lines for some existing talent.

And don’t think we forgot about one of The International’s most popular traditions: Crimson Witness. This year’s event-exclusive treasure includes updated Immortal items for Dark Seer, Underlord, Templar Assassin, Centaur Warrunner, Enchantress, Nature's Prophet, and Witch Doctor. You’ll automatically be granted one Treasure of the Crimson Witness simply by binding your Steam account to your pass for the Main Event at Climate Pledge Arena. By attending either Playoffs this weekend or The International next weekend, you’ll also have a chance to get a random Crimson Witness treasure drop whenever first blood is drawn in a match.

See you this weekend!

We've fixed a number of issues leading up and during the first day of Group Stage:

• Fixed Earth Spirit being stuck in Rolling Boulder if Centaur Warrunner casts Work Horse while Earth Spirit is transforming
  
• Fixed a bad interaction between Kunkka X Marks the Spot and Impale
  
• Fixed some cases where players were unable to watch matches via DotaTV
  
• Fixed cases where in-game predictions weren't working
  
• Fixed Bingo square progress not being visible on client
  
• Fixed visual artifacts on some talent photos and stickers
  
• Fixed an issue where Roshan could go walkabout again
  
• Fixed Centaur Hoof Stomp wind-up being dispellable
  
• Fixed Invoker not restoring his own mana from EMP
  
• Fixed an issue where Kunkka X Marks the Spot could fail to return a unit with very high Status Resistance
  
• Fixed Lone Druid Spirit Bear receiving experience when using Midas
  
• Fixed Marci Sidekick not displaying correctly on client
  
• Fixed a server crash when using Muerta Parting Shot on a hero that is leashed to Lone Druid Spirit Bear with Grimstroke Soulbind
  
• Fixed Techies Mines triggering for but not damaging flying units
  
• Added a filter option for saved sets in the Armory
  
• Fixed two rare client crashes with dropped items
  
• Fixed retrieval of neutral items from stash sometimes returning another player's item
  
• Changed a number of settings including "Use Extra Large Minimap", "Quick Attack", etc. to be saved in Steam Cloud
  
• Fixed being unable to assign neutral slot and TP quickcast when using Advanced Quickcast Hotkeys
  
• Fixed "Dynamically Scale Hero Icons" option causing icons to flicker in size
  
• Fixed an issue where hero icons on the minimap could jitter
  
• Fixed various Predictions and Fantasy issues
  

The Road to The International is literally right around the metaphorical corner, and that means a lot of cool and exciting stuff is revving to life. There are more ways than ever to enjoy the matches, meet new people, and show off your fandom, so we've put it all together in a single post so you don't miss out on any of the fun.


The start of Group Stage will be, let's be honest, barely controlled Dota chaos, with five simultaneous streams during the opening two days of Group Stage weekend to seed the tournament. But, starting this year, by this Saturday we'll be down to a single stream — which should make the back half of Group Stage weekend a lot easier to watch online.

And if you're planning to watch online, we've got options for you. From Twitch to YouTube to SteamTV, The Road to the International and The International will be streamed on multiple platforms in multiple languages, making it easier than ever to follow the journeys of all your favorite teams as they vie for the Aegis of Champions.

English Twitch | YouTube | SteamTV Stream A Stream B Stream C Stream D Stream E Chinese Twitch | Bilibili | SteamTV Stream A Stream B Stream C Stream D Stream E Russian Twitch | YouTube | SteamTV Stream A Stream B Stream C Stream D Stream E Stream F Spanish Twitch | YouTube | Facebook | SteamTV Stream A Stream B Stream C Stream D Stream E

Not seeing your language represented? Don't worry! While the above links represent the official broadcasts, we understand Dota is played by folks everywhere around the world, and we've also handed out 15 broadcast licenses for other languages, so check in with your local communities to find out the best way to get online and watch.

Lastly, everyone in the Dota community is of course welcome to join in on the streaming fun if you're able and interested. We only ask that you follow our community streaming guidelines.


From bars, LAN cafes, movie theaters and even private homes, there's gonna be plenty of opportunities to get in on a "pubstomp" viewing party starting with the Playoffs weekend and throughout The International itself. We're even planning to include viewing party footage live during the final weekend of the event, so if you want to connect with other fans, experience amazing matches in a fun group atmosphere, and be momentarily famous, the time to sign up is now.

If you're feeling ambitious and want to throw your own viewing party, here's a list of organizer guides from Barcraft on how to host an event:

• English - Viewing Party Organizer's Guide
• Spanish - Guía para organizadores de fiestas de visualización
• Russian - Руководство для организаторов Пабстомпов
• Polish - Przewodnik Organizatora Pubstompów
• Portuguese - Guia do Organizador de festas de exibição

The International 2023 Secret Shop has a little something for everybody interested in showing off their TI fandom. Looking to measure your mouse movement more accurately? We've got mousepads. Feeling cold and thirsty? We've got hoodies and tumblers. In the market for some mousepads, hoodies and tumblers but not sure how to carry it all around? Unfortunately, science has yet to invent a method of — no, just kidding. We've even got tote bags. Check out the shop here.

The Road to The International's Group Stage weekend officially starts this Thursday at 10am PST. Players have been arriving in Seattle all week, preparing themselves for what promises to be an exciting — and with Group Stage eliminations now on the table, especially tense — round of match-ups.

In this year's Group Stage format, four groups of five teams will play round-robin games over two days, with the bottom team in each group getting eliminated. Then, the second half of Group Stage begins, with head-to-head matches between the remaining 16 teams. Victory in these final matches determine placement for Playoffs weekend: The winning teams will enter Playoffs in the Upper Bracket, the losing teams in the Lower Bracket.

Here are this year's groups:

This year’s talent has officially been announced. Where? In the “Talent” tab of the Compendium.

Are you back? Great. We’re assuming you went and stared at the portraits for a while and eventually thought to yourself “Staring is great, but I wish there were even more I could do to support the talent.” Well, here’s more good news: Talent sticker bundles are now available with 50% of the proceeds going directly to the talent.

There are 4 types of bundles (which sounds complicated, but really isn’t when you take the extra effort to break it all down into bullet points):

• Standard Bundle: Standard Sticker = $0.99
  
• Glitter Bundle: Glitter Sticker + Voiceline = $4.99
  
• Holo Bundle: Holo Sticker + Voiceline + Autograph Rune = $9.99
  
• Gold Bundle: Gold Sticker + Voiceline + Autograph Rune + Voiceline 2 = $19.99
  

In the past, one complicating factor would be figuring out when the voice lines would go away. The answer this year is simple: Never. Voice lines are now permanent, making them quite possibly the only thing in this fragile, fleeting life that lasts forever.