Dota 2 News

Summer is just around the corner and now that the Battle Report Update is live, we're setting our sights on future releases. To that end, the Dota team would like to invite all workshop contributors to whip up some new sets for any of your favorite heroes. We're already officially accepting new submissions, and we're very excited to see your full creativity on display.

Joining this round of submissions, we're happy to announce that Marci and Primal Beast will also soon be added to the workshop for you to throw into the mix.

We request that all submissions be on the Dota 2 Workshop by the end of the day on October 23rd, 2022 PDT. Please make sure to mark your work with the "Summer 2022" tag when tendering items to the Workshop to ensure they aren't overlooked. As always, please avoid concepts involving human skulls, blood, and gore. We'd like to remind all Dota fans to regularly visit the Workshop and vote through the Queue to ensure your voices are heard in the selection process.

Preparations are well underway for The International 2022, which will take place live in Singapore in October.

For the Playoffs (October 20-23) and Finals (October 29-30), We are now accepting proposals for companies who are interested in the Live Event Broadcast Production of The International 2022's Russian, Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Latin America) language broadcasts. The RFP (Request For Proposal) documentation can be found here, and the form for proposals can be found here. Please reach out to [email protected] with any additional questions regarding this process.

Requests for Broadcast Licenses are also available now for respondents of all languages not included in The International 2022's Primary Broadcast Languages (English, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish). Please use this form to submit a Broadcast License Request.

We thank everyone for their interest in working with us on The International 2022.

Today's update brings a host of new and improved features in addition to the seasonal Dota Plus refresh. Dive deep into your match performance with the Battle Report, enjoy a variety of different game modes with Weekend Spotlight, and customize your hero loadout even further with Unlocked Immortal Spell Effects. Then check out 8 all-new sets found in the Summer Seasonal Treasure. Or skip that stuff for now and start right away with the 7.31d Gameplay Update to learn about changes to your favorite heroes.

Head over to the full update website for all the details. Battle Reports are customized for each Dota Plus member, but the rest of the fun — like earning Shards and unlocking Relics and other rewards — is now available to everyone.


Vulkan Performance Improvements

This update also includes a significant performance improvement aimed at removing hitching when playing with the Vulkan renderer. Dota now supports the VK_EXT_graphics_pipeline_library extension which eliminates draw time hitching due to shader compilation. This feature is currently supported only in the NVIDIA Vulkan Beta driver available https://developer.nvidia.com/vulkan-driver, with future support expected in mainline drivers by NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel.

If you'd like to learn the finer details, you can read more at https://www.khronos.org/blog/reducing-draw-time-hitching-with-vk-ext-graphics-pipeline-library.


Upcoming Plans

Every year, fans gather from around the globe to watch the best players in the world compete for the Aegis of Champions at The International. As fans ourselves, we know that after the confetti finishes falling and the fireworks fade away, we want nothing more than to go and play more Dota — after all, why can't we play Magnus like Collapse, or every carry hero like Yatoro?

To capture this excitement from current and returning players, we're structuring the Battle Pass a little differently this year: we want to make the time right after The International concludes the best time to play Dota. To do this, we're going to adjust the timing of the Battle Pass release to be later in the year than in previous years — that way the Battle Pass will run both throughout the event, and for a significant amount of time afterwards.

At the Stockholm Major, we were pleased to unveil that The International will be hosted in Singapore, bringing the crowning event in esports to SEA for the first time. Featuring four consecutive weekends of Dota action, and a total of 30 teams from all over the world, this will be the largest Dota event to date.

In our constant efforts to make the event and its broadcast as exciting and accessible as possible, we’re experimenting with a slightly different schedule that includes more breaks and a greater build to Finals. Here’s how we’re structuring it this year for the biggest celebration of Dota 2 yet:

The Last Chance Qualifiers will run from October 8-12, followed by the Group Stage on October 15-18 — featuring 20 teams battling to make the Main Event. The qualifying teams will then battle through the Playoffs at SunTec Singapore October 20-23, where the field will narrow even further. The survivors will advance to the Finals at Singapore Indoor Stadium October 29-30 — where the Aegis of Champions will hang in the balance. Stay tuned for ticket information for the Playoffs at SunTec Singapore and the Finals at Singapore Indoor Stadium, each of which will be announced later.

Looking Forward

The Dota team is hard at work on the upcoming Dota Plus June update which includes not only the traditional seasonal refresh, but also several exciting new features and the 7.31d Gameplay Update. Because this update is a larger than normal, it's going to ship a bit later than normal on June 8th.