Dota 2 News

The International is a celebration of Dota and the global community of players and fans who support it, providing a chance for everyone to come together and see it played at the highest possible level by the best teams in the world.

While the heart of The International is the community — everyone who makes a short film or a cosplay outfit or a T-shirt design, everyone who yells from the audience (or their couch) to cheer on their favorite team or hero — the matches they gather to watch are its core: When play begins, the focus is on the game itself and the players battling for victory.

Over the years, we've built a number of features into Dota to help celebrate these teams and players; unfortunately during that time we've seen those features increasingly being used not to showcase team or player identity, but rather to host advertisements. This year, to remove distracting elements and allow full focus on the game and the people playing it, we aren't going to have advertisements and sponsorships in-game at The International, including in team banners, base logos, and tags in player names.

We're only a few short weeks away from opening the curtain on this year's tournament. Whether you're meeting up in Denmark, or watching online, we'll see you soon.

The International doesn't just draw near. Like a supernatural clockwork carnival barker out in a dark forest, it beckons. We're two weeks away from the first games of The International Group Stage, and if you're a fan of professional esports, it's time to get excited. Floor tickets for all three days are sold out, but some arena seats are still available. Whether you've already bought your tickets or you're holding out until the last possible minute, we look forward to seeing you at Copenhagen's Royal Arena in September.

As our annual lead-up to the big event, we've just released this year's International Compendium. We even called in a favor with our newest old friend, who graciously volunteered to walk everyone through it. For those of you new to The International, the Compendium is a collection of activities and rewards focused on the players, teams, and matches in this year's tournament. Out-predict, out-fantasy, and out-bingo your friends while you watch — all while earning TI-themed rewards ranging from a new HUD to brand-new heroic effigies and a flashy new versus screen to show them off on.

Lastly, as you may have noticed by our clever introductory allusions, or by looking at the image above, or by clicking any of the links in this post, or by launching Dota before reading this, today's update also includes our newest hero: Cogliostro Kettle, The Ringmaster, has arrived. He's here, he's free, and he's available to all players right now.

But why introduce him further, when he's happy (believe us, more than happy) to introduce himself? Read on for his tragic backstory.

As I write this, Black Myth: Wukong, the action adventure from China’s Game Science studio, is the most played game on Steam by player count. There are currently 1,400,932 players in-game (with a peak of 1,443,570), surpassing the likes of Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, PUBG and all the usual games that occupy Steam’s top five.

Wukong’s launch was already predicted to be strong, with the game being Steam’s number one seller for several weeks, but the concurrent player figures are quite staggering for a single-player, offline game.

Read more

Patch 7.37b is out now. You can check out the patchnotes here.

Additionally, a few bugs were fixed over the last several days:

• Fixed Iron Talon being affected by spell amp and damage resistance
  
• Fixed Khanda working on illusions (now has the same behavior as Phylactery)
  
• Fixed true sight not working correctly with Bristleback's Seeing Red
  
• Fixed Crystal Maiden's Arcane Aura not having a range indicator for the 1200 proximity bonus
  
• Fixed Dark Willow being unable to be targeted by teammates while in Shadow Realm
  
• Fixed Doom's Devil's Bargain not working if he sells items via the Courier
  
• Fixed Drow Ranger's Sidestep being cancellable by issuing an attack order
  
• Fixed Earthshaker's Slugger applying the push to enemies that are alive in some rare circumstances
  
• Fixed a crash related to Enchantress' Little Friends and Tormentor
  
• Fixed Juggernaut's Level 10 Talent not applying Duelist Damage until Juggernaut dies
  
• Fixed a crash with Lone Druid when passing Neutral Items to the Spirit Bear
  
• Fixed Lone Druid's Gift Bearer rerolls not working correctly
  
• Fixed Mars' Spear of Mars sometimes failing to impale one of the targets if multiple are speared with Aghanim's Shard
  
• Fixed Medusa's Gorgon's Grasp damage being reduced by physical damage block
  
• Fixed Medusa's Gorgon's Grasp turn restriction piercing debuff immunity
  
• Fixed Morphling's Morph proccing Phylactery/Khanda on the actual hero when it is cast on an illusion
  
• Fixed Morphling's Morph proccing spell block on the actual hero when it is casted on an illusion
  
• Fixed Nyx Assassin's Mind Flare sometimes applying to multiple enemies if they are too close together, even without Level 25 Talent
  
• Fixed Pugna getting a spooky stacking buff that didn't do anything when killing an enemy with Life Drain
  
• Fixed Sniper's Take Aim self-buffs being dispellable by ally dispels
  
• Fixed Visage not gaining the damage bonus or armor reduction from Level 10/20 Talents along with the Familiars
  
• Fixed Visage's Gravekeeper's Cloak sometimes not gaining new stacks when Visage was no longer affected by Break
  
• Fixed Weaver leveling Geminate Attack after damaging enemies with a Shard upgraded Shukuchi proccing multiple attacks
  
• Fixed Windranger's Easy Breezy movement speed not working correctly when using Force Boots
  

Over the last few days we've addressed the following issues:

• Fixed a bug that sometimes caused input lag for a number of seconds
  
• Fixed auras not applying correctly if the match duration goes for too long (applies to multiple damage instances of Doom, etc.)
  
• Fixed cooldown reduction sometimes not working properly when decrementing by very small values (Staff of the Scion, etc.)
  
• Fixed melee damage block sometimes not blocking any damage
  
• Fixed Bloodstone's tooltip not showing the provided Mana Regeneration
  
• Fixed Ironwood Tree not being purchasable in demo mode
  
• Fixed Mirror Shield blocking spells while on cooldown when Lotus Orb is active.
  
• Fixed Unwavering Condition causing a crash
  
• Fixed Alchemist Unstable Concoction not being usable on Spirit Bear
  
• Fixed Bane's overlap of Nightmare and Fiend's Grip having a brief window where abilities without cast points were castable
  
• Fixed Beastmaster Drums of Slom not working correctly when Beastmaster illusions are present
  
• Fixed Bloodseeker's Bloodrush facet crediting Bloodseeker with erroneous assists
  
• Fixed Bristleback's Seeing Red facet causing the visual effect to stack indefinitely
  
• Fixed Clockwerk's Cog having an erroneous Leash tooltip
  
• Fixed Death Prophet exorcism targeting outposts
  
• Fixed Drow Ranger casting Glacier interrupting Multishot with the Sidestep facet
  
• Fixed Elder Titan's Tip the Scales effect not working on towers that were invulnerable due to the corresponding previous tier tower still being alive
  
• Fixed Elder Titan's Tip the Scales effect not working while Elder Titan was dead
  
• Fixed Ember Spirit not being able to level all talents
  
• Fixed Hoodwink's Acorn Shot not being reflectable from heroes with no projectile
  
• Fixed Jakiro's Liquid Frost occasionally dealing extra damage from Blood Grenade damage over time
  
• Fixed Kunkka's Ghostship not using the "Prize of the Saltworn Mariner" immortal effect when Kunkka has an Aghanim's Scepter
  
• Fixed Lifestealer's Ghoul Frenzy not being fully breakable
  
• Fixed Lina not being able to level all talents
  
• Fixed Leshrac's Diabolic Edict sometimes dealing less damage than expected
  
• Fixed Lone Druid able to receive more destruction gold from Philosopher's Stone
  
• Fixed Lone Druid's Spirit Bear values not matching the tooltip values
  
• Fixed Lone Druid's Demolish and Entangling Claws abilities not displaying their levels accurately
  
• Fixed Luna's Lunar Blessing tooltip sometimes causing a client crash
  
• Fixed Mars Dauntless working against (or with) Illusions
  
• Fixed Nature's Prophet Curse of the Oldgrowth damage over time being inconsistent with Ironwood Treants facet
  
• Fixed Nature Prophet's Spirit of the Forest tooltip not displaying the 5th level
  
• Fixed Ogre Magi multicasting 3x and 4x before getting the second and third level of the skill
  
• Fixed Omniknight's Repel missing Voice Responses
  
• Fixed Phantom Lancer's Illusory Armaments Innate giving infinite damage
  
• Fixed Phantom Lancer's Illusory Armaments Innate giving zero damage
  
• Fixed Razor's Dynamo sometimes granting the wrong amount of spell amplification
  
• Fixed Rubick not applying Death Rime damage when stealing Ancient Apparition's spells
  
• Fixed Rubick crash that occurred when a stolen Ghost Ship spell expired right before reaching its destination
  
• Fixed Sand King Stinger not being stealable
  
• Fixed Skywrath Mage level 15 talent not being updated to Concussive Shot slow
  
• Fixed Snapfire Lil' Shredder dealing less damage than intended with critical strikes
  
• Fixed Sniper's Headshot tooltip incorrectly stating that it works on allied creeps
  
• Fixed Spectre Reality sound being inaudible to the enemy if she teleports to a location hidden in fog of war
  
• Fixed Spirit Breaker's Planar Pocket spell redirection for abilities that sought new targets during redirection, causing unintended extra damage in the whole area
  
• Fixed Techies' Blast Off! Self Damage tooltip not reflecting the correct damage type
  
• Fixed Tiny's Toss not triggering Phylactery when the tossed target is the same as the primary target
  
• Fixed Troll Warlord's Berserker's Rage dealing damage to himself
  
• Fixed Venomancer Plague carrier not respecting Disable Help
  
• Fixed Visage's Lurker tooltip using the term 'Cooldown Reduction' instead of 'Cooldown Acceleration'