Dota 2 News

New lawsuit wants Valve to repay "billions" earned from "illegal gambling" lootboxes in Counter-Strike, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2

Tis the season for taking Steam to court, apparently. A new class action lawsuit has been filed in Washington, USA accusing Valve of running an unlawful gambling operation through lootbox mechanics in Counter-Strike 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2.

A lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Valve of "illegally promoting gambling through videogames popular with children and teenagers." The developer behind Steam has long featured loot boxes in games including Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2, which offer a selection of typically cosmetic rewards that use a random roll to determine the prize awarded from a list when they are opened. The Office of the Attorney General alleges, "Valve has made billions of dollars luring its users, many of whom are teenagers or younger, to engage in gambling in the hopes of winning expensive virtual items that they can cash in on."

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Valve accused of "letting children and adults alike illegally gamble" via loot boxes in New York state lawsuit

Valve's Lionel Hutzes have been summoned to slide down the fireman's pole and deal with yet more legal wranglings involving the behemoth behind Steam. New York state attorney general Letitia James has filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly violating gambling laws via the use of loot boxes in games like Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2.

Every year, dedicated Dota players around the globe join together and train relentlessly with a single goal in mind: to battle through the highest levels of opposition and emerge victorious as the last squad standing. These resolute competitors must find a way to intertwine the strands of talent, dreams, and sacrifice into one immortal design, knowing every challenge, every choice, every risk pulls the pattern tighter, and every mistake they make threatens to tear it all apart.

The final threads of this year's competitive season will cross in China, as the 15th Anniversary of The International welcomes the best Dota teams in the world to face off for the Aegis of Champions on August 20-23 at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai.

The sixteen teams contending for the Aegis will consist of rosters that earn direct invites and those that arise from the Open Qualifiers (June 9-12) and the Regional Qualifiers (June 15-28). Once the action moves to Shanghai, the teams must fight through a Swiss-style Group Stage (August 13-16) to secure one of eight slots at the main event.

Make sure to check back for more information on ticketing as we approach the showdown in Shanghai. For now, there's already a ton of pro Dota heating up the calendar, and it will only get more intense as we weave further into the year. Tune in as teams battle across all regions to prove they deserve a chance to stand amongst the world's finest on Dota's biggest stage.

Dota 2 Update - 1/30/2026

[p]Over the past few days we've addressed the following issues:[/p]

[p]Fixed a bug where Clinkz's Skeleton Archers were doing more than the intended amount of damage to buildings.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where Slark's Depth Shroud was not applying the intended move speed and health regen to allies.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where Spectre's Shadow Step had an interaction with attack range extension items, which was leading to a longer than intended duration.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where Muerta's Gunslinger bonus damage talent did not scale when applied to illusions, leading to more damage than intended.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where Turbo games would sometimes deduct 2 gold on ban phase completion.[/p]
[p]Fixed Largo's Croak of Genius damage proccing other abilities (Batrider's Sticky Napalm, Searing Signet, etc.)[/p]
[p]Fixed a performance issue with network encoding which substantially reduces the number of 'server hitch' frames.[/p]
[p]Restructured how cosmetic items interact with Dota network traffic: Most cosmetic items now take zero network bandwidth after game start, improving both client and server performance.[/p]
[p]Fixed a bug where cosmetic items were being created every time a hero spawned, gradually reducing performance.[/p]
[p]Items equipped in only ability effects slots no longer appear as if equipped on the hero in post-game or MVP screens.[/p]