Dota 2 News

The Dota 2 Pro Circuit will "likely" resume in early 2021

Competitive Dota 2 pros and fans have been grumbling for the past months over Valve's silence about the Dota 2 Pro Circuit and its uncertain future. The DPC has finally broken that silence in a blog post that explains some of its rationale and provides a rough idea of what to expect in the pro scene moving forward.

In a post titled 'Update on Competitive Scene', the Dota team outlines the impact COVID-19 has had on planning this year's The International competition. It became clear in the spring, the team says, that The International would have to be delayed, but the hope was to hold the championship as soon as it was feasible.

Over the course of the summer, the team found that it was going to take longer than expected to be able to hold The International. Even without opening the event to an in-person crowd, the Dota Team says holding an in-person event for competitors was important to maintain, and with teams located all over the world, it could become impossible to travel to any specific location at a moment's notice as restrictions on international travel could be imposed unexpectedly at just about any time.

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Compass of the Rising Gale — Windranger Arcana

Not even Lyralei herself understood the true extent of her connection with the guardian wind. With no knowledge of her forebears, or memory of her first days, she could but listen for the truth in the whispers of sun-dappled trees around her, or the howling storms that keep even daylight at bay. But as she grew, and her strange connection with the guardian wind became ever stronger, an unease about her origins began to take hold. Unleash the power of the wind with the all-new Compass of the Rising Gale Arcana bundle, available now in The International 10 Battle Pass.

This Arcana bundle includes a new model and base items, new animations, a custom channel bar and Focus Fire damage counter, ambient wind effects for both styles, additions to base and Immortal effects for her abilities, new death effects for both Windranger and enemy heroes she takes down, and over 500 new Arcana-exclusive voice lines. Rack up damage on targets you kill using Focus Fire to unlock the Reflections of the Gale alternate style.

Learn more at the Compass of the Rising Gale update page.

Dota 2 Bot TI returning for its third run later this month

Beyond The Summit has revealed Bot TI is returning for its third run soon, to help smooth over the gap until TI10. The main tournament has been delayed until next year because of the pandemic and has already reached a record breaking $34 million prize pool.

The Bot TI plays out much like the regular TI tournament, which is the biggest event not only in the Dota 2 esports calendar, but one of the biggest esports tournaments full stop. The only difference is that the bot version of the tournament is played entirely by AI, and instead of the usual crowd funded, multi-million prize pool, there is no prize money. Bots don't need cash, after all.

"Bots can't get COVID so they are totally unaffected by the pandemic right now," BTS says in its announcement post on Reddit. "However, the Bots are wearing masks and social distancing as a sign of solidarity to their human Dota player brethren." The tournament will run September 23-27.

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This Dota 2 and League of Legends app translates between the two MOBAs

If you're a diehard Dota 2 player, or League of Legends aficionado, and have always wanted to check out your rival MOBA game, a handy calculator has been made to do just that.

Demoed on his YouTube channel, creator Tzar Potato runs through the mobile app. You can select champions and items, then input what your favourite or go-to is, and then the application will give you a list of recommendations that have a statistical match to your choice. The example in the video for champions is Dota 2's Batrider - Tzar selects Batrider, and is then given the League's most Batrider-like champion, Singed. The pair have fire trail and target stun, and both are in the same lane. Clicking into Singed - or any other champion - shows all the other characters they're matched with, opening the possibility to work through different champions on a similar wavelength to find what really makes you comfortable.

Next is the items, and Tzar shows the choices for Dota 2's Drum of Endurance. The top pick is LoL's Shurelya's Reverie, which is for spellcasters, but he wants something better for a tank, so goes for Dead Man's Plate instead. Buttons at the top let you switch between Dota 2 and LoL at any point, so you can also browse at your leisure. All the common terminology is included, and the layout is easy to understand in the video, if currently unpolished.

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The best Dota 2 heroes for beginners

What are the best Dota 2 heroes for beginners? Getting started in Dota 2 can seem like a bit of a daunting task. 119 heroes staring at you from the pick screen, arranged in all sorts of categories, grimacing at you unattractively. Learning the game is complex enough without having to narrow down your hero choices, so we've done all the hard work for you - we advise picking one of the following.

All of the heroes play a very specific role in battle. Some of them can be played in multiple roles, sometimes even within the same game. To do well at Dota 2 it is important to understand what these roles are and how they interact with each other. But it is equally as important to realise that a hero's role should inform how you play them and the items you purchase.

If you're finding these basics a touch confusing, don't worry: so did we when we started playing. But now we've learned the strategies behind a great team, we can provide you with advice to help you choose the right character, and understand their position in the five-player team.

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