DOTA Message Board

Russian chess grandmaster and former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is in Seoul to participate in a local sports fair. And since South Korea is the capital of eSports, it was inevitable for him to weigh in on League of Legends and StarCraft, which are essentially the number one rivals of chess.Read more...

IGN just announced its 10 Game of the Year nominees. Time to start the final discussions!

Valve works in mysterious ways. Last year, they held a big DOTA 2 event for Halloween, then didn't do it this year. People got angry. Last year, they didn't do anything for Christmas. This year, they are. Go figure!Read more...

MOBA games are super popular in China right now. Sure, they’re super popular everywhere, but they are particularly popular in China—that's why, when a netizen asked online what China does better than the US, the most popular answer was Defense of the Ancients.Read more...

Last month, we learned both that a GLaDOS announcer pack would come to Dota, and that we've all apparently been pronouncing 'Dota' wrong this entire time. And now we finally know when that update will launch: September 23rd.Read more...

A Three Kingdoms-based multiplayer online battle arena has long been over due. However, NetEase's attempt at creating a Three Kingdoms MOBA with Heroes of Kingdoms leaves much to be desired.Read more...

Hearing someone say your mother [verb] [noun] is pretty common in gaming, but this clip, of some in-person DOTA gloating, is on a whole other level.Read more...

There's going to be a lot of eSports action today: the Pokémon World Championships at 1 p.m. EDT, the International (Dota's largest tournament) resumes at 3 p.m., and the StarCraft World Championship Series (America region) at 4 p.m. (Europe region is already underway here). We'll be carrying livestreams of them all.Read more...

Stepping into a new game is a daunting task, particularly so if it's multiplayer. Usually, there's a ton to learn, and getting the basics down is often not enough to prepare you to go up against other actual players. DOTA 2, Valve's recently-launched multiplayer online battle arena game, is no exception.Read more...

Curious as to how much money professional gamers make? Business Insider lists the earnings of some of the top-paid pro gamers in the world—these folks can make up to six figures. Dang.Read more...

Like school graduations in the US, Chinese graduations also have commencement speeches; speeches where possibly famous or respected people give a"pep" talk of sorts to inspire the new grads. In one university in China, the commencement speaker took to a slightly different route with his speech, to urge new grads to stop playing video games. During this year's commencement at Wuhan's Huazhong University for Science and Technology in Hubei province, university president Li Peigen gave a commencement talk about growing up. In his speech, he told his 8000 graduates to "grow up and forget about school," and most importantly to lose the attitude that life is a "game". Below is a translated excerpt of Li's speech. *It's very hard to translate Chinese poetry in English with it's prose and imagery* When you leave these halls, you must say good bye to dorms that don't have air conditioning.Say goodbye to the unbelievably cheap canteen that didn't make one cent off of you.Sleeping in is very sweet,Playing DOTA is so very awesome,Cutting classes feels so fine.Choosing classes is a pain,But life continues on,You just have to say goodbye forever to this mentality that life is but a game. One of the students at the commencement captured Li's speech and posted it online. Tencent's own reporting of the video has garnered over 9 million views since the video surfaced this weekend. Li, a professor of engineering with a name that sounds like bacon in Chinese, has been giving poetic commencement speeches to college graduates for the last three years. Every year's topic has been different. This year's speech caught the eye of the general public in China not because Li called out Defence Of The Ancients but for his interesting way of speaking to his graduates. In video interviews with the graduating class of 2013, the students all seem very receptive of Li's speech for them to grow up and work hard. However no one's come out and said they'll follow Li's advice and stop playing DOTA. [华中科大校长毕业演讲：告别DOTA 告别啃老] Sina Kotaku East is your slice of Asian Internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am. Eric is Beijing based writer and all around FAT man. You can contact him @FatAsianTechie@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @FatAsianTechie.

Gaming network Starladder TV has handed out a number of serious punishments, including a lifetime ban, for a group of DOTA 2 player caught match-fixing for cash. It's alleged that Alexey 'Solo' Berezin, from the team roX.KIS, bet money on his own team losing a match, which they did in what's been described as a "suspiciously horrible performance". While the match had no bearing on a competition, the seriousness of the transgression has led to some serious punishments handed out by Starladder. Berezin has been banned from the network for life, three of his teammates have been banned for 3 years and the team itself barred from competing for 12 months. Before you go drawing too many paralells between this and match-fixing dramas in real sport, know that Berezin is alleged to have bet...$100. Making $322 off the loss. Update: roX.KIS issues statement [joindota] RoX.KIS с позором дисквалифицированы с SLTV [Starladder]

$2,019,002. That's the current prize pool for 2013's Dota 2 International tournament, which will be held this August in Seattle. It's a massive payout—the biggest single-event prize pool in the history of competitive gaming—and it's only possible because of crowdfunding. See, Valve is selling Interactive Compendiums for their big event; for $10 you get an interactive guide to the tournament, which Valve calls "the next best thing to being there," and $2.50 of your contribution goes to the prize pool. Dota 2, a multiplayer online battle arena game in which players pick heroes and fight in 5-on-5 team skirmishes for control of large battlefields, has become massively popular over the past two years—and it's not even out of beta yet. For more on the Dota 2 International, check out our coverage of last year's event.

It's "Sex Week" at the always-enjoyable Unwinnable, which means you can read all manner of articles about video games, comics, and sexy sextimes. Highlights include an enjoyable essay about how Dota 2 is like doin' it, and an interactive dating sim that will "sear your eyes and break your heart."

#dota My apartment is a mess, my many online game accounts are in terrible disarray and need attention, but with two jobs and a dog, I really don't have time to do everything I should. However, according to a post on Sina Weibo, a Chinese IT company is offering a service that can change all that; a house-call maid service. More »

#scandal Professional gamers in China are treated pretty much the same way professional gamers are treated in other parts of Asia; with a certain deference. With the social position comes being a celebrity, and with that celebrity status it makes sense that something as personal as a romantic affair can blow up into something huge, even when it might just be a hoax. More »

#china Defense of the Ancients, aka DOTA, champion Wei Shanchuan (卫山川) doesn't have many regrets regarding his professional gaming career. Why should he? He's fairly young and he's won many national tournaments in China. So when he was approached by a reporter for a profile piece on his life as a gamer he was eager to give the goods. Unfortunately for Wei, the story took a turn for the worse. More »

#china Anniversaries are often important days, particularly those that involve relationships. One gamer in China's northeastern city of Changchun chose to play DOTA instead of celebrating his anniversary with his girlfriend. Good things did not happen. More »

I’ve always thought “Ares” feels a bit of a softie name for a god of war. It’s the sort of name you could give to washing powder. “Ares – fights for the whites.” But the free-to-play SMITE, from Hi-Rez, assures that he’s a melee magical tank.

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#dota2 Unlike some of its other series, Valve isn't going for massmarket appeal with its official DOTA 2 merchandise. Instead, it's teamed up with special effects house WETA for a range of statues and replicas that is very fancy. More »

Battle Arenas is a series in which Cara looks at Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games, and tries to answer why they might have become so popular. She used to play DOTA. A lot. Like, from back in 2003 when it was first released (she is old). Now DOTA clones are everywhere! THEY MUST BE EXAMINED. But first: a little musing on the intricacies of DOTA, the first, the best.(more…)

Well, that was close. When last we checked in on Blizzard and Valve’s legal frontlines, the two were arming up for all-out war over the DOTA name. Blizzard was adamant that it owned the “Ancients” part of “Defense of the Ancients,” and therefore, Valve had no right to trademark “DOTA” for use in DOTA 2. Happily, however, neither side will be drafting up a legal defense (of the Ancients), as the PC gaming empires have called off their cold war. Hands have been shaken and babies kissed. So then, let’s have a look at the terms.

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#esports The International Dota 2 Championships will be held during this year's Penny Arcade Expo, Aug 31 to Sept. 2, the organizer and Dota 2 publisher Valve just announced. More »

#minecraft Sick of waiting for the final version of Valve's upcoming Dota 2? You can play a totally unique version of the popular strategy game in this ridiculously detailed Minecraft map, inspired by League of Legends and chock full of towers, upgrades, shops, and other goodies. More »

Well now, this is quite the thing. In its never-ending march to assimilate all the games, Minecraft has turned its gaping, block-toothed maw on DOTA. The resulting map (no mods required, amazingly) has it all: towers to defend, a colorful assortment of creep(er)s, and the single most overblown trailer soundtrack you’ll ever hear. The mere act of its war drums caressing my ear drums transformed my arms into swords and my legs into chain flails. I really wish it would’ve been the other way around, as I’m now functionally immobile. Anyway, you’ll find the absurdly impressive trailer after the break. Fair warning: side effects may include feelings of general inadequacy and the inability to ever touch the things you love again.

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#china It could be a complete fabrication. Or it could be a true story. Regardless, a love story is making the rounds online in China. It's not just any love story. It deals with addiction, DotA, and one decisive match. More »

I was thinking the Blizzard/Valve cold war over DOTA had gone tellingly quiet of late. Here’s why – because it’s gone to the courts. Valve are, of course, gearing up to release Dota 2 as a standalone game of their own, but DOTA – or Defense of the Ancients as it was originally known – sprang to life as a Warcraft III mod. Valve were already facing a trademark-off with some of DOTA’s original team, but now, after some passive aggression in the media, Blizzard have stepped fully into the fray. They have lawyers. And they want the DOTA trademark for themselves.(more…)

Blizzard DOTA was back on the floor of BlizzCon 2011 last week, after spending a year away from the spotlight being "completely rebooted." We played the game as soon as we possibly could, finding it to be a much more polished take on the popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) gametype.

"Last year we had basically the style of the art, and the look that we were going for," says Samwise Didier, Blizzard's Senior Art Director. But as I said when I played the early version of the mod, the game itself wasn't quite as polished as the look and feel. "This year," says Didier, "we really focused on taking the DOTA-style game and really making it our own."

Blizzard has done a few interesting things to the gametype that has made League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth so popular. But the most interesting may just be how the company plans to release it. Blizzard is going to make sure everyone has a chance to check it out, even if they don't own StarCraft 2. "We haven't figured out the details," says Didier. "But there will be a free-to-play Blizzard DOTA on our Blizzard Arcade. We don't know how many heroes there will be, or how many maps, but we definitely want to make sure that everyone knows it will be free-to-play."

Our hearts beat with a combination of blood, Big Macs and Dr. Pepper. StarCraft 2's heart beats with millions of ruthless, juicy aliens, and as the above BlizzCon teaser shows, Sarah Kerrigan's heart doesn't beat at all. We're not saying she's heartless, but to be a strong female lead these days, not giving a crap about anything except revenge is sometimes necessary. Being a cyborg and making that distinction truly literal is just a bonus for game journos everywhere.

A teaser for the Blizzard DOTA mod for StarCraft 2 channels a markedly different emotion than vengeance -- watch the video and decide for yourself what emotion that may be, but for now we're going to call it "Valvey scorn."

#dota Valve opened a photo-submission contest offering beta keys for DotA 2 and asking fans to show just how much they want one. The contest guidelines included the requirement that images be larger than 600 by 400 pixels. Think a billboard will do? More »