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Alliance wins The International 2013 Dota 2 tournament, earns over $1.4 million
The winner of The International 2013 Dota 2 Championship is Alliance, a group of five players from Sweden. Alliance beat out team Natus Vincere in a five-game match to earn the title and win more than $1.4 million. The five-day event was held in Seattle, Washington this year, and had a prize pool of over $2.8 million. Natus Vincere won the tournament in 2011, the first year it was held during Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, and took home $1 million. Valve is offering replays of the event on the official Dota 2 site.
The International: A Primer on Dota 2 and the biggest single-game tournament in eSports history
Dota is a Big Deal. The original Defense of the Ancients, which was nothing more than a mod for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, became a core pillar of the competitive online gaming scene thanks to its tight balance and deep strategy. It was played by millions and showcased at tournaments across the globe. Dota is considered one of the primary influences on the now booming genre of games that we refer to as MOBAs; League of Legends is supposedly the biggest game in the world, but without Dota, it would have never existed. When Valve snagged the mod's developer, known as IceFrog, and charged him with making a sequel, expectations were high. Dota is a game celebrated for its intricate design, complex metagame, and robust character roster -- the pressure to improve on this formula without losing the basics was immense. It took over two years of somewhat closed beta testing to get everything right, and changes rolled out every week like Clockwerk. But that's all history. Dota 2 launched last month, finally. For better or worse, the game is considered complete (minus a few heroes). And what better way to celebrate the launch of a hotly anticipated title than by throwing one of the biggest tournaments in all of competitive gaming? Welcome to The International.
Dota 2 no longer in beta; Valve implements new player queue
Dota 2 has been in beta for around two years. In that time it became effectively the biggest game on Steam, with a monthly playerbase of over three million and a maximum concurrency of 300,000 players. There's even a $2 million tournament coming up in August centered on this game that's lived for so long behind somewhat closed doors. Every beta must end, of course, and Dota 2's is no different. Valve has announced that starting today, Dota 2 is officially out of beta and that all Steam users can now download the free-to-play game at their leisure. There's just one small catch: Thanks to what Valve is anticipating will be a sudden crush of new players, a launch queue has been established that will bring people to Dota 2 in controlled waves. To get into the launch queue, all you need to do is download Dota 2 on Steam. The first wave of new players should gain access to the game sometime this week. In the meantime, players can (and really, really should) play the game's single-player tutorial missions.
Dota 2 to launch before August 7, ahead of The International
Dota 2 is due to launch this summer in its full form throughout North America and Europe, Valve's VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi tells Gamespot. It will hit before this year's The International championship, which runs August 7 - 11 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Washington. This is the third installment of Dota 2's The International tournament, which offers a prize of $1 million for the Dota 2 team that proves it's the best in the world. Dota 2 entered beta in 2011, and nearly anyone can now purchase an early access key and start playing immediately. The early access key costs $30 and adds some downloadable goodies, though Dota 2 is a free-to-play game and it should live up to that descriptor when it goes live sometime before August.
Dota 2 introduces 'Interactive Compendium' tournament companion
Valve has supplemented its upcoming "The International" Dota 2 tournament with a new virtual book, the "International 2013 Interactive Compendium." Available for $10 on the official Dota 2 shop, the Interactive Compendium will deliver news on the tournament and allow players to vote on tournament-related matters, such as post-tournament competitor awards. The Interactive Compendium also unlocks "special virtual item drops throughout the tournament," according to Valve, in addition to matchmaking tournament-minded players and letting folks make predictions on tournament match outcomes. Once the August 7 event has come to a close, players will be able to read each other's Compendiums to see how accurate those predictions ended up being.
