Valve’s unprecedented generosity surprised its own player base

There may be a lot of free-to-play titles from Valve, Dota included, but GabeN has never been one to be loose-handed about in-game hats. There typically would be several events a year in Dota where players can participate for cosmetics, but those are often grindy and low in quality. The rest would be often put behind paid seasonal battle passes.

This year however, Valve is giving away quite a significant bag of gifts, without any prior notice:

• An arcana is the rarest cosmetics item in Dota, comes with custom animation and skill effects and typically goes for at least $29.99 on the official store.
• A Level 1 Battle Pass goes for $9.99
• 30 days of Dota Plus goes for $4.99

All of these are available to ALL players who have played 10 games or will play 10 games of Dota from now.

The free battle pass and arcana obviously delight everyone, but some are worried such generosity might be the herald of something bad coming to Dota.

If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is too good to be true, they say. While most players simply take the free stuff without much hesitation, some players attribute the too-good-to-be-true gifts to be compensations for possibly the worst-produced International in history, an increasingly money-grabbing Battle Pass.

It could simply just be a quick boost to Dota player numbers, which has broken 800,000 daily concurrent since the news broke. The free battle pass also contains Part 2, coming after the conclusion of TI 11 and comes with a Halloween Diretide game mode/event.

Popular Dota personalities with insider info like SUNSfan have been disclosing that there will be a lot of bad news coming in the future for the Dota player base, after long time Dota production studio BTS lost a bid to host an NA Dota Pro Circuit (DPC). SUNSfan was not authorized to disclose anything further, and only commented that it’s bad, really bad news. So, the free Battle Pass and all could be to bribe and placate the player base before Valve drops the bomb.

I’ve been enough of a party pooper already, so I’ll just stop there. For now let’s just enjoy the rare boon and celebrate!

Riot has also given players compensation for what was perceived to be an underwhelming Worlds Event pass

One of the first Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) titles alongside League of Legends and Dota 2, Heroes of Newerth breathed its last on June 20th. HoN’s developers Frostburn studios made a farewell post on the game’s subreddit succinctly titled ‘That’s all folks’

The end of an era

Originally of the ‘Big Three’ of Moba, there was a time when the underdog HoN looked to be able to stand on its own against the likes of Dota and LoL backed by giant studios and companies. From its release on May 12th 2010 till 2015, it certainly did, but the wind started to blow the other way when HoN pros started leaving for the greener pastures in Dota or League, where The International and World’s Championship promised a life-changing opportunity. Its player base followed suit.

With Riot and Valve constantly churning out millions in prize pools, regular big updates and events and the creations of countless other mobas and more recently mobile games, it was honestly impressive that Heroes of Newerth lasted this long. The rivalry and competition it brought has definitely contributed to the improvement of League of Legends.

If you’re a former HoN player looking for a new home, League of Legends welcomes you with open arms. It’s never a better time to get into the game as the Star Guardian 2022 summer event kicks off July 14th.

Welcome to the Liquid Family, @asabfb

We’re happy to have you on board, and look forward to seeing what you accomplish next.

(also if we ever need a sub for dota or smash, you’re getting a call) pic.twitter.com/71GxG6I7TY

— Team Liquid (@TeamLiquid) October 7, 2020

Team Liquid shared on Twitter: “We’re happy to have you on board, and look forward to seeing what you accomplish next. (also if we ever need a sub for Dota or Smash, you’re getting a call)“

Asa Butterfield couldn’t hold back his joy when he was able to join Team Liquid: “Kind of unreal, I remember finding all the Starcraft2 streams on liquipedia back in the day, they were the first esports team even I knew of. Thanks for bringing me in gang. Let’s do some coooool ****“

YOOOOO??!
Kind of unreal, I remember finding all the Starcraft2 streams on liquipedia back in the day, they were the first esports team even I knew of.
Thanks for bringing me in gang 🙏🏼 let’s do some coooool shit 👀 https://t.co/g16QgHFPOh

— Asa Butterfield (@asabfb) October 7, 2020

Currently, Team Liquid has no announcement of Asa’s position in the roster. But last year, the 1997-born actor competed in a Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournament. In December 2019, Asa also shared some of his activities in Dota 2 and Super Smash Bros:

7 years of Dota – “take me back to the good old days” pic.twitter.com/RTtsLefWqj

— Asa Butterfield (@asabfb) December 9, 2019

Because you asked. pic.twitter.com/u8IbTNMPzh

— Asa Butterfield (@asabfb) January 5, 2020

This is very rare for an actor to join an esports organization. Asa has been acting since he was 9 years old. He became a famous star after starring in a hot Netflix’s drama – Sex Education. Before that, he gained his reputation from “Ender’s Game (Ender Wiggin)” and “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (Jacob Portman)”.

Asa Butterfield used to stream on Twitch but only got 2,000 followers and no videos were recorded. Now, fans can see the handsome actor participating in more esports activities online.

League of Legends has continued to develop since its inception, being a counterweight to Dota 2 and is currently one of the MOBA games that hold the world’s most players. The League of Legends actually has a large pool of heroes with Yone debut – Yasuo’s brother is the 150th champion.

Nonetheless, none can believe that League of Legends generals are so various that they will “overflow” into the Dota 2 universe. This may sound unbelievable at first glance, but the modder team of Dota 2 has been active in investigating and improving the concept “League of Legends in Dota 2”. As a result, we had a unique “crossover” between those two “rival” games.

In a video released by YouTuber RossBoomsocks at the beginning of August 2020, he experienced Dota 2 with 10 League generals showing on the map. Overall, the game lasted more than an hour, but it all seemed to look really smooth, even though it was only a mod made by a gamer.

In the first stage of the champ select, 28 characters are divided into 3 separate categories including Strength, Agility and Intelligent with background images of Dota 2 heroes. Nevertheless, such were the names of the League of Legends generals such as Ashe, Jax, Annie, Nami, Tristan, Yuumi,… A slight bug seemed to appear on the champ-select screen, but everything seemed to be very smooth as soon as the match began.

During the game, the League characters figure and movement are designed in a perfect and precise way. Also, the detail is clearer replicated via the graphics application Source 2 platform. The hero effect skill outcome, though, was just basically reworked but not perfected and flawless. Some characters like Pyke are still visually incomplete but focus only on the Dota 2 hero Bounty Hunter.

The champions building items are entirely dependent on the items available in Dota 2. As can be seen, RossBoomsocks builds Blink Dagger, Refresher Orb, and Aghanim’s Scepter for Annie. All the hero’s skills interact quite smoothly with the item, and it doesn’t seem like there’s a game error here.

The League mod in Dota 2 is thus considered to have been quite successful so far. Perhaps if they have enough time and money to accommodate, they can carry all the League generals to Dota 2 and we’ll have a fantastic “crossover” between the two games as well.

As for League of Legends having reached the 150-hero milestone, there is an incredibly large number of abilities details that gamers need to bear in mind. In recent years, even a number of champions were reworked, making their experience no longer true. That is not to mention the minor adjustments in skill effects that Riot presents daily.

Volibear and Fiddlesticks are the two latest reworked champions, along with Dr. Mundo rework in the future

Furthermore, the pace at which Riot Games has launched skins in the last two years has been exceptionally high, with certain skins causing players to misinterpret generals and contributing to unpleasant circumstances. This requires League of Legends, not only to switch on/off the player names, but to show the hero names on the HP and energy bar. So how weird that this apparently important feature of League of Legends doesn’t exist, therefore, players are forced to speak up about it.

There should be an option in-game to display champion names instead of summoner names.

With Riot releasing more skins nowadays than ever before, there are going to be more and more cases of champion identity mixup for those who have similar skin lines/model and animation, which is essential information to pick up at a glance. There are some moments when I am expecting a Soraka but really it’s a Lux, and just yesterday I got hooked by a spirit blossom Thresh, when for some reason I thought it was Taric casting dazzle.

I could see these situations becoming more and more frequent and thought this could be an easy option to implement more clarity in for those who need. What use is the enemies summoner name anyway? If you really want it you can hover their icon when you press tab. Could also be helpful for newer players who get confused in hectic team fights!

Yeah it would definitely improve clarity and I don’t give a shit about other people’s summoner names anyways.

It’s a no-brainer IMO, that feature should have been implemented long ago.
It would also help new players learn the game.

I really mix Soraka and Lux with certain skins, it’s quite annoying.

Dawnbringer Soraka and Dark Star Lux looks almost same, same with Coven Camille and Leblanc.

DOTA also has this.

The colorful skins make players confuse champions among themselves

Riot Games has, as we can see in the last couple of years, released a number of shiny skins and reduced champion’s characteristics. They can sell well, but it is a real challenge for new players, finding it difficult to differentiate between the champions and what is happening in team combat. It is indeed time for Riot Games to add the hero names feature to League of Legends.

Meanwhile, DOTA2 has had this function for a long time ago