Yesterday, July 9, marked seven years since Dota 2’s official release, after spending years in beta. What changed since then though?
Many Dota 2 fans were excited about July 9, as they hoped Valve had a surprise for the 7-year-anniversary of the game. Well, they didn’t and now the only thing we can offer you is this article. Also, Valve, should take notes from Riot Games.
So where do we even start? Let’s take a trip back to 2013. Alliance won The International 2013 by defeating Natus Vincere in the grand finals. Those were the days.
The heroes
As you can imagine, the pool of heroes in 2013 was a bit more limited. Not a whole lot of characters were missing though. Compared to today’s pool of 119, there were only 101 back then. The 18which were added for the next 7 years (in order of release dates) are:
- Abaddon
- Ember Spirit
- Earth Spirit
- Legion Commander
- Phoenix
- Terrorblade
- Techies
- Oracle
- Winter Wyvern
- Arc Warden
- Underlord
- Monkey King
- Dark Willow
- Pangolier
- Grimstroke
- Mars
- Snaprfire
- Void Spirit
By 2016 all of the heroes once part of Dota Allstars were successfully imported into Dota 2. Monkey King marked a new era of heroes never seen before and we’ll probably get at least one new addition in 2020. Mars, Snapfire, and Void Spirit were all released in 2019.
Guilds
Back in 2013, guilds existed and most of the community loved them.
A guild is an organization of players that can chat and form parties together. Guilds can be created and accessed in-game from the Community tab. A player may be in up to four guilds at once.
With the introduction of Dota 2 Reborn, Guilds were removed from the game. Now in 2020, we see them back for the first time in 5 years and the question is – will they be limited only to the Battle Pass? We certainly hope guilds will be here to stay even if you won’t be able to grind levels with them.
The esports scene
2013 was a good year for the Dota 2 competitive scene as the game was booming in popularity. The International 3 had $2,874,380 in prize money which was an insane amount back then. There were also numerous tournaments, but it wasn’t until 2015 that the Major system was introduced.
In 2020 things are about to shift back. Valve are planning to ditch the Minor and Major system and instead switch to regional leagues. This will allow players even from Tier 2 teams to make a career and easily sustain themselves. You could say Dota 2 will soon be a lot closer to what we see in traditional sports. The new leagues were to be implemented with the new season which is usually revealed in the fall. Due to the coronavirus situation, it’s unclear if that’ll happen precisely then. After all even the date of The International 10 is still uncertain but that didn’t stop the huge leap in its prize pool which is now over $28,000,000.
Tutorial
Ah the Dota 2 tutorial, our favorite topic. The good news is, Dota 2 had a tutorial back in 2013. Even Purge played it.
The bad news is, not a lot has changed since then. We take a look at the current tutorial and notice that Sniper and Dragon Knight are still there. Luna and Shadow Shaman were added too as well as a multiplayer match to test your metal.
There’s also the peculiar “Training” option where you’ll only find the “Last Hit Trainer”. There are still four slots open, so maybe one of those days we’ll see them filled with something.
It has been over 7 years Valve, maybe it's time for a decent tutorial.
Ironically if you look at the properties of the Dota 2 client, the game is still technically in beta.
7 years today since Dota 2 came out of beta. #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/AEjJ4SOklu
— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) July 9, 2020
That’s about it for our comparison. Did we miss something? Feel free to tell us on our Facebook page. Valve truly gave us the most metal gift of all, but hey who knows, maybe GabeN has a late surprise. Maybe some actual content for the Battle Pass?
Stay tuned for more Dota 2 news and make sure to check out EarlyGame as well as our Youtube channel for more content.
