Dota 2 Codexery

The Scourge

The original Defense of the Ancients faction that Dota 2 replaced with the Dire.

Dota 2 is a competitive action role-playing game where two teams of five players each try to destroy the opposing team's central structure called the "Ancient"[1] The game features over 100 unique heroes, each with different abilities and traits that can help teammates or harm opponents.[1]

What the cited sources add

The Polygon guide describes Dota 2 as an extremely complicated game where jumping into a stream is like jumping into the deep end of a pool with a half-inflated flotation device.[1] The same source notes that Dota 2 takes place on the same map every game, and the map has a time of day that affects how far heroes can see.[1] The ESPN article explains that Dota 2 provides players the option to deny a kill by attacking their own creep, which is one way the game separates itself from League of Legends.[2] The Ars Technica article notes that Dota 2, unlike some free-to-play games, does not afford any material advantage to those that spend money.[3]

According to the PC Gamer comparison, Dota 2 is much more punishing than other games because of how its gold system works.[4]

Key facts and facts and history

The Dota series began in 2003 with Defense of the Ancients, a mod for Warcraft III created by the designer "Eul"[5] Dota 2 was made available to the public at Gamescom in 2011, coinciding with the inaugural International championship.[6] The name "Dota" was chosen by Valve for the franchise they had just acquired, taking it from the acronym of the original mod.[7] In the mod, the opposing sides were called the Sentinel and the Scourge; for Dota 2, these were changed to the Radiant and the Dire.[8]

Eul was brought on as a hire by Valve, and they also made contracts with several key figures from the Defense of the Ancients community to help create the sequel.[9] After a beta period lasting almost two years, Dota 2 officially launched on Steam for Windows on July 9, 2013.[10] A seasonal matchmaking system based on Elo ratings is used in the game, with a player's skill tracked by a number called "matchmaking rating".[11]

References

  1. Gies, "The Normal Person's Guide to Watching Competitive Dota 2 (2017 Edition)", Polygon, August 2, 2017. facts only, no text reused. polygon.com
  2. Bartel, "The unique strategy of Dota 2", ESPN, January 14, 2016. facts only, no text reused. espn.com
  3. Bright, "Valve can't pass buck to third parties for teaching CS:GO kids to gamble", Ars Technica, July 12, 2016. facts only, no text reused. arstechnica.com
  4. Kim, "A comprehensive comparison of Dota 2 and League of Legends", PC Gamer, July 9, 2013. facts only, no text reused. pcgamer.com
  5. Wikipedia, "Dota 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tok, "Defense of the Ancients 101", GotFrag, January 25, 2006 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Dota 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Onyett, "Gamescom: When Do We Get to Play Dota 2?", IGN, August 17, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Dota 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Onyett, "Valve's Next Game", IGN, January 8, 2011; Funk, "Valve Files Trademark for ... DotA?", October 13, 2010; Yin-Poole, "Dota trademark: Blizzard, Valve respond", Eurogamer, August 22, 2011; Augustine, "Riot Games' dev counter-files "DotA" trademark", August 17, 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Dota 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Biessener, "Valve's New Game Announced, Detailed: Dota 2", October 13, 2010 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Dota 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Onyett, "Valve's Next Game", IGN, January 8, 2011; Dagostino, "DOTA 2: How Valve Turned From Fanboys Into Developers For This Game", 1UP.com, August 31, 2011; IceFrog, "Dota 2 Q&A", Dota 2 Official Blog, November 1, 2010; Napolitano, "Composer Jason Hayes joins audio team at Valve", Destructoid, August 23, 2011; "Dota 2 recording session"; "Interview: Marc Laidlaw, writer of Half-Life and DOTA2", showmethegames.com; England, "Interview With Marc Laidlaw: The Writer Of Half-Life", New Rising Media, November 23, 2012; "Dota 2", Valve, July 9, 2013 en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Dota 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hernandez, "Valve Finally "Releases" DOTA 2", Kotaku, July 9, 2013; McDonald, "Dota 2 patch adds Linux and Mac support, plus customisable chat wheel", incgamers.com, July 19, 2013; Sliwinski, "Dota 2 launching now, officially", Joystiq, July 10, 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Dota 2" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Çakır, "Dota 2 MMR and ranking system explained", Dot Esports, December 15, 2021; "Matchmaking", Dota 2; "Transitioning Into Launch Mode", Dota 2; "Matchmaking Update", Dota 2 Blog, August 6, 2019; "Matchmaking", Dota 2; "Matchmaking", Dota 2; Bratt, "Dota 2 players must now register a phone number to play ranked matches", Eurogamer, April 21, 2017; Rose, "Dota 2's Dueling Fates patch notes forecast avalanche of massive changes", The Flying Courier, October 30, 2017; Stewart, "Dota 2: The Dueling Fates Patch Notes Released", IGN, October 30, 201 en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Dota 2 (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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