Dota

Lore & Background

The world of Dota is a fractured realm where two ancient forces—the Radiant and the Dire—wage an eternal war. Each hero is a fragment of these primordial powers, bound to the conflict by fate or ambition. The Ancients themselves are sentient, crystalline entities that grant immense power to those who serve them, but at a terrible cost.

Reader's Guide

The Dota series is significant for catalyzing the action real-time strategy (ARTS) genre, establishing gameplay mechanics that defined later titles and inspiring developers to create similar games. The original DotA map is considered one of the most popular custom maps of all time, with tens of millions of players and a consistent presence at esports tournaments in the 2000s. Dota 2 is cited as one of the greatest video games of all time and is the most lucrative esports game, with record-breaking prize pools culminating in the annual championship The International. The spin-off games by Valve have been positively received, though Artifact was considered a failure, losing 95% of its player base within two months and having fewer than 100 concurrent players by mid-2019, with Valve stopping development shortly after release. The series' legacy includes influencing game design and establishing a major esports ecosystem.

Did You Know?

• The final missing hero from the original DotA, Winter Wyvern, was added in February 2015, while the first original hero, Arc Warden, joined the roster in December 2015.
• Dota 2's original hero designs were created by IceFrog, the lead designer of the original DotA mod.
• The game's 'Techies' hero was the last to be ported from the original mod, arriving in September 2014, not 2016.