DotA 2 Announced!

So, here's the Valve Dota for all of us :)

Taken from Game Informer...

The rumors and speculation can cease. Valve is making Dota 2, we've played it, and it's already amazing even though it's not coming out until next year. And we haven't yet laid eyes on Dota 2's biggest innovation: a radical approach to integrating the game's community back into the gameplay itself. (Complete Article)

Check out the awesome pictures of the heroes!

Get hold of the complete article here

Copycats of DotA, YOU'RE GOING DOWN! MWAHAHAHAHAHHA!

(Am I too excited!?!) :DDD

Replay 76: WDC Qualifier: EHome vs LGD.sgty

1.24b / 6.68c

(Warcraft Version Switcher)

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Game Played: 10-Oct-2010

Game Length: 109:55 min

When the top two teams of the world play against each other, epicness is bound to happen and so I post this replay without even watching it. :D I'm unsure how much time will it take to analyze a 100+ min replay so I'll postpone posting the analysis as of now. :D Meanwhile, enjoy the game and do not forget to change your Warcraft Patch to 1.24b for watching this replay. Warcraft Version Switcher

You can enjoy Luminous' video commentary on this game at Dota Commentaries.

Replay 75: ADC IV: Aeon.Mufc vs LGD.sgty G1

1.24e / 6.68c

(Warcraft Version Switcher)

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Game Played: 3-Oct-2010

Game Length: 23:14 min

Thanks to farizganteng for linking me to this great game. This was a short game but as you’ll see, we get to learn a lot of tactics watching it.

Hard Carry Malaysians vs The Pusher Chinese

The Picks

This game, Aeon was clearly after the farm-2-win strategy with three hard-carries Traxex, Broodmother and Raijin. On the other hand, the first three picks by LGD were the general good heroes while the last two (Rexxar & Chen) focused on pushing as LGD realised that late game could bring them troubles. [One should notice 4 out of 5 Aeon bans consisted of pushers. :P ]

The Lanes

Aeon’s Laning Plan

- Storm is the most popular solo-mid out of the three carries and therefore the mid solo.

- Broodmother has a nice escape mechanism in the form of Web which means less chance to get killed in a gank therefore the most gank-prone (for Scourge) bot lane.

- The rest three, Traxex, Ryali and Tide get the top lane.

Tactic #1

When playing Broodmother, rush to your lane at game start and build a web as soon as possible because the cooldown for Web is high and you’ll need at least two webs to stay invisible throughout the length of your lane.

Replay 74: WDC Qualifier: XctN vs XtC

1.24e / 6.68c

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Game Played: 2-Oct-2010

Game Length: 65:39 min

Hi Dotaters! Before I go on with the game analysis, I would like to make a request to you all. Just give me a tip in the "Shoutout" Box in right sidebar whenever you watch an epic game. But please, do not spoil the results as others also read it. Thanks :)

The Picks

The last picks of both the teams were quite interesting. I can’t really make out what specific reasons if there were, for the Invoker and Obsidian picks but the most probable reason I see for the Obsidian pick is mana regen (Essence Aura) for his caster team while the Pinoys (XctN) seemed to have confidence over Beho’s Invoker. You can read out TSE/deon's nice explanation of the two picks in the comments below.

Looking at the picks, we have 5 ranged heroes on the Scourge side and no proper tank as such, which means they’ll be relying on a Vanguard-Hood-Meka Necrolyte for eating Sentinel nukes. They also have the ability to pick-out unsuspecting heroes with swapper-Vengeful and blink-Lion. On the other hand, the Sentinel side has 5 stunners and that would mean XtC would be in dire needs of BKB and Hoods to play effectively.

Overall, I wouldn’t say one team outpicked the other but XctN had the advantage as they had a clear plan for team battles which XtC lacked.