(Image credit: SFM Render/Compositing/Overlays - Bradz, Overlays - Father Hoovy, and Organization - IanTheAwsm)

Seasonalander has arrived for the Summer of 2024, raising funds for the Trevor Project with a current goal of $1,500! An American nonprofit organization founded in 1998, the Trevor Project focuses on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth. More information can found here.

Seasonalander is a charity-funding Highlander 9v9 tournament that raises funds for various causes around the world. Collectively, they have raised over $5,100 since the Summer of 2021 for missions such as the Sarcoma Foundation of America, The British Red Cross and the Autism Society of America. Every third global season they bring together more than 72 content creators to play! The group, ranging from YouTubers and Artists to Cosplayers and Streamers across primarily North America and Europe, will be divided into their respective divisions in hopes of bringing the Team Fortress 2 community together for several various causes! Come see your favorites entertain by throwing hands and raising funds for those in need!

Help get the word out and be sure to tune in on the 1st and 2nd of June!
North American games will start at 3pm GMT / 11am EST on Saturday
European games will start at pm 11am GMT / 7am EST on Sunday

Important Links:

• Donation Link (Tiltify)
  
• Twitch
  
• YouTube
  
• Twitter
  
• Steam Group

Between a massive 7.36 update and Act II of Crownfall, there were a lot of big announcements vying for your attention last week, so we decided to give everybody a few days to process everything before we posted any more big Dota news. But now a new week is upon us, and we're happy to turn our focus from the in-game experience to pro Dota, with the the announcement of the six direct invites to this year's The International!

Read on for that unveiling, as well as details on the qualifying road for those still fighting to earn the last ten spots in Copenhagen.

From Dubai to Birmingham to Bucharest and beyond, the year has been packed with top-tier Dota tournaments. Befitting their dominant performances across the year so far, we're happy to invite the following teams directly to The International 2024:

• Team Spirit
  [expand type=details]
  Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk
  Denis "Larl" Sigitov
  Magomed "Collapse" Khalilov
  Myroslav "Mira" Kolpakov
  Yaroslav "Miposhka" Naidenov[/expand]
  
• Xtreme Gaming
  [expand type=details]
  Wang "Ame" Chunyu
  Guo "Xm" Hongcheng
  Lin "Xxs" Jing
  Zhao "XinQ" Zixing
  Ding "Dy" Cong[/expand]
  
• Team Falcons
  [expand type=details]
  Oliver "skiter" Lepko
  Stanislav "Malr1ne" Potorak
  Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf
  Andreas "Cr1t-" Nielsen
  Wu "Sneyking" Jingjun[/expand]
  
• Team Liquid
  [expand type=details]
  Michael "miCKe" Vu
  Michał "Nisha" Jankowski
  Neta "33" Shapira
  Samuel "Boxi" Svahn
  Aydin "Insania" Sarkohi[/expand]
  
• Gaimin Gladiators
  [expand type=details]
  Anton "dyrachyo" Shkredov
  Quinn "Quinn" Callahan
  Marcus "Ace" Hoelgaard
  Erik "tOfu" Engel
  Melchior "Seleri" Hillenkamp[/expand]
  
• BetBoom Team
  [expand type=details]
  Egor "Nightfall" Grigorenko
  Danil "gpk" Skutin
  Matvey "MieRo`" Vasyunin
  Vitalie "Save-" Melnic
  Alexander "TORONTOTOKYO" Khertek[/expand]

The remaining ten slots will be awarded to those worthy teams able to battle through the daunting Regional Qualifiers, with the final slot breakdown and dates for each region set as follows:

• China and North America - June 9th to 13th
  [expand type=details]
  China (2 slots)
  Azure Ray
  G2.iG
  LGD Gaming
  Team Bright
  Team Zero
  Dark Horse
  (+6 teams from Open Qualifiers)
  
  North America (1 slot)
  Shopify Rebellion
  Nouns
  La Correntada
  (+5 teams from Open Qualifiers)[/expand]
  
• Eastern Europe + South America - June 14th to 18th
  [expand type=details]
  Eastern Europe (1 slot)
  Natus Vincere
  Virtus.pro
  1win
  L1GA TEAM
  Night Pulse
  Nemiga Gaming
  One Move
  Yellow Submarine
  9Pandas
  (+3 teams from Open Qualifiers)
  
  South America (2 slots)
  HEROIC
  beastcoast
  BOOM Esports
  Midas Club
  Infinity
  Leviatán
  (+6 teams from Open Qualifiers)[/expand]
  
• Southeast Asia + Western Europe - June 19th to 23rd
  [expand type=details]
  Southeast Asia (2 slots)
  Aurora
  Blacklist International
  Talon Esports
  Neon Esports
  Execration
  Bleed Esports
  MANTA Esports
  Salvation Gaming
  (+4 teams from Open Qualifiers)
  
  Western Europe (2 slots)
  Tundra Esports
  PSG Quest
  OG
  Team Secret
  Entity
  MOUZ
  NAVI Junior
  Nigma Galaxy
  Rest Farmers
  JustBetter
  (+2 teams from Open Qualifiers)[/expand]

For those of you now making plans to spectate or compete in said qualifiers, we've also got some important dates to keep in mind. The Road to The International will officially kick off with Open Qualifiers for all six regions June 3rd to 8th, followed by the Regional Qualifiers as described above.

Once all the initial dust has settled and the tournament field has been filled out, the Road to the International will continue when all sixteen teams meet in Copenhagen. The two-day Group Stage will commence Wednesday, September 4th, immediately followed by the five-day Playoffs, a studio production that will run through Tuesday, September 10th,

The International itself will be held in Copenhagen's Royal Arena, with the top eight teams slated to take the main stage from Friday, September 13th through Sunday, September 15th. Fans hoping to attend in person will be able to purchase tickets starting Monday, June 10th. Set your reminders now, and we'll see you when qualifiers start next Monday, June 3rd.

Patch 7.36a is out now. You can check out the patchnotes here.

Additionally, a few non-gameplay bugs were fixed:

• Fixed Some Crownfall empty dialog lines
  
• Fixed Crownfall paths changing their token requirements
  
• Fixed Dragon Knight Griffin Knight set having Facet-based coloration swapped
  
• Fixed various issues with cloth stretching
  
• Fixed watching replays from Broadcaster perspective not displaying heroes
  
• Fixed an issue with post-match rewards being delayed
  
• Fixed Crownfall Pit Fighter encounter dialog
  
• Fixed Crownfall Fishing Spear not being available
  
• Fixed Crownfall Graphical issue with Pineapple clickable on Crownfall map
  
• Fixed Crownfall Graphical issue with Questing Hearts sign not showing
  
• Fixed issue with Act 2's Riki's attribute token being wrong type

An update has been released for Left 4 Dead 2:

- Fixed a bug that prevented the community server list from appearing.

[]

• Fixed the appearance of Doppler, Gamma Doppler, and Marble Fade finishes

[]

• Minor UI changes

[]

Vertigo:

• Clipped the wings of runboosters to B site in Wingman
  
• Blocked grenades through crane base at A site

[]

• Height of the 'pillar' of flame for both Molotov and Incendiary grenade now decreases over time
  
• Reduced the terrorist team award when bomb was planted but defused from $800 to $600, to decrease the impact of the first-round on subsequent rounds
  
• Reduced the price of the M4A4 from $3100 to $3000
  
• Minor adjustments to first-person camera movement
  
• Added explicit "switchhandsleft" and "switchhandsright" console commands
  
• Deathmatch bonus weapons are now the same for all players regardless of loadout

Incendiary Grenade

• Adjusted the explosion and flame visual treatment
  
• Reduced duration
  
• Reduced area covered by spreading flames
  
• Reduced price from $600 to $500

[]

• When players open a Kilowatt case with a key, they will have the option to rent the entire Kilowatt collection (i.e., every weapon in the case, excluding the rare special item) for a week instead of receiving an item from the collection
  
• Equipped rented weapons will be replaced with the stock version of the weapon when the rental period expires
  
• Rented weapons cannot be modified (e.g., via stickers or name tags), traded, or sold on the Steam Community Market

[]

• Fixed a bug where the MVP player name displayed incorrectly during bot takeover
  
• Fixed a bug where the Refund All button in the Buy Menu would only refund a single flashbang grenade
  
• Fixed a bug where the ESC menu scoreboard during end-of-match didn't match the TAB scoreboard
  
• Fixed a bug where the Loss Bonus scoreboard tooltip would get stuck on-screen after closing the scoreboard
  
• Blocking stranger Steam avatars will now block other user-generated content such name tags and sticker placements

[]

• Chickens have a few new animations
  
• Chickens can now walk up hills
  
• Chickens can now turn right while walking

[]

• Various performance improvements to the Warehouse main menu and item inspect background scenery

[]

• The demo playback timeline now show indicators for kill and death events
  
• Demo playback can be toggled into "highlight mode" which will show only kills and deaths for the active player
  
• Various minor demo playback UI changes
  
• Fixed a demo playback crash

[]

Vertigo:

• Added catwalk by bombsite A, connecting to back of A
  
• Removed connector between back of A and elevators
  
• Opened up passage between elevators and scaffolding
  
• Slightly tweaked size of bombsite A
  
• Tweaked spawn timings slightly
  
• Changed Wingman layout to feature bombsite A changes

Baggage:

• Fixed movement hitch on lower conveyor
  
• Lowered height of central conveyor tray to help open sniper view

Office:

• Fixed a case where a player could shoot through multiple walls

Mirage:

• Fixed bad collision on certain props
  
• Fixed some sticky collision around windows in palace

Today's update includes some love for the CT economy, with price cuts to the M4A4 and Incendiary grenade, and a bit less cash going to the T's when the bomb gets defused.



In addition to the price cut, the incendiary grenade has gotten a bit of a makeover with a new visual treatment for its explosion and flames, and reduced spread and duration.

And in other gameplay news, Vertigo's A-site has gotten some significant changes--it's now the site featured in Wingman matches, so check it out.



Calling all Kilowatt Collection fans! Now, when you open a Kilowatt case with a key, you'll be given the option to rent the whole collection for a week (excluding the rare special item) instead of keeping a single item. You can play with the weapons as much as you like during that week, but they can't be modified by stickers or nametags.

Lots of other changes in today's update, including some quality of life improvements for demo playback, slightly smarter chickens, and a bit of spring cleaning--good news for fans of 'various bug fixes.'

Jump into a match and see what's new!

People have been asking about it. They've been waiting for it. They've been guessing for months what would be in it. And now... we're finally shipping it.

That's right: Crownfall Act II's fishing game is LIVE!

For those of you who didn't just die of adrenaline shock, we also shipped a massive new gameplay patch, which you might want to read up on. Go find out more about 7.36 here.

We also shipped the second part of Crownfall, this time taking place in the unforgiving deserts of Druud. There's a new overworld map, a new story, some new characters (and some familiar favorites), new cosmetic items, new minigames, and more than a few surprises.

Lastly, in case you got busy last month (it happens) and were wondering if you'll still be able to play Crownfall Act I now that Act II's shipped: You can. All of Crownfall's acts will be available as new acts come online, up to the conclusion of the event.

OK, that's probably enough fishing and fishing-adjacent (7.36, Crownfall Act II) news for one update. What are you waiting for? Boot up the game and get angling!

[]

• Added support for AMD Anti-Lag 2.

An update has been released for Left 4 Dead 2:

- Fixed two exploits that could remotely crash servers.
- Fixed music not playing at the main menu on Linux.