The multiplayer online battle arena is not the easiest genre in the world to dip a tentative toe into. There's a lot of information, and learning the ropes in the midst of a hyper-competitive online milieu that's not known for being forgiving to newcomers can be off-putting, to say the least. To help ease new Dota 2 players into the action, Valve recently made a couple of changes to the game that it says are intended to help them "face as few barriers as possible" when they start playing. 

First, the hero selection system has been changed so that players will only have access to a "curated group" of 20 heroes, out of a currently total of 113, for their first 25 games. "This introductory group consists of heroes that we’ve learned are very successful in helping new players learn and enjoy the game," the Dota team explained. 

Even more importantly (in my opinion, anyway) new players will now be matched only against others with "consistently high behavior scores," to ensure that they have "a good social experience while they are first trying to learn the game." 

That's a good idea—I'd go so far as to say it's an excellent one—but it's also a tacit admission that the Dota 2 social situation isn't consistently good, and is in fact so bad that people need to be protected from it. It's hard to be overly critical of the way Valve has handled Dota's evolution so far (it's quite the success, after all) but if you have to lock out a significant portion of your existing player base just so they won't chase away newbies, then maybe that's an issue that needs a more head-on approach. 

The International Dota 2 Championships, or just "The International" as it's better known, begins on August 7, with a total prize pool of more than $23 million. Pick up some practical tips on how to enjoy the spectator side of the game as a newcomer right here.

Photos via Valve's official Dota 2 Flickr account.Every year, The International showcases players from across the globe who have spent countless hours, days and years mastering one of the deepest games ever made. The annual event is reliably one of the most exciting esports events of the year. The issue is that many don’t know where to begin watching it. More intimidating than the game itself is the fear of 'watching the game wrong'—but in reality, the only way to watch Dota 2 wrong is to not watch at all. If you find yourself worried about diving into The International, here are some quick tips that will help you out.

Just do it  

Like a child watches soccer, hockey or American football for the first time, we all experience Dota 2 for the first time in one form or another—and, likely, get overwhelmed by the exposure. It happens. After all, many will say that their introduction into the game was The International 3, and the influx in player count shows this. Plus, with millions of dollars on the line, every year draws more and more curious onlookers, whether from another video game or just someone that heard about the prize money. In other words, you’re in good company. 

Don’t be scared to dive in and watch. Dota 2 is like rugby or American football: much of what’s going on can’t be explained until you see it practically applied. Concepts such as creep pulling, laning, rotations and 'objective-focused strategies' are execution-based and look much better than they sound. 

This year, the Newcomer Stream will also make its return to The International. If you’re a first-time viewer trying to learn some of the basics of the game, this will be a likely first destination for you. It’s unknown if a separate explanation commentary will return, but at the very least, there will be tooltips to enhance your understanding of the game’s strategy and items.

Understand the event’s flow (and take breaks!) 

What’s nice about Dota 2 is that it keeps a fairly consistent pace throughout the tournament. Some teams will even become predictable, trying to drag out games or end them more quickly. It’s worth keeping an eye out so you can understand when are good times to get up and do errands, such as food breaks or bathroom trips, without worrying too much.  

For instance, in the larger scheme of things, while some first games of best-of-three matches can be interesting, you’ll come back and see the same two teams play again next game. There’s often about ten minutes between games, and fifteen to thirty between matches. 

On a smaller scale, the time between the walk-on and the end of the hero draft is often just given over to match speculation, and so this is a good 8-to-12-minute mini-break. The early stages of the game, after first blood, are often just intermediate kills, though it’s good to return before about twenty minutes on the in-game clock before teamfights pick up.

Don’t stick to one team  

Only following one team will often lead to disappointment (for most fans, anyway). After all, life comes at us fast, and teams get dropped from the eleven-day event as quickly as you discover them. Sixteen teams in, one out. 

Do not be scared to bandwagon if a team you chose loses: seriously, it’s you and the rest of the Dota 2 community getting behind that new team.

You don’t have to know everything 

A major myth in trying to watch Dota 2, from my experience with new spectators, is that fans assume they need to know every painstaking detail about the game to watch. Even experienced players can be intimidated by the level of play that they’re seeing. 

Knowing a lot about Dota 2 will help, but it’s absolutely not necessary. In fact, even if you know more than the average player, that won’t help predict or explain every decision made in a professional game. It won’t explain dives or odd item choices: that’s an analyst’s job, and even then, analysts can also hit a ceiling of knowledge. In other words, even players with thousands of hours in-game can only know so much, so you’re not alone. 

If you do think you need help understanding what heroes, items and strategies, there’s no shame in Googling items, asking online communities or consulting with friends. Most of these have more-than-thorough explanations of much of what’s going on. And, the worst case is, the people you ask don’t know either, and you all get to speculate and learn about the game together.

As The International hits its seventh iteration, fans are anxious to see what this year's event will bring. The esports world will revolve around Seattle’s Key Arena for a few long August days, but for now, the meta is up in the air, and the rivalries between teams are close. After six days of intense matchups, it’ll all come down to two teams fighting with millions of dollars on the line in the grand final. 

The International’s grand final matches aren’t just deciders for millions of dollars. These matches are a reflection of the state of the Dota 2 scene, including the meta, the players and the atmosphere. Here, we rank all six grand finals of Dota 2's biggest event of the year.

6. TI4: Newbee vs. Vici Gaming

Has there ever been an otherwise-important match so predictable and formulaic that entire forums were speculating that it was rigged from the start? 

The whole event itself was considered to be one of The International's most flawed iterations. It was the first event in KeyArena, and Valve was feeling out the lay of the land. Only eight teams were present on the main stage, killing storyline potential.

The meta was considered stale in comparison to most other years, at least from a spectator’s viewpoint. This was the era of the “deathball strat,” in which players would pick pushing heroes and play super-aggressively, often ending matches in well under 40 minutes. 

It wasn’t that the players were unskilled and non-strategic, by any means: in fact, it was more of a case of perfecting a technique to the point where it has the opposite of the intended effect, turning skill into routine. Each game was decided not only in the draft, but about six or seven minutes in, when towers would already be under fire. 

Not a single grand finals match at this event went above 30 minutes. The longest game in the grand finals ended with an in-game timer of 26:11 (not including drafting and pre-horn). The final clocked in at 15:08. 

The worst part? 

This grand final was on a Monday.

5. TI1: Natus Vincere vs. EHOME 

The first International was a strange, awkward affair, as it was Dota 2’s first public display. The casters were unrefined, and while the players knew DotA (the Warcraft 3 version), they were just learning the ropes of this new Valve remaster. That didn’t stop Valve from gathering the top DotA players in the world to showcase the new game. 

Spectators can feel all of the above in TI’s first-ever grand finals, in which $1 million was at stake for the winning team. The skill was there, but it’s strange to watch with the lack of hero diversity caused by the obvious lack of heroes imported into the game at that point. The players worked with what they had, and they did spectacularly. As always, watching Na’vi’s mid laner Dendi on Puck is quite a sight. 

More than anything, TI1 is a great way to reflect on what’s changed in Dota 2, and the competitive community, from the prize pool to the casting. But in terms of gameplay, especially compared to even recent modern matches, it’s fairly typical. Not that it’s bad. Just not as excitingnd Finals.

4. TI2: Invictus Gaming vs Natus Vincere 

A year later, Dota 2 was much more fleshed-out, less of an awkward shell of what it could be and more of an active version of what it was going to be. It was imperfect, but not less exciting. For the most part, it was a “protect the carry” meta, with heroes such as Anti-Mage and Alchemist thriving, so it won’t be entirely unfamiliar to today’s fans. 

The most notable IG vs. Na'Vi moment at TI2 was actually in the winner's bracket semifinal, not the grand final. Esports veterans will remember 'The Play', a teamfight that still defines Dota 2’s unpredictability and ingenuity to this day. As Invictus Gaming initiated with an Enigma ultimate, Black Hole, they trapped everyone—except Dendi on the Rubick, who could steal the spell and turn it around. This he did, and Na’vi ended up taking down the entirety of IG, grasping the victory of particular game from their hands.

Despite this amazing moment, IG still took the Aegis of Champions at the end of the tournament. But that’s not to say IG didn’t deserve it—in fact, IG’s were extremely dominant, and it was a well-earned Aegis. This grand final was an absolutely exciting set of matches, with great plays and strategy from each team.

3. TI5: Evil Geniuses vs. CDEC 

When TI5 started, very few expected the Chinese wild card team, CDEC, to go as far as they did. But they did, and they breezed through the upper bracket of the event, setting up a highly-anticipated grand final for fans of the dark horse. 

Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses dipped down into the lower bracket—but EG is known as the lower bracket team for a reason, and they re-emerged for the grand finals. This was the year Sumail, the legendary Pakistani mid player, was discovered, bringing a new wave of fans from around the world. Led by the "salty" yet genius captain PPD, now the CEO of the org, the team was considered a top pick for the event—and possibly the only American team even close to that title.

It was the North American dream versus the Chinese dark horse, and it had fans across the world at the edges of their seats. In the end, Evil Geniuses snagged it; to this day, many accredit it to PPD’s incredible drafting. The captain, who had been blogging his recent adventures, even agreed to discuss his drafting mentality after a slew of fans requested such. Of course, there was the symphony of skill as well, with Sumail leading a youthful, aggressive mid lane style and Universe’s iconic Six Million Dollar Echo Slam with Earthshaker.

Most importantly, in an era when North America was considered too weak to exist in the competitive scene for any esport, it brought North America into relevancy in Dota 2—and, possibly, esports as a whole.

2. TI6: Wings Gaming vs. Digital Chaos

TI6 was quite an affair. For one, the main two familiar meta picks, Mirana and Shadow Demon in specific, weren’t “winning picks,” but instead just what made sense at the time. 

The winning strategy here was actually hero pool diversity. The top two teams, Wings Gaming and Digital Chaos, were praised throughout the event for their massive range of hero picks. After all, you can’t ban a strategy if you don’t know what strategy is being deployed. 

For that reason, the grand finals were played both in the drafts and the game itself. While DC had opportunities to shut down Wings in-game, Wings absolutely owned their lineups and the map, showing the world what Dota 2 is really about: perfecting a spectrum of skill, intellect, and strategy. There’s very little to say about this level of play, as a team perfecting such a high level of Dota 2 play is simply a spectacle that must be seen. The way Anti-Mage re-entered the fourth and final game, for instance, is a perfect demonstration of effective and efficient farm as well as reclamation of a game. 

Unfortunately, Wings won’t be returning to TI7 due to a roster breakup, but the team has inspired others such as Virtus.Pro to widen their skillset.

1. TI3: Alliance vs Natus Vincere 

Many still claim to this day that The International 3 grand final was the best set of Dota 2 matches ever played.

For one, Dota 2 was starting to come out of its awkward beta stage, as it ended in early July, open for all players to access. This meant an influx of spectators—and friends who tagged along—for the biggest event in esports. And it was sure big, as it was the first year to offer the Compendium, thus increasing the prize pool healthily over $2 million. 

In the competitive world, Alliance won several straight tournaments, even closing one out with a “perfect” game of 22-0 in team kills, utilizing “rat doto,” a strategy involving objective-oriented play. This means that instead of all of the work being oriented towards teamfights, a player is more likely to go solo and work towards taking down towers and barracks, while the other four manage and control the map. It’s technically difficult, as it’s easy to get killed if done incorrectly. 

One matchup popped up constantly: Alliance versus Natus Vincere, the Dota 2 El Classico. So one couldn’t blame anyone for wishing the two would meet at the apex of the biggest esports event in the world. Alliance knocked Na’vi into the lower bracket early on, but the CIS team kicked its way back into the grand finals. And they were certainly grand. 

While rat doto, in public matches, is accused of being an avoidant and obnoxious strategy, in its highest levels, it’s a long game of chess, a tense cat-and-mouse situation. There are only two ways to weed it out: nip it at the bud and win the draft stage, or outrace the other team. Alliance perfected the art of draft order, though, and made it impossible to outdraft their “ratter,” AdmiralBulldog, so he would get his pick of competent heroes. Instead, Na’vi had to create an in-game chase as they themselves tried to simultaneously push into their opponents and take them down at the same time. 

In the end, it came down to two bare ancients and The Million Dollar Dream Coil—a Puck ultimate by Alliance player s4. It turns out that s4 cancelled an essential teleport by Dendi by mere milliseconds, costing Na’vi the Ancient, and thus, the entire tournament.

Dota 2 is a game of clutches, close calls and milliseconds, and TI3 was a perfect example of the moments that keep bringing players back to the field.

The International 2017 is closing in. The group stages begin August 2nd, with the main event taking place from the 7th, and the dust has settled from late June’s qualifiers. 

Previously we looked at the Asian teams that will attend the event, from China’s top achievers in Newbee to the Philippines’ best hopes in Execration and TNC Pro. Now, we move to the other hemisphere to talk about the best of the west and what they may bring to the biggest event in Dota 2. 

First and foremost is Europe’s OG, the reigning champions of the Dota 2 scene at the moment having taken both of Valve’s Majors this season, plus two the season before. The team hasn’t shown its top shape prior to The International’s invite season, but that could change: after all, TI is a Valve event. A flexible hero pool, a well-versed captain, team chemistry and impeccable skill are the formula to a worthy Dota 2 team, and OG can check each box off without a second thought.

Returning from the Major is fellow direct invite Virtus.Pro, which earned second at the Kiev Major. They fell to OG in a 2-3 loss at the event, a rarity given that most LANs end in a four-game final, demonstrating that the team can put up a fight. Most famously this season they earned their invite immediately after their showing at The Summit, at which they played a unique hero for every match except the fifth and last finals game against Team Secret. With this momentum, they’ll be OG’s top match to look out for, but any match with VP versus a worthy team will be exciting to watch.

The third European direct invite is Team Liquid, which won Epicenter, one of the biggest events of the season. While not as consistent as China’s Newbee over the past year, the team has been able to show off their skill among the top teams in the world. They also proved that they’re far above any other stragglers in the pro scene, with persuasive first-place wins at StarLadder and this past weekend’s DreamLeague Atlantia. They can at least be a strong contender in Seattle if they keep their DreamLeague energy and bring it to the west coast. 

Speaking of contenders, Team Secret is a potential dark horse for the event. They shocked the scene when they won every single game in the Kiev Major’s pre-bracket stages, including the qualifiers. Unfortunately, teams eventually figured out their shallow strategy, but since then, they’ve had time to improve. In fact, they’ve been improving over the past year, as they rose from not qualifying for Valve’s Boston Major to winning their stacked, challenging region for The International. Fans that have been through the team’s thick and thin will likely see the team at its top shape in years. 

Last but not least from Europe is Hellraisers, formerly known as Planet Dog, which won after climbing through open qualifiers. Four out of five members were released recently from tier-two organization ProDota after internal conflict, and so this squad was assembled merely weeks before the qualifiers. Since their victory in the qualifiers, they were picked up by Hellraisers, which hasn’t seen a Dota 2 squad in years. The members aren’t new by any means, but instead, they’re a mix of players that have been grinding for years for this moment. 

Next door, the CIS qualifiers took place for the first ever International event, including an absolutely-full open qualifier from which rose Team Empire. While the banner is familiar to long-time Dota 2 fans, the roster is full of relatively-fresh faces from the tier-two scene. That doesn’t mean they’re any less worthy, as this iteration has been showing up for online tournaments and training hard—before and after winning their TI qualifier, of course. The team does have a lot to prove to both its Russian and international fans, but they absolutely have the chance to do so in Seattle.

Returning to Seattle from America is Evil Geniuses, the champions of The International 5. Only two of the members from that winning squad are still active players, but that hasn’t stopped the team from remaining not only North America’s top team, but also a global powerhouse. They’ve shown up less frequently to events than other tier-one teams, but they took a first-place finish at the Manila Majors, and their second place at Epicenter is nothing to shake a finger at. Plus, they’ve had a strong showing at most Valve events, and they even came close at last year’s TI6, but they were no match for the outrageous hero pool of Digital Chaos. They can certainly hope that they become the first team to take a two-time TI win.  

Much to the excitement of their biggest fans, Cloud9, formerly Team NP, will be at The International as the top qualifying team from North America. While esports veterans will recognize the C9 brand, Dota 2 fans know the squad for their leader, Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao, and the team’s anime-styled shenanigans. Fan familiarity aside, they’re a staple of high-tier events: they took a solid third at the Manila Masters and four that second at The Summit, and the roster is an all-star showing of veterans. Their performance breaks away from NA’s dire reputation, and they can potentially be a dark horse if they prepare well.

Also hailing from North America is Digital Chaos, formerly Team Onyx. They took second for the qualifiers, but sadly, their team has few results to show for their hard work up to that point. Still, the team has a lot of potential, as they’ve recruited names from across the world, including two former MVP players and 10k player Abed. It’s merely a matter of whether the players can come together and use their breadth of experience and skill in an effective manner. 

Last but absolutely not least is newcomer team Infamous, the South American qualifier winner from Peru, formed by Valve Major alum Accel after his Frankfurt Major team Unknown.xiu disbanded. The SA region was thrust into the spotlight after SG Esports’s Kiev Major run, in which they took out Team Secret in their Achilles’s heel, showing that they could absolutely take on the world’s toughest team—if you keep them on an even playing field. Now, Infamous has a lot of pressure to follow up on that success, and it could certainly happen: after all, at the biggest event in esports, anything goes.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Portal 2 and other Source Engine games were all affected by a particularly nasty exploit until recently. Basically, by uploading custom assets into a custom map, hackers could use them to trigger a "buffer overflow vulnerability" which resulted in the victim PC being open to remote code execution.

In other words, merely shooting at an enemy could cause your machine to be remotely hijacked. The exploit was identified by One Up Security (via Motherboard) who notified Valve. 

"Valve's Source SDK contained a buffer overflow vulnerability which allowed remote code execution on clients and servers," OUP's statement reads. "The vulnerability was exploited by fragging a player, which caused a specially crafted ragdoll model to be loaded. 

Multiple Source games were updated during the month of June 2017 to fix the vulnerability. Titles included CS:GO, TF2, Hl2:DM, Portal 2, and L4D2. We thank Valve for being very responsive and taking care of vulnerabilites swiftly. Valve patched and released updates for their more popular titles within a day."

For a demonstration of how it worked, this very short video tells you all you need to know. Death has never been so scary.

Following an Esports Integrity Coalition survey on "community opinion on the appropriate sanctions for those caught cheating in esports," ESL has announced a decision to lift its lifetime ban on players, including those of the former iBUYPOWER team, who were caught throwing matches. 

The sorry tale stretches back to early 2015, when Daily Dot posted evidence of collusion between CS:GO teams iBUYPOWER and NetcodeGuides.com to fix matches and then place bets on their outcome. Following a deeper investigation, Valve issued an "indefinite" ban against the involved players, an injunction that both ESL and ESEA [Esports Entertainment Association] said they would uphold. Valve later clarified that the bans were in fact "permanent." 

But the ESIC survey found that, while match-fixing is cheating and cheating is bad, the CS:GO community doesn't really see it as an especially big deal. "It is clear from the hundreds of 'FreeIBP,' 'FreeSWAG,' and 'FreeBRAX' comments that a very significant number feel that the lifetime bans handed out in the IBP and other historic match-fixing cases were too harsh and, while a significant number of comments support lifetime bans for such activity overall, many more are critical of the publisher’s decision in these cases," it wrote in its Statement on Appropriate Sanction for Cheating in Esports. 

"ESIC is concerned that the community does not regard match-fixing as serious an offense as cheating to win. ESIC believes that match-fixing is as serious as cheating to win and is, consequently, committed to engaging with the community to try and persuade them that their current perception ought, perhaps, to change." 

The community's willingness to overlook the transgression is not "the only view that matters," but combined with a review of the "publicly available facts," it led ESIC to recommend that the lifetime bans be lifted on August 1 of this year.   

"Our reasoning here is that, whilst the players are clearly culpable and should have known better, the rules surrounding this sort of activity were not clear at the time, no education had been provided to the players, and the procedures used to sanction them were not transparent and did not comply with principles of natural justice," it wrote. 

ESL said in its own statement that it and the ESEA held their own meeting with CS:GO pros in June, as part of the ESIC process, to get their perspective on the matter. As a result, ESL said it will "align its official stance on the topic with ESIC’s guidance": Rules for all IEM, ESL One, ESL Pro League, and ESEA Leagues and amateur events will be updated to reflect the recommendations, and "all indefinite match-fixing bans placed on players before February 15, 2015, have been lifted," including those of former iBUYPOWER players. 

"We believe that integrity and fair play are of the utmost importance in esports, and our updated catalogue of sanctions reflects that commitment”, ESL senior vice president Ulrich Schulze said. The slate isn't being wiped completely clean, however: ”All of these adjustments do not apply to bans and punishments issued by Valve directly though, which will still be in place for all Valve sponsored tournaments run by ESL, such as Majors.” 

Addressing the issue of unclear rules, ESL also announced that it will adopt ESIC's recommended sanctions for future offenses. 

• Cheating: Disqualification from the tournament, results voided, forfeiture of prize money, ban between 2 year and lifetime depending on age and level of player and nature/size of tournament and how the player cheated (this offence includes “smurfing” where both parties involved are liable to sanctions). Cheating at a competition played above an amateur level (i.e. where significant prize pool is involved or qualification for a professional event is at stake) should normally result in a 5 year ban, but, in aggravating circumstances, can result in a lifetime ban.
• Match-Fixing/betting fraud: Results voided, 5 year ban unless significant mitigating factors in line with the ESIC Anti-Corruption Code or, in the presence of aggravating circumstances, a longer ban, forfeiture of prize money and monetary fine (if discovered before the end of a tournament, disqualification).
• Doping: Results voided, ban of between 1 and 2 years, forfeiture of prize money (if discovered before the end of a tournament, disqualification).
• Competition manipulation and bribery: Results voided, ban of between 1 and 2 years, forfeiture of prize money and monetary fine (if discovered before the end of a tournament, disqualification).

The above penalties will be applied for first offenses. For subsequent offenses, ESL and ESC warned that "participants should expect far harsher sanctions and, in the cases of (a) and (b) above, in all likelihood, a lifetime ban from esports." 

ESL said in February 2015 that it would abide by Valve's bans against the players in question, "until these cases are reviewed by Valve." That clearly happened last year, when the bans were declared permanent—and while this might be backing into it a bit, that presumably opened the door for ESL and ESEA to chart its own course, and ultimately lift the bans. I've emailed Valve to ask if it plans to grant a reprieve of its own, and will update if I receive a reply. 

Counter-Strike's AI bots are universally terrible—that's what most players would have you believe, at least. But during a ranked match on the third-party Faceit community league, one bot rose to glory by single-handedly killing every player on the enemy team. BOT Connor is his name, and shaming seasoned Counter-Strike players is his game.

Scoring an ace is a rare thing for even pro Counter-Strike players, but having a bot go all John Wick on the enemy team is practically unheard of. That's exactly what happened this weekend and Czech player 'Kosta' was there to capture the incredible killing streak. Here's the video. 

If you're unfamiliar with Global Offensive, bots will frequently fill open slots in teams when they are down a player. Aside from being a meat shield, they're not overly useful. They'll respond to preset commands and can sometimes get a kill, but as soon as a human player dies, they'll usually take command of the bot. But BOT Connor doesn't need a human puppet-master pulling his strings because he's a goddamn pro.

During the match on de_mirage, BOT Connor leads the charge to defend bombsite A. After tossing a flashbang towards the tunnel known as 't ramp,' he immediately rushes in. In the span of five seconds, he scores a kill against one of the terrorists, presses into the ramp, jumps in the air, and scores a second, mid-air kill. As the players on the counter-terrorist team lose their minds over what they just witnessed, BOT Connor scores a third kill. With that part of the map clear, he then turns around, climbs a ladder, and kills the remaining two players. All of this happens in the span of 45 seconds and it's absolutely savage to watch.

The counter-terrorists were down by one and the terrorists only needed another two wins, and this kill by BOT Connor tied the game up. I tracked down Kosta on Facebook and he informed me that BOT Connor inspired the team so much that they managed to come back and win the game. "I think that BOT Connor won this game for us," Kosta writes. "If you're losing and the bot wins this super important round, it's just insane."

"I thought it was hilarious," Richochetbang told me. He was another counter-terrorist player from the match. You can hear him laughing his ass off as BOT Connor begins his rampage. "Every time he shot a guy they were caught off guard."

While that appears to be true for a few of Connor's kills, most players aren't willing to cut the terrorist team much slack. This match took place on the third-party Faceit community league. Like ESEA, it's a place for more dedicated CS players to gather and features its own matchmaking, anti-cheat, and rankings. The terrorists' average ranking is 4.4, which is decent (Faceit ranks go up to 10). Considering these leagues attract a more serious audience, you wouldn't expect them to put up such a weak defense against a rogue AI.

But hey, we all have bad days. Some are just way worse than others.

Every Monday, Build of the week highlights a unique rig from the web’s most dedicated PC building communities. 

It’s a good thing you logged on today, because we’re about to get our log on thanks to this cool computer made from a damn tree. Elemental Infusion is a scratch build put together by modder Kanishka Akalanka out of Sri Lanka using carved sections of a mahogany log to form a gorgeous chassis. This is the PC Gandalf has resting below his modular standing desk in his secret smoke-and-chill wizard cave. He calls it the Log Hog. It looks nice below the black light poster of himself.  

I believe it too, because it took some magic to put the Elemental Infusion together. The big stumpy cross section of wood was separated into three pieces so the components could actually fit, lending it a rough finish to that makes it look like a recently restored ancient artifact or something a rich relative would buy for their swanky-ass log cabin they visit once a year. Put it there, next to the raccoon taxidermy. No one will know it’s a Dota 2 PC anyway, except for a nephew or niece and one ‘cool’ uncle. 

But if you want to wash over the log-ness of the thing with LED lighting and show off the lovely tech powering the log, some flaps tilt down to allow for a look inside. Don’t stare too long though. It’s very difficult to log off. Log jokes! 

For more details about of Elemental Infusion was put together, including a ton of extra pictures, check out the official build log. 

Elemental Infusion components:

CPU: Intel Core i7 7700kMobo: Asus Maximus IX CODERAM: AVEXIR 16GB DDR4-28004GB x4GPU: Asus Strix GTX 1070PSU: Cooler master V850Cooler: DIY custom liquid LoopSSD: Avexir 240GB S100

Last week I asked our community to share their sleaziest stories of scamming or being scammed in online games. I expected we'd get some fun tales that we could all laugh about, but instead the comments section filled with anecdotes of such absolute savagery that I lost hope for humanity. Not only are some of you unconscionable in your unwavering commitment to screwing over your fellow person (or friends), but a few of you also suffered dearly at the hands of strangers on the net.

I've sifted through hundreds of comments to bring back what I feel are the worst, sleaziest, most underhanded stories. Whether it's screwing over your best friends for a quick buck or falling for the same scam twice in a row, all of you should feel bad. Really bad. For better and for worse, here are your most underhanded stories of scamming.

Cat fishing anonymous 

It's one thing to use a silver tongue to trick someone into handing over a few items, but it's another thing to get your girlfriend to pretend to be a cam girl in order to scam some poor, lonely soul for 10 million gold. That's exactly what commenter Mugen did while playing Vindictus.

"I once scammed a guy from Italy out of 10 million gold in Vindictus," he explains in the comments. "I told him I was a cam girl and I'd Skype him if he transferred the gold to my character."

Apparently Sleepless in Italy needed a bit more proof before he was willing to part with his precious gold, so Mugen somehow convinced his girlfriend to play the part. "I got my girlfriend to go on Skype with him and she posted fake cam girl pics and pretended it was her," he says. "After we got the payment we let him know he shouldn't trust people online and then deleted and blocked him on Skype. I've never felt so horrible."

Mugen's comment doesn't offer more details, but I have a million questions. How does someone even convince their girlfriend to pull this off? I don't know what makes me more depressed: That someone would stoop so low for gold or that someone would actually fall for it.

Need a lift? 

You should never take a ride from a stranger—especially if it's in DayZ and there's zero reason why that person shouldn't break your legs and leave you for dead. It might not be a traditional scam, but FixTheBloodyGame (let's call him Fix) has a story so brutal that it's only made worse by the fact that they got nothing out of it.

"Back when DayZ was an Arma 2 mod, myself and two friends had become fully geared, had a helicopter, and basically hit the endgame without much else to do," they explain. "What we ended up doing was offering lifts around the map using our helicopter and arranging this via side chat. Needless to say, we had some ulterior motives."

They stumbled upon a freshly-spawned player trying to get across the map so he could team up with his friend. "We met up in Electro, got him to drop all his gear and loaded him into the chopper and set off flying northeast. After 3 minutes of flying, he got very confused and asked where we were heading. 'Just a quick stop at our base,' we said."

As Fix explains, in the far northeastern corner of the map is an island so small that no zombies spawn on it and most players don't even know it exists. "We dropped the guy off on the island and said he should follow us to get some gear from our 'buggy tents that go invisible.'

After watching this poor sap run around trying to find the invisible tents, Fix decided to get nasty. "I shot him in the leg with a DMR, snapping them instantly," Fix writes.

But it gets worse.

"We quickly bandaged him, healed him up (his legs were still broken) and got him to crawl across this island to our helicopter. As soon as he got close we flew away. After he started getting sad in side chat we flew back to him and fixed his legs—only to snap them and repeat the whole process again."

Fix explains it was only when the island was a tiny dot on the horizon that they fully realized what an ass they had been. "This poor guy just wanted to meet up with his friend. He now only had a few choices: Swim to shore (which would take multiple hours), starve to death (again, multiple hours in real time), or quit the server and never return. There was no suicide button and he had no gear to kill himself with."

"We got a lone message in side chat after all this, a simple ':(.'"

Reading this story, the optimist in me hoped that maybe Fix and their friends would find their conscience and head back for their crippled passenger. Nope.

"Our pilot got very sad for him, the rest of us laughed our arses off."

Sorry for your loss 

XyzzyFrobozz's story is legitimately infuriating and proves that EVE Online isn't the only MMO where you can't trust your closest friends. "I started a guild in Lord of the Rings Online on the Nimrodel server called the 'Rangers of Arnor,'" they write. "I worked hard at recruiting and raiding to the point where we were becoming a medium-sized guild of about 50 people. Word was spreading that we were active and friendly, and so we started getting quite a few applications." 

"A good friend of mine unfortunately took his own life. I had to travel out of state to be with his family and help with the arrangements, so I handed over some of the control of the guild to a 'trusted' friend in the game—specifically the ability to recruit or ban people from the guild. I explained what was going on and that I wanted the guild to continue growing by admitting people while I was away."

Apparently even a real-life tragedy won't stop some people from abusing power. Xyzzy returned to a terrible surprise. "When I returned I found the guild had grown by five players... and that my 'friend' had kicked me from the guild and taken it over as his own."

"I never played LOTRO again."

I don't blame them.

Insanity is doing the same thing twice… 

We received a mountain of entries involving Runescape. This MMO is a madhouse of skullduggery, but Jake Brandt's story stands out because he was so hilariously naive as to fall for the same scam twice in a row.

As he explains, his pride and joy was his full set of adamantium armor, which was the second-most powerful in the game at the time. Around that time, Jagex had released special sets of armor that had ornate gold or silver trimming along the outer edges. It was highly fashionable and Jake wanted some. "I had heard about gold trimmed armor but knew nothing else about it, so when a guy on the road offered to upgrade my armor I happily accepted his generous offer and handed over two pieces of my gear."

There's just one problem: there was no way to convert normal armor into trimmed armor. Instead of learning this lesson, Jake decided to roll the dice a second time.

"After a brief mourning period for my lost adamantium equipment, I kept walking down the road and there were a couple of people at a crossroads. One of them walked up to me and offered to add gold trim my remaining armor. I don't remember how I could have possibly thought it was a good idea to try this again, but I did. I even made him swear he wouldn't keep my armor like the last guy."

"And that's the story of the time I ragequit Runescape, never to return."

On the next page, someone gets the shit kicked out of them in real life.

Mistaken identity 

Zed's willingness to think on his feet is astounding. While playing Diablo 2 one day, he found an open public game named "Cody come" and decided to play a trick: He was going to pretend to be Cody. "I joined the match with a stupid idea in my head that I was going to pretend to be the guy's friend," Zed writes. "After joining the game I went to my stash checked out some items and was just doing my thing and the other guy in that current game said 'Hello' and I replied "Hey man, one sec gonna get a drink' and he said 'Cody?' I waited a minute or so and said to him 'Yeah this is my paladin account.' So at this point he was gonna either call my bluff or believe me."

But before the other player could decide, another player joined the game.

It wasn't Cody, but a random PvPer who immediately turned hostile and challenged the two to a fight. "I quickly invited the other guy to my party which he accepted and we ran out of town only to be slaughtered. We lost a boat load of gold and this guy was getting very upset," Zed explains. Then Zed saw his opportunity to strike.

"Now I knew what item he had because I was a dork and could tell if someone had an ethereal weapon. It was obviously one of the high end game rune weapons because we were in hell mode," Zed says. "I told my buddy that with my current build I could kill the amazon if he would just give me the item. I requested trade and to my surprise the trade window opened."

"'You better give it back dude, I'm not joking,' the guy said. I got the item and left the game."

Again, please don't give strangers your rarest items. Even if you think they're Cody.

Don't lose your head 

Many of the stories we received took place while playing games, but BunnyBot 5000 had the unfortunate experience of being scammed through Steam's trading interface. "Several months after Team Fortress 2 had gone free-to-play, my most sought after dream at the time was a Max's Head to accompany my rabbit-themed username, BunnyBot writes. "I had acquired the illustrious hat by way of birthday money, and was open in my flaunting of it."

"Now here's where it gets weird - I had, by this time, made several friends through Steam." As BunnyBot explains, one friend, "Andrew" lived just down the block from him. "Late one night, I began messaging with Andrew and he requested I trade the Max's Head to him as part of some sort of elaborate prank. In my tired, sleep-deprived mind, I figured that Andrew was the kind of guy to do this kind of stuff, and if he tried to skimp me, I could just walk down to his house and chew him out. In my moment of weakness, I traded him my most prized possession."

There was just one problem: BunnyBot wasn't speaking to Andrew.

As BunnyBot quickly realized the moment "Andrew" unfriended him and ran off with his Max's Head, "another one of my Steam friends had a very similar screen name to Andrew's."

When BunnyBot began messaging him thinking he was Andrew, "the sleazy fuck" played along with it and "pretended to be [his] friend."

"I traded this stranger my most prized possession and he immediately unfriended me and made off with his ill-gotten gains," BunnyBot laments. "I learned my lesson that day: Scammers are not always just some kind of weird broken-English bot that tries to add you out of the blue. They could already be on your friends list, lying in wait for just the right opportunity."

Keep your friends close 

Of all the stories we received, Jirka Týr's is easily my favorite. A common theme in most of these stories was that the scammer always got away without consequence, but Jirka paid dearly for his scam.

Back in 2006, Jirka and his four friends, barely teenagers, got into playing Runescape. As he explains, they knew very little about the game and spent a great deal of time on YouTube learning how to play. That's when they came across a video teaching how to lure people into the open-PvP Wilderness so you could kill them and take their stuff. They were very excited. "We were all around 11-12 years old so we had boners harder than steel."

Using computers at their school, the five friends decided to give the scam a try. "We tried pretty hard for a good hour and almost everyone looked through us and reported us," Jirka says. " After another four days of trying and no result, I was kinda pissed off it doesn't work—probably because English isn't my native language and all I could say back then was yes, no, hello, and bye. It was kinda hard and we were just copying and pasting every word we saw in the video."

Frustrated by his inability to trick other players, Jirka decided to turn on his friends.

"One day I started yelling that I finally got some guy and I'm going to kill him," Jirka writes. He explains that he convinced his friends to drop everything to come to his aid but only bring their cash so they had more room to pick up his victim's items. Except there was no victim.

Earlier, Jirka had used all of his cash to purchase a set of rune armor—some of the best in the game. When the first of his friends arrived, he immediately attacked and quickly killed him. "All I saw was his red, steaming face over the monitor," Jirka writes. "I kept my cool and tried my best to have the most serious poker face. He yelled at me 'Why did you kill me you dipshit?' And with all my skill I turned slowly on him, tilted my face a bit and said 'What are you talking about?' I said that couldn't be me because I was somewhere else—I was lying and all it would take to catch me was for him to come to my computer and look at what I'm doing."

Over the next few days, Jirka succeeded in pulling the same stunt on the rest of his friends, looting their dead bodies until he had over 100,000 gold. "I bought every single expensive thing I could find and what did I do when I had all this expensive gear and cosmetic shit on my account? I showed it to my friends!"

This would prove to be Jirka's undoing. Immediately his friends deduced who had scammed them and taken all of their gold. "They didn't react by calling me a swine or an asshole," Jirka says. "It was literally punches, kicks, hitting me with a chair…"

They beat the shit out of him.

"I ended up with 5 really small open wounds, broken nose and few cuts on my face," Jirka writes. He explains that this all happened at his school in the Czech Republic, and his teachers had to call his parents to come and get him. "After my mom saw me she nearly cried and my father was angry as hell."

At the time, however, no one knew that Jirka had broken his nose. "My nose hurt like hell so I went to my mom and told her about it," He says. "She just grabbed me by the nose and yanked it to the side. When it moved, it scared her to the death and I went to the hospital that night, we had no car at the time and even no driver license so we had to wake up all of our neighbours and ask them to drive us."

But getting beat up wasn't even the worst punishment. "My account was completely wiped out.

Nobody from those friends talked to me that year, and I looked like an ogre because my nose was four times bigger than usual."

I guess the lesson here is not to scam people who are within arm's reach of you.

Or, you know, just don't scam people at all.

Comments were edited for grammar and clarity.

Take the world’s largest crowd-funded tournament, the largest and most difficult MOBA, and 90 of the hardest-working and most talented gamers in the world, and put them in Seattle for two weeks. What you’ll get is The International 7, the biggest Dota 2—and esports—tournament, held annually by the game’s developers, Valve. 

This LAN is quickly drawing closer, and what is a tournament without its participants? Qualifiers for all regions have concluded, and the eighteen teams that will attend The International’s main event in mid-August have been decided. 

Six teams were directly invited by Valve:

• OG (Europe) 
• Virtus Pro (Commonwealth of Independent States) 
• Evil Geniuses (North America) 
• Team Liquid (Europe) 
• Newbee (China) 
• Invictus Gaming (China) 

Regions were given certain numbers of qualifier spots as follows: three each for China and Southeast Asia, two each for Europe and North America, one for South America and one for CIS. Here, we’ll be taking a look at the two Eastern regions, China and Southeast Asia, and the teams that are preparing to cross the world to fight for the Aegis of Champions.

If there’s any sign that the Chinese region has become quite competitive, it would be the regional qualifiers. Not unlike the years before it, some renown names and even top teams were pushed out in the group stage, including VG.J, which was one of the strongest squads several months ago, and EHOME, a famous regional banner. 

But first and foremost, there are the teams handed direct invites, which are the most likely choices among those battling for respect in the country. 

First, and most impressively throughout the 2016-2017 competitive season, is Newbee, with its entirely different squad than the banner’s TI4-winning run. With consistent appearances at the top events in the world, his fresh team has proven their year-round strength that clearly caught Valve’s eye. They’ve placed in most of their tournaments since The International, minus the Kiev Major 2017, where they fell to European TI7 direct invite Team Liquid in the single elimination bracket’s first round. Their main worry, though, is that they keep losing their top spots to other teams at events of the highest caliber. This doesn’t mean that they can’t pull it together for a winning push at TI, of course.

Their strongest regional competitor is Invictus Gaming, which earned the other Chinese direct invite, similarly a former TI-winning banner with a revamped squad. In recent months, they’ve performed beyond expectations, especially with a solid victory against OG in the Dota 2 Asian Championships. While their performance hasn’t always been completely consistent, they’ve done well enough to be considered one of the top in the region. 

The qualifiers were as tough as the season itself for many Chinese teams, but there must be a winner. 

None other than IG.Vitality came first. The sister squad to IG has performed fairly well throughout the year, with star players such as InJuly and up-and-coming Paparazi giving the team a reputation as a powerhouse of its own. While they lacked the sort of strength that gave their main squad its invite, they’ve been present and held their own at many events throughout the year. It paid off, as they took the top score in the China Qualifier’s round robin stages, earning the region’s first qualifying spot.

Soon after came phase two, where two teams under the same organization worked their way into the main event. First came LGD.ForeverYoung, a team well-mixed with up-and-comers as well as DotA veterans. In their most recent events, they’ve placed well, even rivalling their organization’s primary team, LGD Gaming. (Actually, LFY took the qualifier spot from LGD in both the Epicenter and Mars Dota 2 League qualifiers.) This banner also qualified for the Boston Major and continued to the second round of the single-elimination, but they shuffled in mid-May to much recent success. 

Their older sibling org, LGD Gaming, eventually caught up in the final part of the qualifiers. LGD recently won their first LAN in years at MDL, and it was no small deal. The other teams they had to take on included European squad OG, and that wasn’t even in the Grand Finals (they took fourth). LGD also managed to top LFY and Chinese top pick Newbee, which placed second and third respectively at the event, to take the win. While the team didn’t show up for the event, they qualified for Galaxy Battles as well, and so they’re likely going to be a threat in Seattle. 

With similar difficulty (and the same format) came the Southeast Asia qualifiers, stacked with teams and players passionate about—and fighting hard for—a spot in the main event. While none of the teams in this region managed to snag an invite, Valve has extended an invitation for three teams that can fight through the regional qualifiers. And, for the first time in Dota 2, two Philippines-based squads will be attending the same Valve event, though this is pending the question, and consistent issue, of USA travel visa acquisition.

For SEA, the team that took the round robin phase was none other than TNC Pro Team, one of the premier squads of the region. TNC has been an international underdog since their TI6 run, and they’ve been a favorite of the passionate region since. Only three of their teammates remain today: Carlo “Kuku” Palad, Marc Polo Luis Fausto or “Raven” and Samson Solomon Enojosa Hidalgo or “Sam_H,” with Theeban “1437” Silva from Canada and Filipino legend Timothy “Tims” Randrup now helping to lead the charge. In what’s considered a difficult region, TNC has managed to assert their presence within the top tier of SEA squads, and so their TI7 qualification is certainly no joke.

The next to rise up is Fnatic. While European at the organisation's roots, the franchise has planted its Dota 2 fortress in SEA, where it’s had mixed but notable success. Now, the team has an international mix, with former two Korean MVP.Phoenix squad members, Kim Seon-yeop “QO” and Kim “Febby” Yong-min, along with two Malaysian players and a Filipino player. The team’s only been able to play together at the Zotac Cup Masters in June, but the fact that this team could qualify in such a difficult reason speaks volumes about their potential. 

Last, but certainly not least, comes Execration from the lower bracket. The organization has had its share of well-qualified players, but, much like other teams from the region, faced visa issues that prevented their team from success, specifically at the Boston Major. They were unable to perform well and shuffled just in time for the open qualifier. This newly-formed crew clearly worked well together, as they beat the former regional champions Clutch Gamers, and they even beat Team Faceless in the group stage. The team has a lot to look forward to during its big showing at TI7’s main event.