The special seasonal event modes Valve create for Dota 2 [official site] are slightly less novel now that all and sundry can make their own modes, but Valve’s are always jolly fancy. If you fancy a good Spooky Week spooking, venture into their the Haunted Colosseum. Diretide begone! Haunted Colosseum is a 5v5 point capture mode in a new map with deadly traps and nasty pumpkinmonsters, and it’s out now.

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After getting the Rick and Morty announcer pack treatment back in August, Dota 2 [official site] will receive a Fallout 4 crossover courtesy of the series’ three-armed mechanical waiter Mister Handy.

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For the last five years, Dota 2 [official site] players have travelled far and wide to compete in The International. Now, Valve are launching a series of Majors, the first of which will take place in Frankfurt.

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So, Dota Reborn is out and has replaced Old Dota 2 [official site] as the game client, like how when you have a second child you love it more and it’s better than the first one so you just pretend the other one doesn’t exist and stop supporting it and call the second child by the first one’s name.

Reborn is the version of Dota which uses the Source 2 engine, but rather than just switching to the new engine and keeping the front end the same there’s been a massive overhaul of the UI as well as the addition of custom game modes.

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Part of a miscellany of serious thoughts, animal gifs, and anecdotage from the realm of MOBAs/hero brawlers/lane-pushers/ARTS/tactical wizard-em-ups. One day Pip might even tell you the story of how she bumped into Na Vi s Dendi at a dessert buffet cart*.>

Hello!

It’s time for some Dote Night real talk:

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Dota 2 [official site] now has Dota Levels – “A MEASURE OF YOUR LIFETIME DOTA 2 ACCOMPLISHMENTS”. That means there is a new number on your profile which you can feel pleased or disappointed or ambivalent about. Mine is 37. It made me feel hungry so I had lunch.

The new number is based on the previous experience level system (the previous big number on your profile that increased as you got more battle points) as well as your performance in special events.

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Part of a miscellany of serious thoughts, animal gifs, and anecdotage from the realm of MOBAs/hero brawlers/lane-pushers/ARTS/tactical wizard-em-ups. One day Pip might even tell you the story of how she bumped into Na Vi s Dendi at a dessert buffet cart.>

I spent the last few Dote Nights talking about tutorials in three MOBAs what they did well and what they did poorly. I realise I didn’t make any suggestions of my own for where to start in terms of characters, though. This post is about which heroes I learned to play Dota 2 [official site] on:

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Dota 2 [official site] will be officially switching over to the Source 2 engine in the next few weeks as the game-changing* Reborn update hits the main client.

Valve’s MOBA behemoth has had the Source 2 option for a while, just not in the main client. To use it you download the Reborn update (you’ll find it via the Play tab) and then select Reborn beta when you launch the game. But now Reborn is coming to the game’s main client and bringing all its accompanying bells and whistles as well as a few works-in-progress.

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Welcome to part two of “Thoughts about MOBA tutorials” – I hope you are as excited as I… WAIT COME BACK!

Tutorials might sound like a weird thing to devote two columns to given the wealth of other shenanigans and dramas in the MOBA communities at any given time but tutorials (or lack of them) can be the difference between having a good introduction to those games and communities and bouncing off so hard you could have treated the game as a launch rocket.

Last time I took an in-depth look at what Valve are doing in Dota 2’s Reborn client, this time I’ve had a chance to return to Smite [official site] and League of Legends [official site] to check out what they’re doing and not doing. I also have some suggestions for other ways to get players up to speed. Here’s what I reckon:

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The Majors have been on the horizon for the Dota 2 [official site] pro scene for a while now. They’re a series of big tournaments spaced through the year and around the globe culminating in The International. But Valve were reluctant to go into further detail until this year’s International was done and dusted – i.e. now.

The bit I’m most interested in is the restrictions this places on teams with regard to kicking players or reworking the lineup but first here’s some basic detail:

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