Team OG stunned the world in August when they held strong against PSG.LGD to claim the Aegis of Champions in a thrilling five-game conclusion to The International. Now, it's time to journey behind the scenes of this epic clash to see the real story of how one of the most exciting comebacks in esports history unfolded for the players involved.

Join OG and a theatre audience on January 15, 2019 to catch the world premiere of True Sight — The International 2018, coming to you live from the Nordisk Film Cinema Palads in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The broadcast will begin at 8:00pm CET, to be followed by a Q&A session with attendees and the champions themselves—hosted by Kaci and PyrionFlax. Tickets to join OG at the live premiere in Copenhagen will be available starting on December 25, with more information on how to tune in at home coming soon.

In the meantime, check out the teaser available on YouTube.

In today's update, Rubick steals the show, unveiling his own Arcana item before kicking off the events of Frosthaven, a new special game mode available through January 3rd.

Featuring all-new custom animations and effects—including 115 custom stolen spell effects, dynamic cape colors, and more animations than any other hero in the game—the Magus Cypher Arcana has helped Rubick unlock a deeper mastery in manipulating the arcane arts. No longer content just to mimic the spells of his enemies, Rubick can now alter the very core of the magic used against him, changing it to his liking and casting it back with his own signature style.

But the new influx of arcane knowledge has left Rubick in want of even more, and his sudden ardor has turned arboreal. In the secluded hamlet of Frosthaven, atop the heart of an ancient power, grows the original Frostivus tree, from which all the world's holiday presents flow. Rubick, swept up in the zeal of unraveling and reshaping arcane energies, intends to uproot the tree to explore the mysterious font of power beneath it. And only five heroes stand between him and the end of Frostivus forever.

Head over to the Frosthaven Update page for more information on this chilling special event and a complete rundown of Rubick's new Magus Cypher Arcana.

As you take to the lanes looking for a spell to steal, we also hope you'll enjoy this Arcana's remastered take on the original voice performance of the late Barry Dennen, who imbued Rubick with a magic that helped the Grand Magus steal our hearts in the first place.

The new season of the Dota Pro Circuit is now underway. With the conclusion of the first Minor Championship, the first DPC points have already been awarded, and Tigers—as the last team standing in Stockholm—have earned the right to join the tournament roll in Kuala Lumpur at the opening Dota 2 Major Championship of this competitive season.

They round out a field of 16 competitors qualified from six regions who all seek to start the year off strong when The Kuala Lumpur Major kicks off on Friday, November 9 at 10:00 am Malaysia Time. With $1,000,000 USD and 15,000 DPC points up for grabs, teams have a chance to show their fans and rivals alike what each can expect to find on the road to next year's championship showdown in Shanghai.

Fans around the world can catch all The Kuala Lumpur Major action in the Dota 2 client, on SteamTV, or on PGL's Twitch stream daily from November 9 through Sunday, November 18, and fans in Malaysia are welcome to join in live at Axiata Arena from Friday, November 16 for the final three days of the event.

Once the next Major Champion is crowned, the 7.20 gameplay update will be released the following day on Monday, November 19th.

As the calendar nears its annual renewal, and a hint of winter merriment sweeps across the lanes, it's time for the heroes of Dota 2 to think about cold-weather wardrobe changes. To help get them bundled into fresh winter garb, we invite all Dota 2 Workshop creators to kindle the fires of their imaginations and dream up new item sets to unveil in this year's Winter Treasure.

We are now officially accepting submissions based around the themes of winter and all of its trappings to be considered for inclusion. Make sure to mark your submissions with the "Winter 2018" tag when tendering items to the Workshop. All submissions must be on the Dota 2 Workshop by Monday, November 26, 2018. As usual, we would like to ask artists to avoid the use of any concepts that involve human skulls, blood, and gore.

Additionally, all Dota fans should remember to regularly visit the Workshop and vote through the Queue to ensure your voices are heard in the selection process.

In the wake of the thrilling conclusion to The International and the culmination of the Battle Pass season, today's update is focused on bringing some of that summer fun into the perks of Dota Plus.

Leading the way, the Ranked Roles matchmaking queue has been added to Dota Plus. To mark the occasion, we’ve added a welcome quest where players who win 5 times in the Ranked Roles queue will earn 5000 shards.

We've also moved In-Game Tipping into Dota Plus, letting you celebrate the joyous moments of battle by sending some free Shards an ally's or enemy's way in recognition of their contributions to the game.

Express yourself year-round with select Sound Effects, which are now unlockable with Shards. Once unlocked, you’ll have access to these sounds while your Dota Plus membership is active.

Finally, as a special end-of-summer bonus, any Dota Plus member who plays 4 games this weekend can claim an extra 10,000 Shard reward.

The Road to the Aegis
Congratulations to OG, Grand Champions at The International 2018.

OG defied all predictions, making the journey to this year's tournament through the gauntlet of the Open Qualifiers.

At first, they struggled in the group stage. But an impressive run over the final two days helped secure fourth seed and a trip to the Upper Bracket of the Main Event.

On the main stage, top-seeded VGJ.Storm were waiting. The North American squad drew first blood and kept on rolling. Riding the play of newly-returned Ana, OG weathered the early aggression, taking game one in a sudden reversal, and maintaining the momentum for a 2-0 series win.

Next would come a grudge match against Evil Geniuses. After a convincing win in game one, OG looked to close out the series, opening up a big lead. But Evil Geniuses showed amazing resilience, clawing back to force a game three. In the rubber match, Evil Geniuses tried to smash OG's defenses -- which bent but did not break. A clutch buyback teamfight wiped Evil Geniuses' chances, and earned OG a spot in the Upper Bracket Final.

With a spot in the Grand Final at stake, OG's next series came against PSG.LGD. After trading the first two games of the series, OG outlasted the DPC powerhouse in a tense battle that saw PSG.LGD throw all their heroes at the OG throne. With the help of Jerax's Earthshaker, OG barely held on, storming across the map to make a victory push of their own.

But PSG.LGD defeated Evil Geniuses in the Lower Bracket Final to set up a rematch, and a five-game Grand Final series for the ages.

There, PSG.LGD would take a 2-1 series advantage before pushing OG to the brink in game four. As they had done throughout the tournament, OG held on. Leveraging plays both crafty and clutch, they were able to outlast PSG.LGD to force a deciding game five. With an unorthodox draft of heroes that hadn't seen much success in the tournament, OG once again held out against an early PSG.LGD lead, turning the game around at the 25-minute mark and never looking back. Massive underdogs at the start of the tournament, OG took game five, and with it, the Aegis.

As bearers of the ultimate symbol of victory, these names shall forever be inscribed upon the Aegis of Champions:


2018
Anathan "ana" Pham
Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen
Sébastien "Ceb" Debs
Jesse "JerAx" Vainikka
Johan "N0tail" Sundstein


Looking Back
If you missed any of the tournament, or just want to relive the incredible moments and plays, head over to the Dota 2 YouTube channel, where you can find replays of the entire tournament, including broadcast content from in between the games. You can also find a stash of photos from the event over on the Media page and the Dota 2 Flickr.

We would like to thank all of the players, talent, and everyone in the Dota community for helping bring this celebration to life. The International is the crowning moment of the competitive season, and without everyone’s support, none of this would be possible. We hope you enjoyed this year’s tournament as much as we did.

The Days Ahead
In the wake of The International, we're extending the Battle Pass for two more weeks. So everyone that was busy watching OG's road to the Aegis can now enjoy their Battle Pass features until Monday, September 10.

Today's update releases a new hero — Grimstroke — into the world.

Chosen to serve as an arcane guardian of his people, Grimstroke was instead responsible for their eternal corruption. Trapped in agony as inky revenants, his former kindred cast cruel shadows of what might have been. But the sacrifice infused Grimstroke with great power, and he considers it a price well paid.

Learn more about Grimstroke and his abilities here. Or just launch Dota 2 and try your own hand at wielding the master's brush.

Following Grimstroke's release, the next hero debut will come this winter when Mars strides onto the battlefield, ready for war.

Don't miss out on the thrilling conclusion of The International tomorrow, August 25th. Broadcast begins at 10:00am PDT, and you can tune in right here on http://steam.tv.

The International Group Stage is just five days away, and as we await the crowning event of the Dota 2 competitive season, it's time to check in on some of the final details for those watching the event.

Tournament News
As always, you can check out your in-game Compendium for a complete list of Casters and Talent for this year's event. While you're there, don't forget to fill out your predictions for hero picks, team results, player performance, and tournament meta. Predictions lock before the start of Group Stage play.

Today we've also launched the official tournament website for The International 2018, your hub for keeping up with the day-to-day of tournament proceedings. As the Group Stage and Main Event progress, you'll be able to see updated standings and new social media content posted each day from Vancouver.

• Group Stage: August 15th – August 18th, 2018 – Like last year, two best-of-two groups of nine teams. Top four teams in each group advance to Upper Bracket, four – eight advance to Lower Bracket, bottom in each group is eliminated.
• Main Event: August 20th – August 25th, 2018 – As before, 16 teams battle through a best-of-three double elimination playoff. Lower bracket first round is best-of-one, Grand Finals are best-of-five.

Media
Eighteen teams from around the world have earned a place in Vancouver for the final test of the Dota competitive season. Look back on their journeys to the tournament with The International Lowdown videos. Multiple videos are already available with more coming each day as we approach Group Stage. Once the tournament begins, check in on what's happening both on stage and behind the scenes on our media page, which features all content from our Youtube Channel, Twitter feed, and Instagram.

Newcomer Stream
Help friends interested in learning more about Dota understand the tournament flow by sending them to the Newcomer Stream. They'll be able to watch the main broadcast enhanced with contextual overlays that call out information helpful for understanding the intricate world of Dota during the biggest event of the season.

Pubstomps
There’s no better way to enjoy Dota than watching The International with friends. But not every fan can make the journey to Vancouver to witness the tournament in person. To help people around the world connect with each other for their own celebratory Dota events, we’ve once again partnered with Barcraft United to facilitate Pubstomp administration. Just visit the Barcraft landing page to find a Pubstomp in your area.

One week remains until the first battle horns will sound to kick off Group Stage play at The International, and final preparations are well underway.

As the eighteen teams complete their journeys into Vancouver, now is an opportune time to take a look back upon the vastly different roads each has traveled through the Dota Pro Circuit season to arrive at the tournament.

Today, with the help of one SirActionSlacks, we'll recap all the DPC moments that determined the final standings for the eight direct invites in the new Dota Pro Circuit Rewind.

Starting tomorrow, SirActionSlacks will return each day leading up to the Group Stage to help you catch up on everything you need to know about all eighteen teams and their rosters in his week-long series, The International Lowdown.

Tune in daily August 9 - 14 at 10:00 AM PDT on our Youtube or Twitch channels for a new episode. The International Lowdown will feature three teams each day, and viewers on Twitch will also see select classic matches from the archives of The International.

Immortal Treasure III has arrived, featuring all-new items for Shadow Shaman, Dark Willow, Queen of Pain, Batrider, Zeus, and Naga Siren.

In addition to these items, each of these treasures you open also offers increasing odds to receive a very rare Golden version of the Queen of Pain item, or an ultra rare bundle for Witch Doctor. You might even unearth a rare haul of Battle Points, or the cosmically rare Emblem of the Crystal Echelon.

All Battle Pass owners can find an Immortal Treasure III ready to unbox in the Armory, and you can earn more treasures by increasing your Battle Level. Check out a preview of the new items and custom effects from today’s treasure over on the Battle Pass page.

This patch also includes an update to The International Compendium revealing this year's roster of broadcast talents, and a list of today's bug fixes can be found here.