Maelk’s Thought About DotA 2

Recently, ReadMore.de has managed to get an interview with Jacob ‘Maelk’ Toft-Andersen. Maelk is one of the most popular DotA player in the world. In this interview, he is talking what he thought about DotA 2 and the future of DotA-genre game. Let’s go!

readmore.de:
You’ve been playing DotA for almost seven years now, do you feel there’s a decline of interest and activity recently?

Jacob ‘Maelk’ Toft-Andersen:
This June it’ll be seven years. I feel the attention from larger organizations has gone back partially due to release of HoN and LoL drawing all of the genres attention, and then of course because they already tried it once without success presumably because of unprofessional teams and the lack of tournaments to promote themselves in.

readmore.de:

Dota 2 Beta Is The Third Week Of September

Announced last year, has shown two very discreet Dota.


Unless a trailer released just before the gamescom, details were scarce about to say the least. And while the mystery remains, the game has responded to this in the German trade show last week, but only a playable version on the ground of 1.6 million players in prizes. For more information, however, we find Gabe Newell, Valve's head to ask him some questions about Dota Dota 2 and 2.


Gamekult: We do not know the end is not very Dota 2 Even if the game is here now gamescom, but played in only Progamers compete with a profit of 1.6 million International tournament. Can you say more about the genesis of this title?



Adrian [Finol, note] spent about a week to make a prototype to ensure that we could make an RTS using the Source engine, because we have not thought of this engine for this kind of game, but he worked very quickly and more and more convinced that this was a response to Dota. When one thinks of changing Dota since its inception, the concept through many phases, so it will continue with new heroes, new mechanical ... What we also wanted to incorporate into the game, it is these characteristics that have taken place outside the game that guilds of players or coaches. As we worked on the game, a group of testers, made up of great players on Dota brought us back a lot and we had a great influence. And each time they were asked what they liked, they sent us a even longer list of examination (laughs).



When we finally managed to come up with something we liked and who liked to professional players of Dota, the next step was to set up a tournament that is discovered by the gamescom. It also allows us to refine the test by ensuring there is no problem when the game is broadcast in several languages, or when many players connect to servers to see the parties live, the last time I looked, there were 230,000 people on our server. This event makes it possible to ensure that under these conditions, there is no lag or inconvenience of the genre.

MYM Disband

The pro DOTA scene shifts for MYM after "The International".



With the celebration of "The Internationale" that many people expect major changes in the scene and pump pro DOTA first hit the scene is the dissolution of MYM.

Having finished fourth ($ 80,000) in "The International" no one would have expected MYM dissolve, but the team will no longer exist, and players will separate. Some continue to play while others move to other commitments.

As of now, no one knows who will continue to play and that is to take a break from the pro circuit. For more information to come as they become available.

MYM is probably one of the oldest team in the history of competitive DOTA. It may have crossed a couple of the Incarnation, but it is always the same core players Pusher, Mania and Maelk.


Declaration Maelk, Captain MYM:

"We've reached the end of an era, and all agreed that inorder for us to prepare for the future and fulfill our individual dreams and goals that we had to start from scratch. For many of us, as MYM was a part of our identity in our own DotA as a nickname, but we are confident that the movement is fine. Players will finish the year doing different things. Some time following the competition, while others take a break from the professional circuit . Some have obligations outside game that can not be ignored, while others focus on DotA fullheartedly for the rest of the year.

Once the new year begins and launches two DOTA, we'll probably meet and come together again! "

For now a chapter of DotA will be closed, and we look forward to what the future holds.

Valve's Erik Johnson Spoke to nVidia about DotA 2 Beta

Valve claims that DotA 2 Beta invite might depend on player PC configuration.


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According to Erik Johnson, DotA 2 won't require a superb computer, but people with hardware might enjoy an invite priority over people with older machines. This might be the thing in the upcoming first wave of beta invites while everyone will be able to enjoy open beta version of DotA 2 that will be released later this year.

Erik Johnson said: “We are just going to start adding people partly based on what kind of hardware configuration they have that will be useful for us to get data on.”

“Then as we move on, we will start adding as many people as we can to start testing for scale”

DOTA 2 Latest News (wrap up)

A wrap-up of all the latest news of DOTA 2 for the past days! Don't miss it!

Hello everyone! A couple of days after The International and we are still trying to get back to every day life but the thrill and anticipation for DOTA 2 are just not helping!

This post will be a short news update on the DOTA 2 news that we had during these past weeks.

So, let's see that we have!

We saw DOTA 2 gameplay and we loved it!

As you probably now by now, DOTA 2 was shown for the first time during The International and it was thrilling. The game got amazing reviews and people loved it. Some minor negative comments where received for a couple hero models, some visual effects and for the user interface of the game - both of which have been addressed by Valve and as they said they have lots of feedback from the community and they will be making changes on the models and some visual effects. As for the UI they said that it will be reworked as well. The engine, which is the most important thing on the game, was great! The games where smooth, no real bugs or errors and gameplay seemed brilliant!


For anyone that missed it (I have no idea how or why you'd do such a stupid thing but ...meh!)The International is over and Na'Vi are the one million dollar prize winners! Congratulations!

You can read up on all the details of the international here, check the replays from the whole tournament here. Finally, you can check up on the statistics of hero picks from the tournament here.


DOTA 2 will not be shipped before 2012.

This is one of the sad news that we got from Gabe but, at the same time he promised that the open BETA will be live until the game is released. What does that mean? Free DOTA 2 until the game's official release for all. Meh... Delaying the actual release doesn't sound so bad if we can all play the game! :)


Gabe Newell's Interview on GamesCom

Here are the important stuff you need to know about this interview:

• Several Valve developers are avid fans of the original DotA!
• Story driven single-player campaigns are out of the question. Valve intends to focus on the multiplayer aspects.
• Matchmaking algorithms will match players of similar skill level.
• Community contributions such as player guides, coaching system and accessibility etc. will be an integral part of the overall gameplay experience.
• Cosmetic microtransactions are likely going to be implemented.
• Dota 2 will continue the DotA tradition of getting user feedback and suggestions.
• Dota 2 will launch in early 2012 at the earliest. Despite that, an invitation-only beta will start some time after gamescom and an open beta will follow after.

Erik Johnson's Interviews on Gamescom 

Here are a few of the important bits, but we'd recommend you watch both interviews:interview 1 and interview 2: 

• Dota 2 will have 105 heroes on release.
• Every hero in Dota 2 will have individual backstories, with several videos and comics planned to explore and tell the story of the Dota 2 world.
• You'll be able to join a game with your friends and fight similarly skilled players with friends. Valve is really trying hard to solve the problem of games with imbalanced skill levels.
• Bot training maps, tutorials, and coaching are all confirmed.
• Erik's favorite hero is Earthshaker!
• Feedback on the game from the Gamescom attendees are really positive.
• Beta will eventually go from thousands to hundreds of thousands in order to get more feedback. Player hardware configuration will likely be a criteria in player selection.
• The game can scale down on low end computers, so no worries tight-budgeted players!

Erik Johnson's Interview at Dealspwn 

In this new interview, Erik Johnson said that they have plans to hold an event similar toThe International yearly which gathers the best players from all around the world. At the same time, on the same matter IceFrog has confirmed that the prizepool will "be at least as big as the current prize pool" when responding to a fan query on playdota forums.


DOTA 2 Wins IGN's People's Choice Award!

Over the course of Gamescom 2011, IGN was running the People's Choice Award, giving you the chance to vote for your favourite game of the show - whether you were there in Cologne or not.

Altogether, 258,367 votes were cast - which, as I'm sure you'll agree, is a LOT of people. Incidentally, this makes IGN's People's Choice Award officially the world's largest videogame awards, which we're very pleased about.

It was a hard-fought battle, with five or six different games on top at one point or another in the show. There were 25 candidates, but there can only be one winner, and the eventual victor was... *drumroll*

...Valve's DOTA 2!

Finally unveiled on the show floor, DOTA 2 presents a mix of online RTS and RPG action, and it impressed us as well as voters. You can read our Gamescom impressions here.


A fan-made DOTA 2 Feedback website has been setup!

The website can be found here and it is basically gathering "like" and "dislike" votes on hero modes, item icons and spell icons. An interesting initiative that we believe is worth your vote.


Blizzard DOTA gets Rebooted!

One of the senior games designers at Blizzard told Eurogamer that the Starcraft II Mod got rebooted and thus it's release pushed back to 2012. It is unclear whether this reboot and postpone has anything to do with the trademark issues that Valve had with Blizzard on the DOTA trademark.


DOTA 2 BETA

This announcement gave hope to all of us a couple of days ago!

Following yesterday's announcement of the Dota 2 public beta, Valve informed us today that the stress testing should begin "a few weeks following Gamescom," the mega-sized games convention currently taking place in Germany.

A Valve representative also told us that the company is targeting the Dota 2 launch for the end of this year, but it could be early next. Steam users who registered should keep an eye out for an invite to the beta shortly.

Finally, one last interview from Gabe was published last night that revealed that we can expect to see the beta in about three weeks. As he said, we have to wait that long because of the feedback they got from the tournament. Some of you may have thought the beta would start right after Gamescom, but this is appropriately timed considering the announcement of the beta starting in the Fall. 

Team in DotA2 International Tournament

Europe
 GGnet
 MYM
 NeVo
 Na’Vi
 OK.Nirvana.Int
 Moscow 5

China
 CCM
 LGD
 Tyloo
 EHOME
 OK.Nirvana.cn

South-East Asia
 MiTH.Trust
 StarsBoba
 Scythe
 MUFC
 MI.Asus

44Hero And Item have in DotA2 International Tournament

INTELLIGENCE
1. Tinker
2. Dark Seer
3. Puck
4. Shadow Shaman
5. Windrunner
6. Lion
7. Chen
8. Pugna
9. Ancient Apparition
10. Lich
11. Witch Doctor
12. Enigma
13. Crystal Maiden
14. Leshrac
15. Nature’s Prophet
16. Enchantress
17. Dazzle
18. Necrolyte
19. Lina
20. Zeus
21. Storm Spirit

AGILITY

1. Spectre
2. Weaver
3. Vangeful Spirit
4. Venomancer
5. Mirana
6. Drow Ranger
7. Sniper
8. Anti-Mage
9. Razor
10. Shadow Fiend
11. Faceless Void
12. Viper
13. Morphling

STRENGTH
1. Night Stalker
2. Slardar
3. Doom Bringer
4. Sand King
5. Earthshaker
6. Beastmaster
7. Tiny
8. Tidehunter
9. Clockwerk
10. Sven