Dota 2: 2024 in Review

Another full revolution of Earth around the sun has passed us by, with Dota 2 also changing with the times. It’s been a landmark year for the long-standing MOBA title we all love to hate, hate to love, and everything in between, with plenty for Dota fans to still look forward to in the future.

We’re here to take all of us on a look back at the year that’s been, and how things might pan out for both Dota 2 and Valve once the calendar turns.

A Year Without the Pro Circuit

It’s now been more than a full year since the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) was abolished by Dota 2 publisher and developer Valve Corporation. For those of you that are new, the DPC was an official competitive circuit organized by Valve beginning in 2017, that rewarded teams with DPC Points for participating and/or placing well in Valve-sponsored tournaments. These points would be tallied at the end of each season to determine which teams would be invited directly to that year’s International, and which teams will have to go through regional qualifiers to get there.

For the first four years, the Pro Circuit ran Valve Minors and Valve Majors, which they changed into regular Regional Leagues from 2021 onwards. Valve shut down the DPC on September 14th, 2023, and in the process completely handed back control of non-TI events to third party organizers like ESL, FISSURE, and PGL.

The Dota Pro Circuit. https://t.co/IrxQP9zIxB #DPC #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/vOy92z5MKs

— Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) September 14, 2023

Because of this, the professional Dota 2 landscape has largely been sent back to the pre-2016 era, back when Valve would just invite teams to The International based on how they personally felt about how clubs fared during the season — with a slight recency bias for end-of-the-season results thrown in for good measure.

This move has had mixed results and effects on the professional scene as a whole. For one, pro teams will now have to try harder to earn a living playing Dota 2 again, as they no longer have the Regional Leagues to rely on for steady income. Placing at major LANs is almost the only way to earn any money again, thus reviving the notion that Dota is a top-heavy esport.

Ironically, the major tournaments from the current season such as ESL One Bangkok have been extremely competitive, with no team winning everything in sight for an extended period of time. But this comes with the caveat that the competition is only really noticeable at the highest level, with teams competing in tier 2 and below having to fight for scraps without the Regional Leagues around.

The loss of Valve Majors, which had a certain air of prestige to them, is also lamentable. Yes, the scene still has the old premier tournament names like ESL One or DreamLeague, but something like the Bali Major or the Stockholm Major just has name recognition like no other. They truly felt like big events in the sense that they would gauge how consistent teams could stay throughout the DPC season.

Losing the Prize Pool Crown: Worth It?

In relation to the disappearance of the Dota Pro Circuit, it’s worth noting that we are now in Year 2 of The International not breaking the all-time prize pool record for a single esports event. This is entirely because Valve have decided to stop putting cosmetics behind the yearly TI Battle Pass, which was the single biggest driver of revenue and what made previous editions of the tournament have eight-digit prize pools to begin with.

This, of course, made The International the most lucrative event in all of esports for several years running, but it came at the cost of making the rich richer (in the case of OG and Team Spirit winning back to back TIs) and making Dota 2 far more top-heavy than it needed to be. Four years ago, I wrote an article about how this “tradition” would only hurt the game in the long term — and though Dota as an esport hasn’t completely died off yet, it’s not felt quite the same since the game’s heyday on the global esports stage.

In an ideal world, Valve would continue to gather funds using the TI Battle Pass year in and year out, but distribute the proceeds from it down to the lower levels of play. A more even spread of wealth across the board is much, much healthier than constantly chasing after the bragging rights associated with having the biggest prize pool year after year.

But given that Valve have taken their hands off the rest of the competitive scene outside of The International, such an idea might forever remain a pipe dream at this point. If the DPC does come back someday, this would be an obvious solution to a problem that has been plaguing competitive Dota 2 for a long time.

One of the Longest Patches in Dota History

Patch 7.37 and its subsequent letter patches all feel like they’ve been here for almost a year now. The current patch was released in late July this year, and determined the metagame for TI13 and everything that has come since then. The metagame itself is dominated by tanky, aura carrying offlaners, ranged carries, and supports that can load up on healing and regeneration. Melee carries have practically been nowhere the whole time, so you would be hard-pressed to see anyone like Juggernaut doing well, let alone getting picked.

True enough, New Year’s Eve marks the fifth month since 7.37 dropped. We’re seeing some new faces lately like Spectre and Bloodseeker make headway at the top level, but the offlane meta is almost exactly the same as before. And as mentioned, melee carries aside from Spectre, Bloodseeker, and Alchemist are still dead in the water.

Fortunately, we will not see any tier 1 tournaments until FISSURE Playground Belgrade rolls around on January 24th, 2025. This gives Valve almost an entire month to push out a patch that will shake up the metagame and make Dota 2 feel fresh again. Fans, players, analysts, and everyone in between all know how crazy major patches can get in this game, so perhaps we won’t have to wait too long until this long nightmare is finally over. And at 152 days and counting, our awakening, if you will, can’t come any sooner.

Unless Valve wants to beat the previous record of more than 200 days, that is.

Uncertain Future, Glimmer of Hope

It’s hard to say where Dota 2 will be in the near future. Valve has become increasingly hands off on the esports side of things over the past few years, and even pros and team owners alike would not hesitate to tell anyone that The International is more like a yearly passion project for Valve rather than something as structured and reliable as, say, the League of Legends World Championship or VALORANT Champions.

This comes as little surprise considering the company’s flat corporate structure and fully private ownership. They don’t answer to any investors nor do they have top level management forcing personnel to work on certain things like in a typical company, and so Valve employees are pretty much allowed to work on what they want to work on — including TI and Dota 2 as a whole.

Team Liquid dominated Gaimin Gladiators in the Grand Final, 3-0, becoming the third team in history to lift the Aegis of Champions for a second time. #Dota2 #TI13 pic.twitter.com/yGBnvmfb5t

— The International (@dota2ti) September 15, 2024

And nothing emphasizes this more than their decision to kill off the DPC last year and leave all the work outside of TI to third-party organizers. Yes, it’s understandable to a point because running a full-scale competitive circuit is not cheap, and there are individuals and/or consortiums out there with more money than Valve does.

It’s unfortunate, but that’s the reality we Dota fans live in now. Thankfully, the 2024-2025 competitive season has gotten off to a roaring start, with multiple teams regularly vying for major LAN victories. Hopefully this continues well into the new year, as it might just help revitalize the scene.