Dota 2

Dota 2 is considered the grandaddy of all MOBAs, and you’d not be wrong if you called all the games that followed Dota-likes. A deep tactical game, esports phenomenon, and online gaming juggernaut, Dota 2 players spend hours in-game polishing their skills, ranking up, and honing their craft.

With peak player counts of over 600k every month, Dota 2 has a solidified spot as one of the most-played games on Steam. From newbs who’ve just downloaded the game, to veterans with thousands of hours, the game is enjoyed by people from around the globe. And beyond this, it’s become a cultural icon, inspiring music, TV shows, documentaries, spin-off titles, and more.

Dota 2’s History and Development

Dota began life as a mod for Blizzard’s Warcraft III called Defence of the Ancients. Quickly becoming one of the most popular mods ever made, DotA spawned an esports scene and ballooned in popularity.

Originally developed by the likes of Kyle “Eul” Sommer and Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, some of those original creators eventually moved on to other, rival projects like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. With DotA left under the stewardship of the mysterious IceFrog, the rights to create Dota 2 were eventually acquired by Valve. Access to Dota 2’s Beta began in 2010 with the first International, and officially released a few years after in July 2013.

Over a decade later, Dota 2 has gone through upgrades to its engine, reworks to its gameplay, and the release of almost 100 additional heroes. Meanwhile, the competitive scene has celebrated the largest prize pool in esports history, over $40 million dollars, during the 2021 edition of The International.

Despite releasing into Beta in 2010, the core objective of the game hasn’t changed much in almost 15 years. Two teams of five battle to destroy their opponents Ancient, sometimes called the Throne.

The game starts with hero selection, where players pick which epic characters they’ll use to defeat their opponents. Players can also ban heroes during the selection phase, whether it’s the most popular meta hero, or just one annoying character you can’t stand. During this selection, players pick the hero they think will best match up with the role they’ll play in-game.

Dota 2 Roles

There are five distinct roles in Dota 2, divided into two categories. Primarily there are Cores and Supports. These are divided into the roles of Hard Carry, Midlaner, Offlaner, Soft Support, and Hard Support.

Cores and Carries

Cores, sometimes interchangeably called Carries, are the primary damage dealers in the game. A team has three cores:

Hard Carry

The Hard Carry is usually a high-damage potential hero that needs lots of farm and resources to scale and win the game. Often, a team’s win-condition is to get their Hard Carry ‘fed’ enough so they can quite literally carry the team. They usually lane with a Hard Support to give them protection in the early game.

Midlaner

Similar to a Hard Carry, a midlaner will usually be a high-damage hero that requires a lot of farm and experience, and as a result, gets a solo lane. The difference between a Hard Carry and Midlaner is usually their mobility or self sufficiency. They’re able to potentially score 1v1 kills on their opponent, and dominate the early game. Their late-game potential may be less than a Hard Carry, but they’re equally dangerous.

Offlaner

Offlaners get the short end of the stick. Laning opposing the enemy’s Hard Carry, and alongside the Soft Support (who may leave them on their own), this difficult role is often given to heroes who are tanky or otherwise have a way to survive in a bad situation. However, left unchecked, an Offlane hero can spiral out of control, and be as strong as any other carry.

Supports and Roamers

Supports are the other type of role in Dota 2. Their name is self explanatory: They support the other heroes. To do so, they’ll often be in charge of placing wards, buying healing items, and controlling objectives. Support heroes often have crowd control abilities, utility, or a single strong ‘nuke’ that makes them viable. Other supports will have unique abilities like controlling creeps or blending into trees. A team has two supports:

Soft Support

Sometimes called the Roamer or Roaming Support, the Soft Support usually lanes alongside the Offlaner, but can also be called upon to support the other lanes, either with ganks or wards. They are expected to find farm and support carries across all the lanes.

Hard Support

The Hard Support lanes alongside the Hard Carry. A truly selfless role, the Hard Support will forgo farm and experience in order to give his team, and primarily his Hard Carry, a competitive advantage. These heroes will often have high base stats, or powerful crowd control abilities, to mitigate their lack of scaling.

What happens in a game of Dota 2?

Dota 2 games can last anywhere from 10-15 minutes to hours long, but usually last around 40 minutes.

In the early game or laning phase, players will attempt to secure an advantage by killing the creeps and neutral monsters in and around their lane. If an opportunity to kill an opponent appears, they’ll take it.

Around the midgame, focus turns to objectives like towers, player kills, and neutral items, farmed from monsters in the jungle. Some heroes are most dangerous in this period of the game, particularly midlaners like Templar Assassin and Void Spirit.

In the late game, the carries come into their own, and are equipped with full item builds. Players will look for major objectives like the opponent’s creep barracks and the fearsome Roshan. Killing Roshan grants the Aegis of the Immortal, a legendary item which grants players a second life. Defeating Roshan multiple times will yield greater rewards.

Victory depends on destroying your opponent’s base and Throne. Usually players will need to have destroyed a full lane of towers, and perhaps have defeated Roshan to be able to break the ‘highground,’ as it’s one of the most defensible and dangerous positions to attack in Dota 2. During the game players are killed, respawn, and can buyback, sacrificing their hard earned gold for a second chance at life.

All of this happens while Dota 2 heroes use their fantastic abilities. From silencing all your opponents, to summoning demons, stealing the spells of others, and transforming — Dota 2’s incredible characters have powers as unusual as they are deadly.

The Dota 2 competitive esports scene is a thriving space with dozens of tournament operators and teams vying for supremacy. In the past, Valve, the creators of Dota 2, ran the competitive scene, known as the Dota 2 Pro Circuit. However in 2023, Valve abolished this system, leaving in its wake the potential for independent tournament organizers like PGL, EFG, BLAST, and FISSURE to take control.

Rather than one single esports league or scene, we now have multiple. The ESL Pro Tour, BLAST SLAM series , FISSURE series, and PGL Wallachia events, are just scratching the surface. Each boasts a million-dollar prize pool. But the biggest event is still indisputably The International (TI). With 14 editions over 15 years, and some of the biggest prize pools in history, dozens of teams compete for the chance to win TI and lift the Aegis of Champions — something every Dota 2 player dreams of, but few have managed.

With a strong history of player-built organizations and institutions, a tournament scene that must compete for the favor of pro players and audiences, and the chaotic hand of Valve making changes to the game behind the scene, the Dota 2 esports scene is one of the most compelling in the entire space.

Dota 2 Esports is enticing for viewers, not just for the adrenaline rush of watching prominent players make big plays. However, Dota 2 betting play a vital role in supporting the competitive scene as well.

In August, it is a norm to bet on the International because of the abundant matches and teams playing high stake games. That said, matches are available during the League and Majors of DPC too, so there’s no shortage of a betting slip.

As a cherry on top, many curated esports betting sites actively support Dota 2 betting. We also cover match predictions and betting analysis when there’s an active tournament, so be sure to stay updated on our Dota 2 news segment.