dota

Dota 2 is largely identical to the original dota as far as gameplay goes.

Matchmaking was accessible to all players starting in 2012 when Valve released Dota 2 publicly.

In 2011 Valve hired the developer of the custom map to make a full standalone game and that became Dota 2.

Dumb question, but how did he start playing Dota 2 at the age of 7?

I mean, after 9.5 years of playing DotA, what's the point?

In Dota all of these small differences are absent, and the items are generally more impactful and more frequently have actives.

StarCraft, DotA) because getting kicked off the computer meant letting my whole team down.

It's also worth pointing out that Dota is somewhat skewed in terms of earnings.

Most of a Dota player's income comes from tournament prizes, as opposed to say, corporate sponsorships, which are more popular in Starcraft.

Disclaimer: I was a dota player, which has some rivalries with LoL The LoL model is controversial.

Most players (including me) played the original game before shifting to Dota 2.

Exactly where DOtA starts and ends can be a little bit fluxy.

This year The International, the annual Dota 2 "tournament of tournaments", will have a prize pool surpassing 15 million dollars.

Dota was originally a custom map for the Blizzard game Warcraft III released circa 2005.

This contrasts Dota's more RTS controls where heroes are capable of amassing armies of units.

Valve has done a brilliant job creating a virtuous cycle around professional Dota.