El Gato, the household cat and Dota 2 courier, was designed by Thiago Vidotto (TVidotto) in conjunction with Beyond the Summit as an in game item for viewers and fans of BTS.

Fact: El Gato has a 8% higher win rate than any other courier in competitive dota.

Source: www.datdota.com

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History

El Gato began as LD’s house cat back in Philadelphia where he was first casting from when he joined BTS and became a regular stream visitor and part of the viewing experience. He was the iconic “tyrant” of BTS at one point, even having his own fan page. Unfortunately, LD had to say goodbye to El Gato when he moved out to L.A. and we set up our studio, so we decided to immortalize him.

We worked with prominent Dota 2 workshop artist Thiago Vidotto and came up with the concept for the courier. We’d been in talks for a while and wanted to create a courier that would track all the views that people could get watching our games in DotaTV and the courier could evolve and change as you got more views. And so, we ended up with with what you see today.

Check out the El Gato trailer video by TVidotto here as the adorable little kitty shows he has a mean side as he takes on Roshan! It’s no surprise this courier has a higher win % than any other courier.

Evolutions:

1. Blue Owl – The default loadout, with a blue owl on El Gato’s back and later carrying him around in the flying model.

2. Silver Owl – The first upgrade, requires 60 views, changes the owl to a silver owl with particle effect.

3. El Super Gato! – The second upgrade, requires 120 views, El Gato sports a super hero cape and gets the power to fly on his own!

Getting Views:

There are 3 different ways to get views, the basic premise is you must own the DotaTV ticket for the event being broadcast in order to get views, we aren’t trying to force you to buy tickets (in fact, most of these events we cast we don’t make any money from tickets since we are the casters not the organizers), this is just the system that’s been implemented to track views. However, there are several free DotaTV tickets you can watch to get easy views at no cost.

Watching live games in DotaTV with BTS casters Watching replays/highlights in DotaTV of games with BTS casters Watching some* live games on BTS’s TwitchTV channel (if you own the DotaTV ticket for the event)

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Free Tournament Views: (check out replays/highlights from these tournaments if you want to get free views to upgrade with!)

Nexon Starter League

TI3 Prelims (games cast by BTS)

TI3 Main Event (games cast by LD/Lumi)

NEST (chinese tournament)

MLG Columbus Dota 2 Championship

Pay-to-watch Tournament Views: (you can buy these tickets in the Dota 2 store)

G-League

WPC – Ace Dota 2 League

Dota 2 Super League

Alienware Cup

Starladder VIII

WePlay Dota 2

Corsair Summer Tournament

Nexon Sponsorship League

And More!

You get views based on the caster for the event, not the event itself, so any game which has a caster added to the “BTS group” can get you views, this includes potentially events BTS aren’t even covering since casters such as Sheever, Bruno, & Maut have been added to this group for coverage they did for BTS in the past. In short, you can get views for a ton of events if you have the ticket as well as many free ones!

Watching on Twitch – Twitch.tv channels can only be linked to one Steam account at any given time, which for BTS is generally LD’s or GoDz’s account so games cast by other casters even if you have the ticket will be unlikely to get you views since they are not linked to the BTS twitch channel, and constantly changing who it is linked to isn’t a feasible option at this point. We apologize for the inconvenience but at this point there’s not many practical solutions.

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Supporting BTS – Purchasing an El Gato courier helps support BTS and helps us grow our community and hopefully brings you more fun and success in your Dota 2 games. Additionally, as with all Dota 2 store purchases, you’re helping support Valve with the majority of the purchase who made this awesome game we all love. Finally, it helps support the amazing Thiago Vidotto who without this courier wouldn’t be possible!

Much love and Kappa! – BTS