Valve's upcoming Dota 2 digital card game, Artifact, is playable right now and the PC gaming giant is lining up esports teams including Virtus Pro to try out an early build, according to a report.

VP General Manager Roman Dvoryankin spilled the beans in an interview with Russian site Cybersport.ru (translation via Reddit), saying that the organisation is planning to put together an Artifact team and that the game is currently playable at Valve HQ. Several World esports Association members have played the game and are impressed, he added.

The game is due to come out some time in 2018, and we still know very little about it (everything we do now and can reasonably predict is summarised here). If Valve is talking to esports teams early on then it's clearly keen to set the game up for competitive play right from the very start, which should be a good thing, and might help reverse the...ahem...unenthusiastic response to the game's original announcement.

What would you like to see from Artifact?

Thanks, PCGamesN