Let’s take a look at what’s been going on in the world of Dota 2 in the past week. Dota 2 news can be overwhelming at times, so this should help you stay up to date and in the loop to what’s been happening.

Dota 2 Past Week News And Updates

1). Professional Dota

We’ve had a large variety of qualifier matches to watch this past week. Teams were at each other’s throats fighting for a spot at the Dreamleague Major in Moscow.

2). North America

Forward gaming had an excellent run during the group stage, dropping only 1 game to Evil Geniuses (who saw that one coming?). EG, later on, flexed their North American pride and made short work of the playoffs; dropping only a single game against Complexity in the BO5 final.

3). CIS

On the other side of the world, CIS had its own share of upsets, with Gambit snagging a top 1 finish at the CIS qualifiers; dropping only 1 game to the Russian powerhouse VP. Navi unfortunately were unable to secure a spot this major, but they have played heroically till the last BO5 series of the entire CIS qualifiers. They were eliminated after losing 2-3 in favor of VP.

4). Europe

European Dota is still widely considered to be the strongest region in Dota 2. Besides Liquid struggling to find their place in the group stage, almost not qualifying at all, it was business as usual for the EU Qualifiers. This was mainly due to the admirable performances by Alliance. They were able to win a BO1 series against liquid during groups but were shortly after eliminated by OG during the playoffs. Sad days for NiP. as they, unfortunately, did not make the major.

5). China

Not surprisingly, PSG LGD was able to convincingly secure their spot during groups. Royal Never Give Up and Vici Gaming followed shortly after, during a very dominant playoff run by both teams. One dark horse that fans are missing are Newbee, who still struggle to find their stride after having lackluster results after their roster shuffle.

6). South America

The Pain Gaming Squad continues to dominate the South American Scene. They only dropped a single game during the group stage, and they secured themselves a top 1 finish. Infamous, later on, dominated the playoffs, dropping only 1 game to Gorillaz-Pride.

7). South-East Asia

Typical results here, Fnatic and TNC were able to secure themselves a spot in the Epicenter Major. TNC however, were able to have an exceptional run during the qualifiers, only dropping 1 game to Geek Fam. Fnatic is the team that’s normally in that position. Nonetheless, Fnatic stormed through their playoff bracket with ease.

All in all, look forward to watching; Secret, Liquid, OG, Gambit Esports, Virtus.Pro, PSG.LGD, Royal Never Give Up, Vici Gaming, TNC Predator, Fnatic, Forward Gaming, Evil Geniuses, paiN Gaming, and Infamous at Epicenter. The last 2 spots will be left for the top 2 teams at the ongoing Starladder Minor.

8). Shady Business

Epicenter has had numerous errors in the way they’ve handled qualifiers in the past. This time, however, pro players such as PPD, and N0ta1l have voiced their concerns on the issues. To summarize these said issues, the epicenter admins have failed to properly organize and schedule games. Many teams have had to suffer from last-minute alterations to their schedule. Teams also have been required to play up to 11 games a day, which is far too many games for any group of lads to play. Not to mention, that none of the players are receiving any form of monetary gain from these games.

Finally, PPD brought to light some shady tactics being used by the Epicenter Admins. In short, PPD’s team; Nip, were initially meant to play against Alliance, but due to some last minute alterations to the rules, they were forced to play against Liquid.

9). Community News

With the next TI being held in China, many western Dota fans will have to be up at inconvenient times if they wanted to watch the event live. Moreover, the event will primarily be broadcasted to a Chinese audience, so there will be less English content for viewers to enjoy. Moonduck Studios have proposed that they would rebroadcast TI during western hours, while having English content at appropriate times for western fans to enjoy. If you are interested in having this happen, make sure to let Moonduck know via their Twitter, or Reddit.

10). Dota 2 Game News

Community members are still not completely satisfied with how the MVP voting system works in Dota. Although it seems clear that valve is keen on fixing this issue. Initially, users had complaints about the feature just being ignored, where users reported not knowing who won the MVP vote of their previous game(s). This issue seems to be fixed, but now, players would like for support stats to be displayed in the post game. In an effort to try and give an equal chance for support players an opportunity to win MVP.

Good news, on the other hand, the Earthshaker Arcana has finally been released! This item was very anticipated in the last few days since valve has been sneakily adding its files to the client. That, and the addition followed by the swift removal of the Earthshaker Fissure Immortal; community members were able to put 2 and 2 together. The Arcana is extremely well received by casual fans, as well as pro players. It employs a ghostly white color scheme and has the potential to upgrade into a slightly different color scheme. More information on that here. And if you’d like to try out earthshaker for yourself, get acquainted with all his tips and tricks via this guide.

11). Valve News

TI9 Tickets were finally for sale today, however, reports from community members say that all tickets were sold out within 3 seconds! It’s hard to say if this is an accurate time frame, but Valve has implemented a “first come, first serve” system with how they distribute the tickets. With potentially thousands of users at the same time on the Ticket Vendors web page, its not unlikely that all tickets were all sold out in an instant. That’s the Chinese fan base for you!

Valve uncharacteristically made a statement regarding Auto Chess. They stated that they were in talks with Drodo on teaming up to design an ultimate Auto Chess experience. Unfortunately, that did not work out, and instead, Valve and Drodo will work independently from one another. On the bright side, it’s very likely that valve will publish their own “auto chess”, which explains their “dota underlords” trademark claim earlier this month. Drodo already has a beta version of its Android Auto Chess app for anyone to try out. Check that out here.

12). DRAMA ALERT

OG.Ceb was caught in the middle of some racism allegations yesterday. During a pub game, Ceb was allegedly expressing racist slurs towards Russians and was generally saying not so pleasant things in chat. He later issued a statement apologizing for the ordeal, but also stated that his insults were provoked by a single player in the game. Long story short, both parties are in the wrong, but Ceb is held to higher regard in the community, since he is, after all, a TI winner.

As the hours pass, other high ranking players have expressed their opinions of Ceb in their own games. With players like B9 proving Cebs toxicity in his pubs. However, the biggest shock is VP, Solo issuing a public complaint to valve, along with his withdrawal from Epicenter if Ceb goes unpunished. This is definitely a call back to the Kuku Drama, where although the situation is slightly different, Kuku was sufficiently punished for his actions (though not by valve).

Community members are beginning to raise concerns on whether racism is normalized in the Dota 2 ecosystem. It’s easy to see casual racism getting thrown around, and efforts should be made to convert these behaviors. It, however, is inexcusable by influential figures such as professional players like Ceb. It’s is very likely that Valve will step in, considering Solo’s ultimatum. Only time will tell.

13). Meta Report And Closing Thoughts

Drow is still broken.

This has been a very eventful past week of dota 2. Hopefully now you’re in the loop, and are aware of the current state of the pro scene, and the game in general. Next week will hopefully shed more light on the Ceb drama, as well as give us the final lineup of the StarLadder Minor.