It is that time of the year again – the spring cleaning update was released and with it many new changes were introduced. Most of the new features are related to the UI but there are also few nerfs and buffs to certain heroes and items. I will highlight the new features which I think are the most important, so be sure to check the full update.

Redesign of the Player Profile

It was a while since the player profile got any new updates, so the new features are definitely welcomed. One of the first big change is that you can actually put a background wallpaper on your profile which can be seen by everyone. These wallpapers are the loading screens that were a thing back in the days, when people used to load for ages and you could actually see your loading screen. This change is pretty cool, because they were somewhat useless after the big client update.

The second new feature is the showcase of three different heroes which you can put. The cool thing is that they appear with your own cosmetics, so now everyone can see your arcanas, immortals and so on.

The User feed, Most Recent Games, your Trophies tabs and the All-hero challenge have all been relocated but have not been changed. Right next to your last match now you can also see the outcome of your last eight games.

Six Months Matchmaking Ban

Matchmaking Updates — 6 month bans, language preference, custom game penalties and more. #SpringCleaning2018 #Dota2 pic.twitter.com/bTIFpG1tdU — Wykrhm Reddy (@wykrhm) February 1, 2018

All I can say is Hallelujah, finally Valve decided to take action against the people that ruin the game. This is in my opinion one of the most welcomed changes, because one of the biggest problems about Dota 2 is the community and its toxic levels, which are way higher compared to other games. This is only because of the lack of punishments, but as we saw, Valve decided to kick in and take action. From what I have read and experienced, you will get a notification once your are in the range of the ban, so if you do get it, make sure to either stop being toxic or face the consequences.

Live Pro Circuit Tournament Tab

With the new addition to the live tab you can now watch while you are ingame. This is actually a really good weapon that you can use in your advantage when you bet, mainly because you can follow the pro games easier, and if you spot any potential “easy money” you can just go straight into the betting websites and earn some cash. Of course, you can do that even with you watch livestreams on twitch for example, but having this in the game itself makes it faster and easier.

Last Hit Trainer

The Last hit trainer is also something which might be useful to a lot of players out there. It will surely help you to improve your last hitting skills but on top of that you can use this as a “warm up” tool, much like the Deathmatch servers in CS:GO. Recently I was watching Arteezy discussing this issue with another pro player, and they both agreed that something like this would be useful and few weeks later – it is live. You can do the trainer even while you are in a que for a game, so it makes it even more convenient to use.

Final Thoughts

There are also some other changes that are worth seeing, so I definitely suggest you to read the full update. In terms of the gameplay, hero and item changes – there are not that significant in order to have a huge impact on the game.

We want to try taking a different approach to how gameplay patches are released. Instead of big patches a couple of times a year, we’ll be releasing small patches every 2 weeks on Thursdays. We’ll be trying this out for about six months and then reevaluating. — IceFrog (@IceFrog) February 1, 2018

As we saw in a tweet from IceFrog, Dota will have a different approach in terms of the updates from now on, so we will see how will all the buffs and nerfs work out.

What do you think about the spring cleaning? Let us know in the comments and be sure NOT to get banned for six months, because that really sucks.