The arenas might be different, the star players might change, and every year new teams will rise while others fall. But while many things change, one thing is constant: The International remains a chronicle of the same journey, following the best Dota team in the world as they conquer every obstacle, overcome every challenge, and carve their names into the Aegis.
The original TI was a five-day event, hosted on the show floor of GamesCom in Cologne. Valve has been hosting The International for more than a decade since, and every year we've learned new things — everything from booth design to sponsorships to specific details of tournament design. Every year we try to capture the best parts of prior decisions while looking for opportunities to try some variations that might work even better.
So, with tickets going on sale soon (details below), we wanted to walk you through this year's tournament format.
The Road to The International We set out this year to create a structure such that every single match had stakes, and that those stakes were clear to the teams and the viewers. We wanted to do this without losing the massive amount of foundational, tournament-meta-defining games that fans of the group stage enjoy every year. And at the same time, the new format needed to avoid issues we've seen in previous years, where individual round robin games didn't matter at all, or only mattered to teams that weren't in the match.
The arenas might be different, the star players might change, and every year new teams will rise while others fall. But while many things change, one thing is constant: The International remains a chronicle of the same journey, following the best Dota team in the world as they conquer every obstacle, overcome every challenge, and carve their names into the Aegis.
The original TI was a five-day event, hosted on the show floor of GamesCom in Cologne. Valve has been hosting The International for more than a decade since, and every year we've learned new things — everything from booth design to sponsorships to specific details of tournament design. Every year we try to capture the best parts of prior decisions while looking for opportunities to try some variations that might work even better.
So, with tickets going on sale soon (details below), we wanted to walk you through this year's tournament format.
The Road to The International We set out this year to create a structure such that every single match had stakes, and that those stakes were clear to the teams and the viewers. We wanted to do this without losing the massive amount of foundational, tournament-meta-defining games that fans of the group stage enjoy every year. And at the same time, the new format needed to avoid issues we've seen in previous years, where individual round robin games didn't matter at all, or only mattered to teams that weren't in the match.
Patch 7.38c is out now and you can check out the patch notes here.
In addition, over the last few days we've addressed the following issues: - Added missing patch note line from 7.38 patch notes "Roshan no longer drops Aghanim's Blessing" - Fixed Tormentor spawning on top of the Player's Hero at 15 minutes when demoing a terrain - Fixed -createhero sometimes creating a hero with no facet - Fixed the Combat Log displaying non-visible enemy's channelling of Twin Gates - Fixed it being possible for a hero to get their position or hero model angle stuck if Roshan's grab animation is interrupted - Fixed Haste rune duration not correctly upgrading with the rune cycle - Fixed being able to generate infinite teleport scrolls by buying then selling boots of travel - Fixed various scenarios where players could learn if their enemy activated a smoke of deceit while in fog of war - Fixed Alchemist Scepter granting buff visually always displaying as having given 1 scepter to enemies - Fixed Bristleback's Quill Spray damage from Aghanim's Scepter counting as reflected damage - Fixed being able to get negative networth on Dazzle by stashing a teleport scroll, buying a teleport scroll on your courier, having no teleport scroll on your hero, buying and selling boots of travel multiple times, giving the teleport scroll on your courier to dazzle, casting Nothl Projection, then using your courier to deliver your stashed teleport scrolls to Dazzle while the ultimate is active - Fixed Clinkz's Tar Bomb not procing Magic Wand when set to autocast - Fixed Doom's Devil's Bargain buyback being calculated incorrectly - Fixed Hoodwink's Level 20 Talent Sharpshooter Provides Truesight have a blindspot along the path - Fixed Kez's Echo Slash first hit being unable to trigger Shadowhawk's bonus when used from invisibility - Fixed Kunkka's Level 25 ...
Immortal Draft Changes: - Immortal Draft rules will now be used if any player is above 8500 MMR (roughly the top 0.5% of players). (Previously, the cutoff was 6500 MMR, roughly the top 1.5% of players.) - Immortal Draft games do not show up in public match history. Replay access is restricted to game participants, and these games are not listed in Web APIs. - Players who are above 8500 MMR (the top 0.5% of players) are now required to register an official name to queue for ranked. This name cannot be changed and will be displayed during the pre-game player draft phase of Immortal Draft games. Approximately half of players at this rank already have an official name registered. - Players above 8500 MMR who are guaranteed to play an Immortal Draft game may not queue for ranked as a party. Unranked is unchanged. - Changed the way MMR gain/loss works in Immortal Draft games to better take into consideration the possible outcomes based on player draft choices. In summary: - If your MMR is 8500+, all of your ranked games will be Immortal Draft. All matches will be private. You're required have an official name registered. You cannot queue for ranked matches as a member of a party. Unranked is unchanged. - If your MMR is 6500+, your ranked games will only be Immortal Draft if matched with a player above 8500 MMR. Otherwise you'll play using standard ranked match rules. Unranked is unchanged.
Patch 7.38b is out now, along with a new Dota Plus season. You can check out the 7.38b patchnotes here.
In addition, over the last few days we've addressed the following issues: - Fixed Clinkz Burning Army skeletons being able to auto-cast Tar Bomb - Fixed Templar Assassin Hidden Reach effects being visible to enemies - Fixed Sven Level 10 Talent +10% Vanquisher Bonus Damage not working properly - Fixed Ability Draft loading screen being stuck during draft phase when there are fewer than 10 players in the lobby. - Drow Ranger Precision Aura from illusions no longer overrides her own bonus agility - Fixed Ancient Apparition Ice Blast Shatter Threshold flickering when clicking on an enemy affected by ice blast - Ability Draft: Doom: Devour: fixed player losing ability in first slot for the rest of the game after casting Devour - Ability Draft: Doom: Devour: fixed permanently gaining passive aura from neutral creep - Fixed Roshan Timer being broken when Templar Assassin Third Eye innate is active. - Fixed Mark for Sell items not being collected by the courier if the courier did not start in the fountain when ordering it to deliver - Fixed Mark for Sell items being returned to the hero if they were in the courier's inventory when delivering other items. - Refined the alt-click chat messages on the Roshan Timer to match other alt-click messages. - Refined alt-click chat messages on the Madstone indicator to better match other alt-click chat messages. - Fixed Drow Ranger with the Sidestep Facet not triggering Silencer Last Word when Multishot finishes - Fixed Viper Nosedive, which caused the caster model orientation to enter a bad state, allowing Rubick or any hero in Ability Draft to exploit this with certain abilities, causing them to remain permanently in the world. - Fixed Jakiro Liquid Fire not working in Ability Dr...
Over the last few days we've addressed the following issues: - Fixed heroes in Ability Draft not having innate abilities - Fixed Lotus Pool timers showing regular Dota game mode timings in Turbo - Fixed minimap icons not showing for live spectators in player view - Fixed some camps' spawnboxes being taller than Kunkka's Torrent height - Fixed Tormentor spawning in undesirable locations while in Demo Mode - Neutral Tooltip is better at guessing enchantment level - Fixed Ironwood trees not providing extended healing duration when consumed with Tango - Fixed Ninja Gear usage while smoked allowing you to re-apply Smoke of Deceit to your allies - Fixed Phylactery not slowing enemies on proc - Fixed Pirate's Hat causing the Death Cost tooltip to display a slightly incorrect amount - Fixed Pyrrhic Cloak reflecting reflected damage - Fixed Revenant's Brooch on Illusions dealing more damage than intended - Fixed an issue where Scurry and Death Pact would have more than the max number of charges if the corresponding talent was taken after the ability was skilled - Fixed various issues with Morphling's Morph - Fixed various issues with Winter Wyvern's Winter's Curse - Fixed Anti-Mage Magebane's Mirror not reducing mana when the caster doesn't have enough mana to spend - Fixed Arc Warden's Flux with Aghanim's Scepter occasionally still silencing even if Flux was dispelled - Fixed Crystal Maiden's Blueheart Floe not leveling up with Freezing Field - Fixed Dazzle not getting Desolator charges when killing heroes while a Nothl Voyager - Fixed Dazzle not getting Urn of Shadows charges when killing heroes while a Nothl Voyager - Fixed Dazzle's Aghanim's Shard not providing Healing Amplification while in the Nothl Realm - Fixed Dazzle's Nothl Projection not benefitting from Poison Touch talent upgrades in certain situations - Fixed Dazzle's Nothl Projection granti...
Much like the galactic water miners in the movie and possibly the book Dune Part 2, Dota has always been the only game in any genre that believes water is the most valuable resource in both the Dune-iverse and our universe, the universe. It's kind of crazy, then, that it's taken more than a decade for us to finally prove that bold claim by saying it out loud in print.
And if that was all we did, it would be enough. But we didn't stop there. We've re-made the river that runs through the Dota map. Not only is it wider, its current can speed your movement. Conversely, the new river's new evolving, amphibious creeps can drastically slow your movement by killing you.
And that's not all: How about a new resource! "Waterstone?" you say. In retrospect, that would have made sense. But it's actually called "Madstone" and you can use it to craft your own unique neutral items. Which is crazy, so the name actually fits pretty well.
We've also made some other map updates, replaced wisdom runes with much cooler wisdom shrines, and made a bunch of quality of life changes. It's all too much to detail in one blog post, which means you'd be out of luck unless we made a page dedicated to describing all the stuff in great detail. Which we did.
Amidst all the TI announcements and Crownfall conclusions, you might not have noticed that the humble Dota 2 Workshop is busier than ever. With a community of talented artists contributing lots of new stuff that we shipped throughout the year, sales of community-generated Workshop content generated more revenue for contributors in 2024 than any year since 2015—and that community of talented artists could also include you!
That's right: We're once again inviting all workshop contributors to spin up some new sets for any of your favorite heroes—including two newcomers who have been waiting eagerly in the wings to join the cosmetic fun. Artists can also include submissions for both Ringmaster and Kez, who are now enabled in the workshop.
To be considered, we request that all submissions be on the Dota 2 Workshop by the end of day on April 6th, 2025 PDT. Please make sure to mark your work with the "Spring 2025" tag when tendering items to the Workshop to ensure they aren't overlooked. (As usual, please avoid concepts involving human skulls, blood, and gore.)
Dota fans everywhere are of course encouraged to regularly visit the Workshop and vote through the Queue to ensure your voices are heard in the hunt for the treasures of tomorrow.
