It’s been about a week since the Winter Tour of the Dota 2 Pro Circuit season ended and a flurry of things have happened.
We bring you up to speed with the latest in the grand old dame of MOBA.
Patch 7.31
A new patch has landed, with a new hero to boot.
The Primal Beast, the final boss for last season’s Aghanim’s Challenge, is the latest hero to enter the roster, bringing the total number of usable avatars to 123.
The newest hero is a massive beast – in more ways than one. It’s model in the game is a hulking, four-legged monstrosity. The similarities with LOL’s Cho’gath are striking but the Primal Beast is more of a melee tank. It can charge against foes, stomp them and roar at them for added damage. And its ulti is a massive stun that slams the enemy hero down on the ground multiple times..
It’s still early days yet but it feels a little overpowered at this stage. Its charge allows it to initiate at a distance and run away when things turn hairy. Its ulti disables a hero for a good 2.3 seconds – enough for a team fight to be won or lost.
Apart from the hero there were the usual tweaks and changes to freshen up the meta. Significant changes to Axe – who now plays around armour – and a complete rework of the annoying Techies are likely to see new strategies at the highest level.
For the rest of us noobs, it’s just another way to enjoy the game.
SEA DPC roster changes
A new season brings new changes. DPC Season 2 begins in about two weeks but several teams have already made changes to their roster.
T1 dropped Nuengnara “23savage” Teeramahanon at the end of their disappointing run in the Winter Tour, just before the regional finals. They picked Kim “Gabbi” Villafuerte Santos as a stand-in and have recently confirmed him. 23savave himself is now the carry for Motivate.Trust Gaming.
Similarly, Boom Esports also switched out their carry, with Laotian Souliya “JaCkky” Khoomphetsavong taking over from Justine Ryan “Tino” Evangelista Grimaldo.
The next season will also see two new teams from Division 2 squaring up against the top dogs in the region. Malaysia-based Nigma Galaxy and Philippines-based Polaris Esports will be mixing things up, making up the eight teams in Division One.
Together, they will be competing for a spot in the first Major of the DPC 2021/2022.
Stockholm Major
After the disappointment of the cancellation of the Winter Tour’s Major, it was a relief for the pro players when Valve announced that teams will be fighting for a shot to enter the Stockholm Major, which will feature a massive US$500,000 prize pool.
More importantly, as of now, Valve is expecting to welcome fans to attend the 18-team competition in the flesh.
It will be a huge deal if this gets pulled off – the last time we had a real-life audience was before the pandemic shut down borders all over the world in 2020.
But life, as we know, is a box of chocolates. Things such as the ever-evolving pandemic and the sudden onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine could suddenly throw these plans into disarray. We never know what we gonna get.
For now, we can only hope and pray that things will return to an era before viruses and guns disrupted our way of living.
