Let's go back to the beginning of DotA 2

As the fourth International is approaching, some of us are thinking, how did we get so far?

At the beginning, it was only a map for DotA 1, played by thousands, and now we've reached millions of players actively enjoying the wonders of DotA 2. Some of them are even making a living out of this game!

I'm asking you guys, do you remember the first International?







I'm talking about this one. No one believed it was going to happen until Valve officially announced it and started inviting the teams. It was the biggest and most awaited eSports event at that time, and now, 3 years later we're all here, with a $10,000,000 prize pool, looking back at how it all begun.







Not sure how many of you remember this match, I certainly do. I remember the moment when Na`Vi was crowned as the champions of The International. They instantly became the most rich and popular DotA eSports organisation in existence. It was the moment when we all knew, the new era of eSports has begun and more is on it's way. Every time I go back to these moments, thinking about how long it has been, I still get excited and happy about it. Happy that Valve came up with the idea of creating DotA 2, making it one of today's most played and loved eSports, and how DotA 2 has brought me so much joy.

Dota 2 is awesome. You can play casually and competitively and with your friends. It's one of these games that just gets better the more you play and I think anyone who hasn't tried it out for themselves should do.

I certainly haven't played Dota 2 for a very long time but the few months I have been playing and getting better have been awesome. It is definitely gonna stay around for a while and draw in even more people. Does anyone else know about the first TI from Free to Play cuz that is where i learned about it. After seeing all these hero ideas I hope to see Valve implement their own ideas for heroes after putting in all the old ones.

For me, there was no better feeling in the WORLD, than being able to find my team and play my mid with them. The feeling of landing a game winning hook, or invoker combo, or QoP ulti. Dota 2 is hard on purpose, and as such gives so much more satisfaction when you get good at it, which is why games like league of legends (not trying to bash on it here) doesn't appeal to me. Microtransactions, slightly more basic gameplay, simpler map. All that makes me feel like "Ok, I won......Soooo what now?" Whereas in Dota the feeling is more "OH MY GOD YES I WON THE GAME! YEEEEEEAAAAH!" (Or is that just me :P)

I agree completely. In LoL, you miss or screw up a skill and say "Never mind, 5-10 second cooldown", whereas in dota the ability you screw up might have a 200 second cooldown (looking at you there, Enigma).

God old enigma, and the people who constantly use black hole for a solo kill -_-. (same thing with Tide)

I actually played league yesterday, hoping to give it a shot, and I messed up my axe, oh sorry I mean GAREN ulti (kinda like Reaper's scythe by the way :L) and I realised the cd was 45-50 seconds at all levels.

Wasn't around for TI1.

Favorite memories so far were from TI3 as I was able to watch most of the matches at work and actually got a few coworkers into the game.

Dota 2 is a great game... and deep with such a basic premise: destroy that one building.

I remember when there was never a TI

I remember the Game Informer previewing dota 2 when I was in Afghanistan reading it on one of many sleepless nights. Another great thing to look forward too. It's such an all encompassing game, providing the challenge and incredible moments at one time nobody ever considered a video capable of. The amount of emotion haha.
I didn't watch TI1 until after, I was one of those that heard about it, but wrote off the tournament as an easy Ehome triumph. I remember way back before the international, craziness in Double Divine Rapier Medusa with ZSMJ at the helm. The legendary Merlini Zues games..damn how far the game has come..thank god for the lack of medusa games though honestly haha