The first version of\u00a0Dota<\/em>\u00a0was released 20 years ago on Dec. 27 by Kyle \u201cEul\u201d Sommer. <\/p>
When\u00a0Dota<\/em>\u2019s founding father published what would become a global phenomenon, only a handful of players joined the servers to play the game mode. But over the last two decades,\u00a0Dota<\/em>\u00a0has evolved from a mod into a fully-fledged game,\u00a0Dota 2<\/em>, that’s home to\u00a0The International<\/a>, one of the most prestigious esports events. Though\u00a0Dota 2<\/em>\u00a0has continued the tradition with the help of IceFrog, the lead developer of the game, it’s also run into a fair share of problems.<\/p>
From stale metas to a lack of interaction for the players, Dota 2 <\/em>had a period where it bled out players on a monthly basis<\/a>. A lack of advertising and a dwindling interest of existing players was plaguing the game, but the culture lived on.<\/p>
Dota 2<\/em>\u00a0still found a way to bounce back on its 20th birthday, though, on the back of\u00a0the TI11 Swag Bag<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0new organizations<\/a>\u00a0coming in to support the competitive scene. Considering TI\u2019s\u00a0prize pool shrunk by a sizable margin<\/a>\u00a0this year, most anticipated that players\u2019 interest in the game would also suffer the same fate.<\/p>
The opposite has happened in the past few months, however, and\u00a0millions of players<\/a>\u00a0returned to\u00a0Dota 2<\/em>\u00a0alongside a record number of organizations<\/a>\u00a0entering the game\u2019s competitive scene.<\/p>
In addition to the new faces in the competitive scene, Dota 2<\/em>\u2019s community has been treated to an animated series based on the game\u2019s lore on Netflix, DOTA: Dragon\u2019s Blood<\/em><\/a>. Big-name streamers like Grubby<\/a> also picked up Dota 2<\/em> over the last year, making 2022 one of the best years for both Dota 2<\/em> and its community.<\/p>
