Valve has been quiet for nearly a year about the status of Dota 2, the (sort of) sequel to the hit Warcraft III action-RTS mod Defense of the Ancients that inspired an all new game genre. Today Valve announced that it will finally show Dota 2 for the first time in public at GamesCom, the massive gaming trade show that will be held August 17-21 in Cologne, Germany. In addition to showing off the game itself, Valve will also hold a Dota 2 pro tournament with 16 teams professional Dota team from around the world. The tournament will end with one winning team getting a $1 million cash prize. The event will also be streamed in four different languages (English, Chinese, Russian and of course German).
Valve first announced plans to release Dota 2 back in October 2010 but aside from an online preview article at Game Informer"s web site Valve has been silent about the game"s progress. At the moment Valve is only saying that Dota 2 will be released for the PC and Mac later in 2011.
The original Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft III was a 5v5 team based game with human players choosing to control one of a large number of "heroes" with the goal to level up that hero and defeat the other team. Dota became an online hit, especially in Europe and parts of Asia, and became a staple of pro gaming tournaments. Other stand alone commercial games such as Demigod, League of Legends (developed by former Dota team members) and Heroes of Newerth were highly inspired by Dota"s gameplay design.
Valve hired the current lead developer of Dota, "IceFrog," in 2009 and not only announced Dota 2 in 2010 but trademarked the name as well. This move upset some in the original Dota community who felt that the Dota name should remain with its community. Blizzard announced plans in 2010 to release a free StarCraft II mod called Blizzard Dota but that mod has yet to be released.