Is that a squirrel?

We’ll bet ya 10 gold that you won’t make it through the night without yelling “That’s just luck!” now that Ogre Magi is back.

You will also find our redesigned Hero Picker and Dashboard in this update.

The new Dashboard allows us to combine web and in-game content. For example, our new Heropedia will be identical inside the game and the web, allowing people to learn heroes while at work or when playing (at work).

Here’s a couple of tips when using the new hero picker:

  • If you’re in the All Heroes view, you can simply type the name of the hero you want to play. Very handy when trying to play that brand new hero (e.g. type “OG” to cycle to Ogre Magi, then quickly ALT-ENTER to secure him).
  • We’ve also added a wide range of filters to make it easier to select that one hero that fits your team’s needs. Of particular interest is the stats filter, which uses data from past performances to help you narrow down that selection.

As always, we love to hear what you think about these new additions.

We were only going to post one community highlight this week but Multicast just went off:

  • We could totally do this after like 300 years of practice.
  • Team Dignita’s guide on how to become a better Dota 2 player. Our suggestion? Just play Ogre Magi and show everyone your skills.
  • Every Hero Is Different as read by the TRUE Cybrogmatt. This guy is never wrong when predicting releases unlike that other guy.

The list of teams that will be joining us for The International keeps growing, but you already knew that since you’re always refreshing the page.

Today’s changelog is right here.

Someone requires my protection!

Water and sunlight were all we needed to lure Treant Protector out of his slumber.

Now, why don’t you make like a tree and enjoy these community highlights:

  • The Dota Insight podcast just released their 14th episode.
  • Here’s a nice guide on how Black King Bar interacts with a number of spells.
  • Yeah, we don’t even know what this is.

More teams have been invited to The International, so make sure to check back often to see who else will be joining us this August.

Treant is not very happy that we cut his friend down to create this changeLOG.

The International

As you might have heard by now, DK and defending champions Na’Vi are the first teams to be invited to The International.

This year we are moving to Benaroya Hall, located here in beautiful sunny Seattle. It will be held during the last weekend of August, from the 31st to September 2nd.

For those that want to catch up on last year’s event, the archive is located here.

We will be releasing information on how to acquire tickets in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for details.

From one: an army

Team Phantom Lancer is back and they don’t like the way you’re looking at them.

The Lancer Family at Radiant Falls

You can’t go in alone, here – take these:

You can find the latest changelog is here, no wait: here, nope: here!

Our force comes.

Don’t worry, your eyes are not playing tricks on you! That is indeed a brand new HUD you’re seeing. Today’s update includes the first of many upcoming revisions to our UI, starting with the in-game HUD.

When looking at feedback that we’ve gotten related to our interface, the first concerns we decided to address were:

  • Inefficient use of space across all resolutions
  • Having to jump through hoops to interact with the courier and glyph
  • A lack of aesthetic coherency with the rest of the game visuals

To more efficiently use space in wider resolutions, we’ve made adjustments to the layout of the stats section. This also allowed us to include Move Speed as one of the stats readily available to players.

:(

The Courier UI now exposes the state of the little guy, and allows item delivery with just a single click. Glyph state is also clearly exposed and easier to reach when you most need it.

And finally we’ve also updated the look of our item icons.

As always, we would love to hear what you think of the changes, so feel free to leave feedback over in our UI forums.

Also released today is the Dota 2 replay parsing tool. This tool allows technically minded community members to extract data straight out of game replays. You can check out the technical documentation here. We can’t wait to see what kind of awesome data visualizations people come up with.

Meanwhile the community’s as busy as always, peep this:

  • The Star Series is happening right now! Check out Purge’s stream for all the action, or if you’re just interested in seeing where he sleeps.
  • And look at this thing!

Changelog? Yep, we got that changelog.

 

I love you guys!

Everyone raise your glass and welcome Brewmaster back into the world of Dota.

I'm seeing triple!

These community highlights just stumbled onto this blog:

  • Gigabyte and Beyond The Summit announced the Dota 2 Masters tournament. With the top Asian teams competing it will be hard to find a game lacking any action.
  • The VOD for The Arena’s finals between Mousesports and CLG is now available.

Update notes can be found here. Please read responsibly.

There’s trouble brewing

Yep, we are back with a brand new update.

This week we see the return of Random Draft mode. In this mode only 20 heroes are available and players take turns picking.

A wild pack of community highlights has been spotted!

  • The Corsair sponsored Vengeance Cup taking place during Dreamhack Summer 2012 has been announced.
  • The ProDota2 league is set to start tomorrow, Friday April 13th. Our friends over at GosuGamers have you covered with a nice write up about it.
  • Episode 1 of TheGDStudio’s Learn To Play Dota 2 series is out. Better tell your loved ones you’ll be busy for the next 3 hours.

We’ll see you again next week, you might want to get a designated driver by then.

Changelog is available here.

 

From exile, I emerge!

We celebrate Happy Bear Pun Week a day earlier as Lone Druid joins Dota 2′s cast of heroes.

The irony is that he's allergic to fur.

Community things:

Bear in mind that there will not be an update next week as we will be hibernating during that time.

Today’s bearlog is available here.

 

Bear.

The trails will run red

Is there a full moon out? Because Lycan is on the prowl.

Umm yeah, hi. I think your wolf is on fire.

One thing to check out in today’s update is the new Hero Performance Rating section in your Persona page. Your performance ratings show how well you play each hero compared to other players of similar skill.

These stats are only available to you. Your ratings will become more accurate the more you play, so get cracking!

This week we are also increasing the number of invites being sent out. In addition, we’ll be giving the most active Dota 2 players some more copies to gift to friends. This will be done on a regional basis based on available capacity, starting with US West.

Oh, these might be relevant to your interests:

  • A showmatch between WE and Captain Planet this Saturday the 24th on ECAL.tv
  • This week’s Dota 2 Top 10 plays.
  • AnGeul created a teaser for the Asian Dota Masters tournament.

Finally, today’s changelog is available here.

 

Come into my dominion!

Tonight you might want to sleep with your lights on because Shadow Demon has returned.

In today’s update you will find your usual collection of fixes and new features including parity with Dota’s 6.74 release and the ability to share unit control with your team mates.

Thanks to everyone that jumped on the Test Build and helped us test this update.

The full changelog is available here.