The Defense 3 tournament has started and a ticket is now available on the Dota 2 Store. What separates this item from previous ones is the inclusion of an exclusive in-game Courier with every purchase. We are excited to see Tournaments looking for ways to add extra value to their events. In this case, JoinDota teamed up with Vlad the Implyer (a prolific Workshop contributor) to bring you Ramnaught of Underwool.

A few months ago, when we introduced in-game tournament tickets and team pennants, one of our goals was to create new sources of revenue for leagues and tournaments. While sponsors and ad revenue are useful sources for tournaments, they’re indirect – the funding doesn’t come from the tournament viewers themselves. We believe that long-term, for tournaments to be stable and grow year over year they need to be self-sustainable from direct revenue, and not at the mercy of changing attitudes in sponsoring companies. Figuring out ways for tournaments to do that will take some time and experimentation, so it’s great to see the community getting involved in that experimentation, and even more exciting to see the competitive community working with the Workshop community in the process. Initial signs are good – The Defense 3 has earned several times more in its first week than The Defense 1 did in its lifetime.

Yesterday’s update also contains Na`Vi’s official courier, the Weaslecrow, a collaboration between Na`Vi and a group of Workshop contributors. It’s the first time we’ve tried a branded item associated directly with professional players, and we’re excited to see how that will turn out. If you’re a Na`Vi fan like us, you can pick one up over here.

What does this mean for you?

• If you’re a tournament organisation, we’d encourage you to think further about ways you could provide value to your viewers. If there are ways that seem interesting to you, and require some work from us, then drop us a line with your proposal. If you think you could create value by collaborating in some way with a Workshop contributor, then peruse the Workshop and ping someone whose work you like.
• If you’re a professional player, think about how you could experiment with similar revenue sources. If you’re known for playing a specific Hero, why not collaborate with a Workshop contributor to build branded items for that Hero?
• If you’re a Workshop contributor, look for opportunities to work with other people or organisations in the community that provide value to the community as a whole.
• If you’re a player, relax and keep on playing. We hope these efforts will result in a vibrant and stable competitive scene, where professional players and tournaments can focus on providing you with the most entertaining Dota possible. If you’re a fan of a team, or a specific player, and want to show them that you enjoy their efforts, drop them a line and let them know you’d appreciate it if they created a way for you to help them continue to grow.

We’re always happy to listen to community members who have interesting ideas for how to build a better business for the competitive community, so jump aboard and help us figure this out.

This week’s update comes a little earlier than usual. This week is Thanksgiving here in the US so we are taking a few days off.

But even if you don’t live in the US, I’m sure you will be thankful for all the great games that will come out of this weekend’s DreamHack Dota 2 Corsair Vengeance Cup. You will be able to watch every single game for free inside the client so get your bathrobe and bucket of turkey ready because this is going to be great.

Also available is a ticket for Star Series Star Ladder Season 4, v1lat’s at it again and the series is heating up! Past games will be tagged so they should start showing up soon, alongside with any new games.

Another reason to be thankful is the new Battle Point bonus you will get for playing Dota 2 games while in a party during this week. The bonus goes up depending on how many friends are with you in the party so it is time to let bygones be bygones and make those points rain.

And if you’re one of those artistic Dota 2 fans, we’ve just updated the Beastmaster workshop data to be compatible with the latest model changes. Some head and arm items might have to be slightly adjusted to match the new base.

See you next week!

Today’s update brings Diretide to a close, which means that it’s also Hatching Day! If you’ve been spending time sitting on some eggs like a mother hen, you’ll see a new option to hatch them. Who knows what will emerge?

This week we’ve got a new hero, and he’s a lovable little ball of claws and teeth – Slark! Enjoy mauling your enemies and then disappearing in a cloud of smoke, all while cackling like a deranged magician.

We’ve made some UI improvements this week too. We now have a chat wheel for communicating with your teammates so you can tell them just how a great a job they’re doing, and any message sent through the chat wheel is translated by wizards to each player’s language.

If you have suggestions for additional phrases for the chat wheel, you can submit them here. We’ll be incorporating that feedback in future patches. Also, if you reset your keybinds, there are now some helpful default templates on the player options screen that you can select from.

Our film department has also put together a recap of The International 2012, which you can watch here. They’re still hard at work on the documentary about The International 2011, Free to Play.

Finally, we’ve been getting so many great submissions from the Polycount Contest that we’ve decided to extend it by two weeks. The new submission deadline is December 3rd. Head over to the workshop to see some of the great work they’ve been doing!

As if that weren’t enough, here are some patch notes.

As all you pro Dota 2 players out there know, the most important skill to develop is map awareness. Now there’s no easier way to look cool while winning games thanks to your new found skill than by checking out these freshly made Wards.

Also to be found in today’s update is the option to start games in Reverse Captain’s Mode when creating a practice lobby. In this mode Captain’s pick the heroes they want the other team to play, resulting in either hilarious or painful games. And what better way to show off this new mode than by checking out the atoD 2 tournament? Watch Pro teams like Na’Vi, mTw and Zero play heroes that don’t usually get a chance to shine.

Oh, perhaps you’re looking for this?

Candy! Greevils! Treats! 50 foot tall tricksters! We are not responsible for any loss of sleep caused by nightmares now that the Diretide is here!

Not only will you be able to play a brand new game mode inside Dota 2 but you’ll also find that the regular Dota 2 map suddenly got spookier! Check here for details.

This is our first seasonal event and as always we would love to hear what you think.

Happy Haunting!

Lord Magnataur’s office (also known as LOMA) would like you all to know that Centaur Warrunner’s abundance of horns is all a show and that one is enough.

Along with the Centaur Warrunner, you will also find parity with the latest Dota 6.76 update, including changes to the greatest hero of them all (you know who).

In other news, the G-1 Championship League started this week and we have already seen a good number of great games. You can find a pass for it in the Dota 2 store.

For the latest changelog, hoof it over here.

One of the new features you will find in today’s update is the Hall of Fame:

Interested in learning how to play a particular hero? The Hall of Fame will only list the best players currently active in the Dota 2 community, so if you’re looking to improve your play these guys are a good source of knowledge.

Also, If you’re like us, then you love seeing the awesome items the community has been able to create for the Dota 2 workshop. Last week we announced the Dota 2 Polycount Contest, and more than a few excellent productions have already caught our eye. Here’s a few examples and be sure to head over to their forums for more!

• Llama Courier
• Lina – Diametrical 
• Windrunner – Heaven Guardian
• Venomancer – Poisoned Friends
• Dazzle – Yuwipi 
• Phantom lancer – Ancestors pride

If you’re thinking of making items on your own, be sure to check out our new guide on authoring shader masks. No longer will you wake up in the middle of the night wondering how to make high quality masks for your cosmetic or courier.

Changelog can be found here.

We are proud to announce our collaboration with the Polycount video game art community in a new contest for Dota 2! Contestants will create high quality item sets that our art team will judge. Winners will have their items added to the Dota 2 store and will receive special ‘Polycount’ quality versions of their items. The first Polycount contest with Team Fortress 2 produced some amazing results and we’re excited to see what the community has in store for us now.

To get involved head over to the Polycount website and read the contest rules.

Useful things to know:

• You don’t need to own Dota 2 to participate! The downloadable spectator client has all the tools needed to upload submissions to the Dota 2 workshop. (We don’t let ‘limited’ users upload to the workshop, so you’ll need to have bought something on Steam at some point in the past. You can buy early access to Dota 2 here, but this isn’t required if you own anything else on Steam.)
• During the contest, you’ll need to track the progress of your project on a public thread on the Polycount website in their Contests & Challenges forum. Update your thread with concepts, work in progress images, and discuss ideas with the Polycount community.
• Submissions should be uploaded to the Dota 2 workshop via the game client and tagged with the ‘Polycount Contest Entry’ checkbox.
• The deadline for entries is November 19th, 2012 @ 11:59PM EST, so fire up your copy of 3D Coat (or your favorite modeling package) and get started!

Polycount will receive a 5% share of all items sold in Dota 2 that originate from the contest. (This comes out of our share, not yours.) It’s our way of giving back to an excellent community of artists and creators.

So head over to the contest page right now and get started on a project!

Put your hands together for the most powerful hero alive, Magnus is here.

In today’s update you will also find parity with Dota’s latest 6.75 update. A new item! Hero balances! And more!

Also in this update is first release of our Team System. The Teams feature is designed for groups of five players who want to compete against other groups of five in practice lobbies, and competitive settings like leagues and tournaments. This release allows players to create a Team, and allows owners to specify logo, banners, country, etc.

Oh and also! We’ve added 150 or so new cosmetic items to the Dota 2 Store, like this neat looking Drow Ranger set . Stop by and check out the rest!

Check out today’s changelog here.

Earlier this week we revealed how the Aegis of Champions was crafted. This time around we’ll show you how the score for the Dota 2 trailer was recorded.

Instead of going over what consonance and dissonance are or why a Conductor uses such a tiny stick to direct an entire orchestra, we decided it would be easier to explain via this video:

For those that deal in the dark arts of music, you can download the original score sheet and take it for a spin. Maybe upload a video of you playing it? We would very much like that.

Speaking of music, did you know that in music that progresses regularly in 4/4 time, the first beat of the bar is usually the best place for a chord change?