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Compendium Matchmaking

June 12, 2013 - Wyk

Compendium Matchmaking is now an available game mode to all Compendium owners within the game. In this mode, users will get to play one of the selected scenarios from The International 3 Qualifier matches and are made to replay the draft in their own style and technique. This scenario is changed every week and you can find all the info about it in the newly added pages in your Compendium.

Once you find your match and in the game, you will be given the choice to pick a hero from one of the two pre-determined drafts from the game. You are free to pick any hero you wish to and play the role but you will need to be quick if you are playing solo as the hero will become unavailable if your teammate picks it up before you do.

Once you pick your hero, you will be greeted in-game with a notification that will give you some information on how the professional teams played out the draft in the original match during the qualifiers. This information varies depending on what team you are playing for.

Here are the excerpts for the first week’s game.

Team Radiant - Rox.KIS

Batrider – Solo Top

Juggernaut – Solo Mid

Gyrocopter and Rubick – Bottom

Enchantress – Jungling in the Dire Jungle

“Rox.KIS controlled the early game, using the Juggernaut and Enchantress to push and destroy multiple Dire towers, then moving to secure an early Aegis from Roshan. Meanwhile, Rubick ensured Gyrocopter would get some farm bottom, and Batrider dominated the Magnus top, forcing Nyx to rotate top to help. In the mid game, EG turned it around, winning multiple team fights with Magnus, eventually pushing into the Radiant base. Team fights went back and forth in the mid to late game, culminating in multiple barracks being down for both teams. Late game, with multiple Roshan kills on the board, both Gyrocopter and Luna purchased Divine Rapiers to fight the final battle.

Eventually, Rox.KIS was able to secure victory at the 76 minute mark. Can you beat their time?”

Team Dire – EG

Magnus – Solo Top

Nightstalker – Solo Mid

Nyx Assassin, Shadow Demon and Luna – Bottom

“Nightstalker struggled mid against a Juggernaut that used Blade Fury liberally, and Magnus could only control its lane once Nyx Assassin rotated top to assist him. On the plus side, Shadow Demon proved crucial in the early game, netting 2 kills with Luna in the Bottom lane.

Night time allowed EG to regain control with Nightstalker, Nyx Assassin and Shadow Demon finding some kills, and that created space for Luna to catch up to Gyrocopter. Even though Rox.KIS pushed hard with Juggernaut and Enchantress, EG was able to use Magnus’s Reverse Polarity to win several teamfights, even getting to break into Rox.KIS’ base. Late game, with multiple Roshan kills on the board, both Gyrocopter and Luna purchase Divine Rapiers to fight the final battle.

Eventually, Rox.KIS was able to secure victory at the 76 minute mark. Can you change history, and win instead?”

Now with enough info at hand, get started and use your Dota skills to etch deeper marks to the stories that are currently told or rewrite them entirely as you deem them fit.

Upon finishing a Compendium match, you will be granted experience and drops just like any other match making. So you do not have to worry about losing on it. Is that it? Who knows what the future holds in store eh?

Favorite Team and Player

Users will notice that their Compendium has now been updated with a new page where they get to select their favorite team and player. Once you select and lock your picks, you will earn points for your favorites every time you win a Compendium match. At the end of every week, the team and player with the highest fan score from these matches will be rewarded accordingly. Be sure to think before finalizing your picks because you cannot change them .. ahem.

Get started! I will update this as the weeks progress. The same guide can be found on Steam.

If you have any queries, feel free to buzz me on my Facebook or Twitter.

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Understanding the Smeevils

June 8, 2013 - Wyk

As of today’s update, The International 3 Compendium courier upgrades are now available on the client. However, the Smeevils are troublesome creatures so it will require a little bit effort to gather one that you might like. Here is a little guide that should aid you in understanding the system better.

Types of Smeevils & Upgrades

There are 4 types of Smeevils – the Green, the Red, the Yellow and the Purple. Every default courier that you gain on purchasing the Compendium is a Green Smeevil that can be upgraded to one of the others if you wish to.

A total of three custom mounts are available for these Smeevils that you can upgrade to if you wish – the Mammoth, the Bird and the Crab depending on what color Smeevil you upgraded to prior to this.

Red Smeevil can gain the Mammoth mount.

Yellow Smeevil can gain the Bird mount.

Purple Smeevil can gain the Crab mount.

All Smeevils can also gain a unique particle effect that strengthens with more views it gains. In order to gain views, you can watch The International 3 matches including the Eastern and Western Qualifiers. You can also watch replays to increase the view counter on your courier.

How do you upgrade the Smeevils?

In order to upgrade your Smeevil to a different color, you will need be in possession of a unique item called the “Smeevil Treat” and a “Critter Egg” in order to add a custom mount to your Smeevil.

Smeevil Treat – Upgrades your Smeevil into a different color.

Critter Egg – Adds a custom mount to your Smeevil.

How do I get these items?

I’ll update this when the info is live.

What do I do once I get these items?

Once you are in possession of these items, right click on the Smeevil in your inventory and press “Select Style“. This will open up a dialog box where you can customize your courier.

In this dialog box you will be presented with all the options you have at your disposal.

After having your ingredients, select one of the styles and press on “Unlock Style“. Remember that unlocking a style will consume your ingredient.

You will now be able to apply the new style to your courier.

You can unlock multiple effects on the same courier and switch between them anytime you want or you can always level up multiple Smeevils depending on your interest and your collection rage. All the unlocked effects of one particular courier will be shown in their description on the Steam inventory to suit trading and other features. Some features and strings may be tweaked slightly by final release.

For any questions and queries, feel free to buzz me on my Facebook Page or Twitter.

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Dota 2 Broadcaster Tools

May 30, 2013 - Wyk

The Spectator System of Dota 2 now has some nifty updates that will provide tools to the broadcasters to deliver a higher quality show for their users watching on Dota TV. With the addition of the new tools, broadcasters will be able to send out real time updates, notifications, statistics and so much more.

Item Purchase Notifications

One of the initial additions would be a new popup that notifies all spectators in the game when a player purchases a notable item. This will allow viewers to keep track of item progression with much greater ease.

For eg: Bane purchased a blink dagger in the game and it now pops up at that very instant.

The same is done for all higher tier items and also for some special instances on heroes.

Broadcaster Tools

The game now offers an easy to interact tool for broadcasters in the game to display statistics and other PIP content to their users. As a caster, you can access the tool by pressing the small Dota logo in the top right corner of your screen.

Clicking the button will open a new overlay for you with the multiple announcement and notification options at your disposal.

Style 1: Casters are currently presented with three layouts. The first is a basic bar announcement that lets you enter just text.

Style 2: The second style will allow you to get a bit more graphical and personal with the game in progress. You can select one of the heroes in the game and display custom information about them.

Click on “Select Image” and you will presented with the icons of the heroes in the game and some custom generic icons too for other purposes.

Once you have your content entered and displayed, just press OK and it will be displayed to all your viewers.

Style 3: This one will allow you to do the same as the second but with an enhanced table view for better presentation of statistics or any other content you may prefer.

The tools can be operated by all the members of a particular broadcast channel. This will allow organizers to provide seamless and higher quality production quality on their games within Dota TV.

Posted in Dota 2, General | Tagged announcements, broadcast tools, dota 2, notifications, spectator | Leave a comment

What are Steam Trading Cards for Dota 2?

May 17, 2013 - Wyk

Steam has now gone live with the beta for the Steam Trading Cards system that allows users to interact with the rest of the community in a much enriched fashion while still enjoying their favorite games. Be sure to read up on all that it offers through the link above.

In this post, I will be covering what Steam Trading Cards are for Dota 2 (one of the games that has the system enabled already). The system runs more or less similar for the rest of the games too.

As a member of the Steam Trading Card Beta (eventually available to all), all users are entitled to gaining random card drops to their inventory when they are playing. As far as Dota 2 is concerned, the first release has a total of 8 Cards available to users. Each card unlocks a neat artwork with it.

Bounty Hunter Card
Tidehunter Card
Tiny Card
Phantom Lancer Card
Riki Card
Tusk Card
Razor Card
Vengeful Spirit Card

Each user can gain up to 4 of these cards via drops (for Dota 2; Limit for other games will be mentioned on the badge) on their account while the rest of the cards need to be gathered via trading or the Steam Community Market.

Once you have collected them all, you will now have the option to craft a badge out of them which will bring you the goodies.

Once the crafting is completed, you would have had your first Dota 2 Badge – Support Level.

Once this is completed, the rewards for this accomplishment will be added to your inventory. The current set of rewards include -

Background Image for your Steam Profile (you can edit this from your profile settings)
A random Dota 2 emoticon you can use in your chats
A gift coupon for a random game on Steam.

You can rinse and repeat the entire collection to level up your badge to the next level and get the next batch of rewards. However this time, you will need to collect all cards via Trading or the Market. No free drops will be given unless you make a purchase of $9 or more in Dota 2 that will entitle to you for one more card drop. Similarly $18 will entitle you to two drops and so on. The value of the purchase might vary depending on game to game. It can be checked on the blueprint of your Badge. Just click on “How do I earn card drops?” at the top of the badge.

Here is how your profile will look like with an activated background wallpaper.

That’s it! Now where do you begin?

How do I get into the beta?
For now you will need to be gain access to an invite. You can try to get one from your friends or by joining the Official Steam Trading Cards Group which will keep dispatching invites on regular intervals to members in order of their joining the group.

Have more queries about the system? Feel free to buzz me on my Facebook Page or go through the Frequently Asked Questions which might have some answers for you.

Posted in Dota 2 | Tagged dota 2, steam trading cards, Valve | Leave a comment

Team Matchmaking

February 7, 2013 - Wyk

The much awaited Team Matchmaking is now live in Dota 2 and here is everything you need to get yourself familiar with the system.

What is a Team in Dota 2?

Teams have been a part of Dota 2 for a while now. Teams allow players to stack up under one banner allowing them to represent themselves as a group against other teams in practice lobbies, leagues, tournaments and now the newly available “Team Matchmaking” system.

Users can create their own team from the “Community” tab on the Dashboard. Each team consists of six slots – five players with an additional slot for the Team Manager / Owner / Administrator. A Team Administrator can at any point of time add himself to the playing roster if need be.

Teams can be greatly customized with players being able add their own logos, sponsor elements, personal information, in-game banners and crests too. Read through here for more information on how to customize your team.

How does Team Match Making Work?

Any time the game detects five members of a team being in the same lobby, the Team will be detected and the group features will be called in. Your Teams information will be displayed in-game and your statistics will be collected from these matches. In Team Matchmaking, ratings will be given to Teams based on their performance against other Teams and their standing respectively.

In order to sign up for a Team Matchmaking game, go to your ‘Play Tab’ and click on ‘Find A Team Match.‘ From this interface, you will be able to either invite the rest of your Team to a party with the click of a single button and then find the match once you are all grouped up.

** A Team must have a minimum of five players to sign-up for a ranked match in Captain’s Mode.

Users will be able to keep track of their Team Rankings either on their Team Profile in the Community Tab or the newly added “Team” tab on their Dota Profile.

** A team needs to play at least 5 games before they are ranked.

That is all there is to know. Gather your bros and get rollin’ …

Posted in Dota 2, General | Tagged dota 2, guide, team matchmaking, tutorial, Valve | Leave a comment