The past two months have been a busy period for Valve's popular multiplayer online battle arena game, Dota 2. April marked the release of patch 6.84 which introduced new items, gameplay updates and tweaks. The month of May meanwhile was critical to players since it meant competing through the qualifying rounds for the upcoming Dota 2 tournament, The International, along with the release of various Compendium rewards and items. Two weeks into the month of June and we already have source engine news, a list of the qualifiers for The International and a peak at the highest eSports prize pool for Dota 2 ever.
The changes introduced in patch 6.84 is said to have shifted Dota-2's in-game dynamics especially in the professional scene. With new items and game play enhancements such as cooldown reduction mechanics, new Aghanim's Scepter upgrades for some of the heroes, among others - these changes are certain to have impacted and influenced existing player strategies. Weeks from the patch release, Valve released new Compendium rewards such as the Immortal Treasure 2 and spectator effigies, with a few of the items being unlocked depending on attainment of stretch goals.
This got Dota 2 players busy trying to increase their Compendium levels in a bid to collect as much of the exclusive items as they can, such as the Anti-Mage, Disruptor, Faceless Void, rare Solid Gold material and others. And earlier last week, Valve released a surprise collection of International-exclusive item sets via a new Collector's Cache treasure chest. Eleven new Mythical sets are included in the Collector's Cache, including a rare Faceless Rex courier that is set to appear in one of out every 250 treasure chests. Opening a Collector's Cache also offers gamers several ways to increase their Compendium level, since players will get additional levels depending on the number of Caches opened.
But Dota 2 fans are also excited to hear about the game possibly receiving a Source 2 engine upgrade, leaked via the game's SteamDB page. Valve has yet to confirm the news but it will be a welcome change as it could bring graphical and performance improvements to the game.
Lastly, The International, set to take place in August, may bring about one of the highest eSports prize pool ever recorded. Last year, the Dota 2 world championship made eSports prize history by reaching $10.9m, and it looks like this year's tournament prize has already broken that record. As of writing, the prize pool is already at $12,566,937. This means teams who made it through qualifier rounds may net more than one million dollars for each member of the winning squad. Some of the teams going to The International championships are complexity Gaming, EHOME, MVP.Hot6 and Na'Vi.
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