Valve
announces The Dota Major Championships, an annual series of four "marquee
tournaments," for
Dota 2, building on the success of The International,
the annual tournament for their MOBA. They promise more details in the fall, and
in the meantime offer this overview:
The International is drawing closer,
and next week we will be releasing The International Compendium, along with a
major balance update. Soon after that we will be announcing the teams that will
be invited to The International.
Today, however, we would like to talk about our plans for improving the
competitive landscape as a whole. As fans of the game, we love watching teams
compete in high stakes tournaments, but we also recognize that there is room for
improvement on a more structural level. While the lack of roster stability and
major focal points during the year had its advantages, it has eventually come at
the cost of fan engagement and competitive stability for the players.
The Dota Major Championships, starting this Fall, will be an annual series of
four marquee tournaments, one being The International. The three additional
tournaments will be Valve-sponsored events hosted by third-party organizers at
different locations around the world. Teams that participate in these events
will be required to adhere to limited roster trade periods during the year.
As the Fall event approaches, more tournament details will be announced.
A
forum post from
earlier this week explains Blizzard's approach to disciplining
Diablo III
players for exploiting a bug that granted extra blood shards from treasure
goblins. The exploit has been closed off via a hotfix, and they explain they are
dealing with three different levels of violation, and their response ranges from
banning the worst offenders to pardoning those at the other end of the spectrum:
From there, taking the complexity and impact of the exploit into
consideration, we also elected to action accounts on a case-by-case basis. In
general, one of three things occurred:
- Accounts which were found to have both used the
exploit excessively and publicly promoted its use were permanently banned.
- Accounts which were found to have used the exploit
excessively, but did not publicly promote it, were rolled back and their
associated heroes removed from active Leaderboards (both Seasonal and
non-Seasonal).
- Accounts which were found to have used the exploit
to a limited degree (or quickly stopped once realizing the scope of what was
happening) were effectively pardoned. We understand these situations can
inspire a certain level of curiosity and that it may not always be
immediately clear if you’re undermining intended game mechanics. Mistakes
happen, but we hope this leniency won’t be taken for granted in the future.
Took the Gunnar-man on an adventure to the beach this morning. Not the ocean,
this was a place on the bank of the Hudson River he'd never been before, where
he really enjoyed the freedom to run on the sand. Even more importantly, his
denial of his Poodle roots continued, as he expressed no interest in trying to
enter or drink the water, which is good news, because even after years of
cleanup (thanks G.E.!) it's still pretty scary (we won't even talk about the
nearby nuclear reactor), so it's good to know I can take him there without
worrying about him being tempted by scary river water.
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