The Dota 2 Blog has word that the beta testing of Valve's upcoming MOBA game is expanding by giving each of its current participants a couple of beta invites to distribute as they see fit (thanks Destructoid). They celebrate with the release of the first part of the official Dota 2 comic, Tales from the Secret Shop. Word is:

Once you’ve read today’s part, make sure you fill out the Dota 2 Survey in Steam to secure your place in the upcoming invitations (if you haven’t restarted your Steam client for a few days, you might need to do that before clicking that link). The extra data the survey provides will allow us to ensure we invite a wide spread of players and hardware.

One thing everyone will tell you is that Dota is a game that’s more fun with friends. Because of that, we wanted to make sure everyone we invited could bring a couple of friends – so everyone who receives Dota 2 will be given two extra copies that they can hand out to whomever they’d like. You’ll find your extra copies in the Steam section of your Steam account’s item inventory, and you can use the Steam Trading feature to give them to your friends.