Dota 2 is surely a sensation among gamers with its fairly new mode of gameplay, _MOBA _(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and the fantastic analysis that has been put in to make this game. Dota originally was a mod based on Warcraft III, until Valve hired the lead developer of Dota and and began working on its own version of the popular battle arena in 2009. It was only in 2011 that they released Dota 2 in beta phase for testing. In 2013, a stable release of Dota 2 was released. Dota is gaining momentum from online communities because of the large money sums offered at tourneys, and also from casual players who want to give it a shot because all of their friends are crazy about it.

An easily addictive game, with people complaining about its steep learning curve which I will not argue about. But the true essence of magic lies in the balance of the gameplay. The way in which the engineers at Valve have allocated abilities and attacks to the 111 different heroes trying to try and make them even. It is incredible how they did this. As a matter of fact, only 5 out of 111 heroes were not played or banned in TI5. This figure justifies the careful fine tuning done to ensure balance of different heroes despite there being a variety of parameters both material and strategic.

If the balance does not stun you much, surely the sheer number of characters that you can play with has by now! The quality of graphics is admirable. It is amazing how they have paid attention to every little detail of this game, like the online match-making. Not online dating! :D You won’t have time to think of that anymore. You can form a party and the servers look for a game for your party. That way, you are able to play alongside your friends with other online players.

There are games like LoL that came before Dota 2 and effectively stole the audience that this game deserves. By all means, Dota means serious business unlike the cartoonish looks LoL characters have. Dota relies heavily on teamwork and is a good way of teaching a non-teamplayer. So, no matter how good a player is on their own, if their team is bad, they are done for. Communication, is also key and Dota has provided necessary provisions to do so (thought no one uses the mic).

The intricacies don’t stop there. There are about a 100 items which give additional abilities, or enhance them. The downside of the game being that its learning curve is steep. Nobody cares as far as I am concerned. Once you start playing, you become addicted. Lol.