Items tagged with Dota 2
The next hero for the game Dota 2 was announced during The International, which is the largest Dota 2 tournament in the world. While the tournament is running in Shanghai, with a massive $30 million prize pool, an unexpected announcement was made that the next hero for the game will be a freaky, wild grandmother riding on a dragon called Snapfire. Snapfire debuted with an official trailer that shows off some of her abilities and will launch this fall. She bakes cookies and talks about showing a little kindness on the battlefield but notes not all deserve kindness. It's hard to tell from the video if the cookies are to replenish energy lost in battle or if they grant special abilities. Snapfire...
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Researchers and scientists are doing some wonderful things with artificial intelligence (AI), from saving lives in healthcare to improving cybersecurity. AI also being used to beat up on professional gamers. A team of machine learning AI bots known as OpenAI Five once again had its way with professional Dota 2 players, this time on a full five-on-five match livestreamed on Twitch. OpenAI Five is a team of five neural networks developed by OpenAI, an AI research lab founded by Elon Musk. While not quite the Skynet that Musk fears is a real possibility, OpenAI Five is adept at Dota 2, a game that requires a combination of high-level strategy and teamwork to be effective, especially against professional...
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It's not quite the Skynet that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has warned us about, but researchers from the Musk-based OpenAI initiative have made a breakthrough in AI algorithms using Dota 2 as a testbed. OpenAI's achievement is remarkable due in part to its scope. Most AI versus human matches -- be it go or a computer game -- involves a single computer against a single human (as was the case with OpenAI’s victory last year). But OpenAI has managed to train its AI to master competing against humans on a five-player team. The team of five neural networks that was developed is collectively known as the OpenAI Five and is capable of playing [at an accelerated rate] 180 years with...
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We've talked lots on the site about how AI is going to change our future, and how we should proceed with caution in some regards. We've seen some pretty serious uses for AI, and some a little less important. Today, we learn of a use that might not be too important, but still shows us how far along AI has come, and what's in store for the future. At Valve's enormous The International Dota 2 tournament, world-class player Dendi was brought out on stage for an epic 1v1. We're not sure if he knew in advance what he was going to be up against, but the crowd definitely didn't. As a PC was strolled out to the floor, the crowd erupted in applause (a video is found below). Ultimately, this AI-powered...
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If you happened to tune into Valve's "The International" Dota 2 esports tournament, you were treated to an announcement that seemingly came out of nowhere. Without any prior rumors to ruin the surprise, Valve teased a new game called Artifact, which is a card game themed after Dota 2. Beyond that tidbit, there is not a whole to share about the announcement, other than the short video. What little we know at this point is that Artifact is coming out sometime in 2018. That much Valve was willing to share. During the tournament (and right before the final match of Day 2), host Sean "Day9" Plott also revealed that the Dota 2 card came will comprise three boards and involve building barracks, creeps,...
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Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) is upping its security game. DOTA 2 ranked matchmaking will soon require players to enter a phone number upon registration and Valve hopes that this will cut down on the amount of “smurfing”. First off, what is “smurfing”? In the DOTA world, smurfing is when a player creates a new account after already having made one, and recalibrates the account once a player reaches level thirteen. The player essentially develops the account in order to play at a level lower than their actual mmr.Image from: Wikimedia Commons, ZilsonzxcSome people sell the smurf account after boosting it, use it on trading because something has happened to their main account, or use...
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It may too good to be true, but you can now earn digital currency while playing certain game titles. That's thanks to Razer, and its new program to reward avid gamers with 'zSILVER'. Supported titles include Overwatch, Dota 2, and League of Legends. zSILVER ties into Razer's payment system zVault, which lets gamers deposit funds into a virtual account to spend it across multiple titles. That particular currency is called zGOLD, so you can probably begin to sense the theme here. To put it simply: zGOLD requires real money for digital goods, while zSILVER requires digital currency for real goods. Earning zSILVER is simple, as long as you're willing to install Razer's Cortex software. This software...
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News and rumors about Valve's (possibly) upcoming Source 2 engine have been buzzing for months, but a recent update to DOTA 2 contains the most persuasive evidence yet that a major engine is in the works. After the last patch, the game now contains a number of programmed default paths, directories, and file names that didn't previously exist. Source-related DLLs and executables (engine.dll, vconsole.dll) have been updated to "engine2.dll" and vconsole2.dll." The tileset editor has a default Source path. There's also now an option to save files as "Source 1.0 Map Files" where no previous option existed. Here's the funny thing -- while most people think of a game screenshot as...
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Dota 2, a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game, has caught the attention of ESPN, which is planning to cover The International Dota 2 Championships. ESPN will air the tournament on its live multi-screen sports network, ESPN3, and is also planning an exclusive show previewing the final match on ESPN2 on Sunday at 8:30 pm Pacific (you can also catch it on digital platforms via WatchESPN). This is the next best thing to attending the tournament in person at KeyArena in Seattle, which is no longer an option since it's already sold out. The prize pool for the Dota 2 is over $10 million, the largest ever for a competitive gaming tournament, and likely a motivating factor for ESPN to add...
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