History of Dota

A History of Dota: Part 1
To understand the history of DotA, one must begin from Starcraft. In the early days of
Starcraft, there was a UMS (Use Map Settings) map called Aeon of Strife (AoS) made by a
modder called Aeon64 that featured a cooperative game with four heroes facing off against
endless waves of computer-controlled creeps in four lanes. The players would have endless
computer-controlled creeps on their side as well, except these were weaker than the enemy
creeps.
The familiar game mechanic of the player who last-hit an enemy unit being rewarded with
money can be found in this map. The game would end once key buildings on either side were
destroyed or with the deaths of all four player-controlled heroes. A second version was made
so that four players faced off against each other in a 2v2 fashion with endless creeps on both
teams.
Once the Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos (ROC) was released on July 3, 2002, Aeon of Strife was
ported over to ROC where free of the limitations of the Starcraft map editor, a much more
interesting game could be made. Players could gain experience alongside money, gain levels,
learn more powerful abilities and buy equipment. Many of the game mechanics in modern
DotA can be found in maps from this period.
The first AoS-styled map that took advantage of the ability to design custom spells provided
by the powerful ROC World Editor was Valley of Dissent made by a modder called Karukef.
Another modder called Eul borrowed some ideas of his predecessors to create an AoS-styled
map called Defence of the Ancients (DotA), which would become one of the most popular
UMS maps on Battle.net.
When Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne (TFT) came out on July 1st, 2003, Eul made a version
called DotA 2: Thirst for Gamma in TFT, but it wasn't successful in replacing the original
DotA that had been ported into TFT. Eul then disappeared, but not before making his code
open-source.
At this time, many people modded the TFT version of DotA. These derivatives of DotA
started becoming popular on Battle.net. During this time, DotA wasn't called DotA Allstars,
but instead the EX series. This was the version of DotA optimized by a modder off of the
ROC version. Other well-known series were the "DotA DX Series", "DotA Unforgiven" and
"DotA Outland".
These ancient DotA maps led to DotA becoming one of the most popular maps on Battle.net
and created very good conditions for DotA Allstars to flourish on its release.
DotA Allstars
So it was that DotA entered a new period in its history. New versions of DotA were officially
called "DotA Allstars". A couple of modders called Meian and Ragn0r compiled particularly
fun-to-play heroes from these different versions of DotA and put it all together calling it
DotA Allstars. This is the historical reason why the term "Allstars" was added to the name.
After releasing an official version of DotA that pitted Human against Orc, these talented
modders stopped making new versions.
The first version of the Allstars series was "DotA Allstars Beta v0.95" released on February 3,
2004. This was a milestone in the history of DotA. In the development of later versions, the
"Allstars" series was accepted as the best DotA series.
The Allstars series gradually became more balanced and refined. Once the 4.xx series was
reached, DotA already carried a certain amount of influence.
Guinsoo's Era
At this time, a legend called Guinsoo appeared and began the 3.xx and 4.xx series. DotA
Allstars v.3.0d was released in March 2004. A month later, v4.0a was released. It was the first
version to feature Roshan, which was named after Guinsoo's bowling ball.
A particularly big event in the history of DotA was the release of the 5.xx series. It signaled
that DotA was reaching maturity. During the 5.xx era, two changes with historical
significance occurred: The competitive mode was stabilized and organized competitions
emerged.
1. The first version with stable competitive mode: v5.84

The 5.xx series inherited the essence of the 4.xx series' and also introduced many new heroes
and items. It also made generated many new breakthroughs and added substance to the scope
of the game. The first AI DotA map also appeared during the 5.xx era.
Since more and more players were joining, the work of making new versions had also
become massive. In October 2004, Guinsoo recruited the help of fellow members from Clan
TDA, Neichus and IceFrog.
The 5.xx series' first new hero was Tidehunter appearing in the 5.74 version. In the 5.75
version that followed it, Ursa Warrior and Atropos were introduced one apiece to Sentinel and
Scourge. 5.76 introduced Keeper of the Light, Tinker, Ogre Magi, Pudge 2.0 and Sand King,
while nerfing most of the old heroes.
The final version of the 5.xx series was "DotA Allstars 5.84c v2". This was an extraordinary
version with historical significance, because the popularity of DotA had finally exceeded the
confines of its players. Official, organized and influential competitive DotA began with this
version. This qualifies it as the very first stable competitive version of DotA Allstars.
At the same time, 5.84 was a huge classic. Even long after 6.xx had been released, this map
was still very popular. Rumour has it that even during the 6.2x era, SEA (South-East Asia)
was still hosting competitions with 5.84. Out of the old-school Chinese players, I bet many
fell in love with DotA during this version. Even now, this version can be found in the map
directory of some Chinese cybercafs.
In truth, 5.84c wasn't actually released by Guinsoo. Due to a bug in 5.84b, a modder from
Russia called True.Rus developed an unofficial 5.84c. This modder rewrote the code, reduced
the load time from 3min to under 20s and fixed some bugs.
The Emergence of Organized Competitive Matches: TDA and IGS
During this period, some (very few, I think about ten) people formed the first DotA
discussion forum called 9nid. This was the first semi-official DotA forum, where players
would discuss DotA-related matters. Even to this day, some of the earliest members are
immortalized on a list.
With the spread of WC3, DotA also became more and more popular. 9nid's users gradually
increased eventually reaching a point when its servers could not withstand the traffic. At this
point, the forum moved to RTSGamer. So it was that DotA leagues were formed.
The first league was Clan TDA (Team DotA Allstars) formed in April 2004. Its spread in
popularity was helped in great part by the website DotA-Allstars.com founded on October
14th, 2004 by TDA member Pendragon. It was the official website for the DotA Allstars map,
as well as a place for the DotA community to partake in discussions.
With DotA's growing popularity, the forum would eventually grow from to over one milion
visitors every month, a million page views every day, and a staff of over 100 volunteers.
Sadly, the website was shutdown in July 2010. For this reason, the official website of the
DotA Allstars map was moved to PlayDota.com and the term "Allstars" was dropped from
the map name.
IGS (International Gaming Syndicate) began hosting DotA competitions in 2004. The first
season had 20 teams participating. The second season had 45 teams, so more and more people
joined.
1. Guinsoo, legendary DotA developer is on the left

We have some DotA items to commemorate these old map makers:
Eul's Scepter of DivinityGuinsoo's Scythe of Vyse
A Gathering of Parts: The 6.1x Era
On February 28th 2005, not soon after the release of DotA Allstars 6.00, after Guinsoo
announced his departure from the map-making world, Neichus and IceFrog officially took
over development from 6.01 continuing the process of improving DotA. Rumour has it that
Guinsoo went into World of Warcraft. Neichus had been working on the project since October
2004.
Neichus took over the project lead position and under his leadership, Earthshaker, Tiny, Chen
2.0, Stealth Assassin 2.0, Phantom Lancer, Enchantress, Enigma, Axe, Shadow Fiend, Visage
2.0, Nerubian Weaver, Bloodseeker and Dazzle were added. After several versions, Neichus
grew disenchanted with the project, so he left IceFrog as the head developer of DotA Allstars.
Perhaps it was due to 5.84 being overly amazing that many die-hard fans refused to accept
the huge changes instated by the 6.xx versions. This led to the early 6.xx versions not being
hugely influential. However, these setbacks couldn't stop mighty IceFrog's momentum of
churning out new versions.
1. IceFrog, our beloved developer

A common proverb is "A new broom sweeps clean." In 6.10, IceFrog made large numbers of
modifications and improvements, completely remaking Faceless Void. He added a new
Scourge hero, Invoker (It's like the current Invoker, but has 31 spells rather than the current
10. He was too overpowered, so IceFrog shut him in a small black room for a long time
before letting him out). During the 6.1x era, IceFrog made many modifications to the old
version of DotA. While fixing many bugs, he also rebalanced many heroes that were too
imbalanced.
It was during this time that Heintje's Chinese 6.12 came out. This is the first 6.xx Chinese
DotA version you can find. Following this, Heintje continued his efforts to translate DotA
Allstars into Chinese contributing immensely to the popularization of DotA in China.
The First Light of Dawn: The 6.2x Era
On November 1st, 2005, IceFrog released DotA Allstars 6.20, which abandoned the previous
snowfield theme returning to the 5.84's grassfield theme but with colours slightly altered,
resulting in today's style.
In 6.20, IceFrog continued the process of nerfing many heroes. In this version, the immensely
popular Prince Arthas from the campaign entered the world of DotA. In 6.21, another new
hero was added. Then until 6.27, fixing bugs and balancing the game took priority. 6.27 was
released near the end of November.
Since IceFrog was slow to release new versions, 6.27 lasted a relatively long time (until
February 2006). After consolidating over several versions, DotA reached a new pinnacle in
game balance with 6.27.
During this era, DotA Allstars became an event in the World Cyber Games Singapore 2005.
6.27b was declared to be the official version to be used in future leagues and championship
tournaments. 6.27 became the second stable competitive version of DotA Allstars, the first
being 5.84.
In 6.28, IceFrog added two new heroes: Witch Doctor and Spectre (back then, Spectre was
considered useless). The -cs command was added (to display creep kills and denies) and a
brand new loading screen. Since 6.29 had some critical bugs, 6.28 was the most stable map
amongst DotA 6.2x versions.
Compared to 6.27, 6.28 wasnt as significant a change balance-wise. The addition of two
heroes was the only change. Rumour has it that to quench the gamers' desires of 6.30, IceFrog
hastily rushed through that version. This led to 6.27 taking the limelight amongst 6.2x
versions.
After taking over development at 6.10, IceFrog did large amounts of bug fixing and hero
balance improvements in order to get an UMS map that was originally only used for sheer
entertainment to take large leaps towards competitiveness. This paved a solid foundation for
DotA's swift development as an e-sport. While improving hero balance, a series of new
heroes, items and models were introduced strengthening the amusement factor of the game as
well. This helped meet the conditions for DotA to rapidly become popular.
Happenings in the EU/NA scene
DotA's rapid popularization and balance improvements greatly increased DotA's

competitiveness. Lots of teams began to emerge. Internationally renowned teams such as
PluG (later known as coL or compLexity), Apex (later known as JMC or Jax Money Crew),
Say Plz, Team Q, TeG (The Elder Gods) and BTo (Boomtown Odense, front-runner of JoY or
Jukes on You and later, MYM or Meet Your Makers) were influential in competitions during
this era. Some of these teams such as Apex had their beginnings in earlier leagues such as the
IGS back in 2004-2005.
EU/NA competitions were mainly TDA and CAL, as well as Dota-League's Pick League. In
the first season of Pick League taking place in November 2005, Team Q claimed victory,
while BTo took first place in the next three seasons asserting their dominance.
Happenings in the Asian scene
Compared to these tournaments in EU/NA, DotA was still in an embryonic state in China.
EU/NA competitions didn't have a big influence on the Chinese scene.
In China in the month of November 2005, some players famous on the U9 forum formed
team GL under the leadership and organization of Xiaoxiongmao. Ever since they formed,
GL has been one of China's strongest, mightiest and most low-profile teams. During the same
period, Mage (not to be confused with later Russian team MaGe) and IFNT formed in
succession.
The appearance of teams naturally led to contests. During the 6.2x era, there weren't many
competitions. Everyone learned from each other by comparing their views on how to play the
game. The records we have on matches back then doesn't amount to much. I've only noted
down the influential competitions.
On February 7th 2006, a Taiwanese team was on the U9 forum challenging teams and met the
recently-formed GL. Due to poor connections, the match wasn't very good. Nevertheless, the
Taiwanese team used Keeper of the Light and Tinker's long-range nuke strategy which
broadened the DotA worldview of GL, who had until then worked diligently on their AOE
(area of effect) strategy. This also gave Chinese DotA players a taste of the fascination that
exists in CW (clan wars). As the first CW match in China with some influence, it deserves
mention in this history.
In March 2006, the first RDL DotA competition was hosted. Using 6.27 as the official version
of the competition, the tournament originally planned to have 32 teams, but in the end only
23 teams participated. GL was too strong for the other teams and took the victory claiming
the very first national Chinese title.
This tournament is something that can't be omitted from any Chinese DotA history. It could
be argued that due to the experiment that was this tournament, more Chinese DotA experts
switched from playing for amusement in pubs to having organized and competitive team
games. This tournament also led to more people appreciating the competitive nature of DotA
to break away from the preconception many people had of the game as a WC3 ladder map
meant only for casual amusement.
This tournament spread the fame of first-generation Chinese teams such as GL, HUST, IFNT,
Mage and EDU which declared the arrival of the strong teams. Following the popularization
of replays, Chenlun, Huiyue, Xiaoxiongmao and mAroBoRo (Wanbaolu) and other players
left a deep impression in people. They were the first generation Chinese DotA stars. They
were also who DotA beginners tried to model themselves after.
During the 6.27 era, the mainstream strategy was AOE. For late-game, the 4-protect-1
strategy was also developed. The most famous strategy was the Divine Aegis (Divine Rapier,
Aegis of the Immortal) Medusa. These strategies flourished through the 6.32 era until the
6.37 era.
The above represents the prehistory portion of DotA.

Part 2 - Violent AOE: The 6.32 Era
The 6.3x versions yielded two stable competitive versions: 6.32 and 6.37. The
changes in the mainstream playstyle that occurred between the two versions
made two successive competitive versions into completely different eras. During
the 6.32 era, the mainstream strategy still followed the previous 6.27 era's AOE
strategy, but due to some gameplay and item changes, a fast push strategy
became the most popular strategy in 6.37. The 6.3x versions played a large part
in shaping later DotA.
In April 2006, DotA Allstars 6.30 was released. DotA entered the 6.3x versions
and a new era had arrived.
The 6.30 version lasted a very brief period, but it still gave signs that DotA had
entered a flourishing period. In 6.30, aside from balance improvements and the
addition of new heroes, there were also two very important changes: the AI slot
that exists in many WC3 ladder maps was removed in favour of observer slots.
This allowed the possibility of a neutral host and for matches to be broadcasted
through Waaagh!TV. This change made DotA more suitable as a spectator esport.
In May 2006, the 6.32 version was released. This was another classic version of
DotA following the stable competitive version 6.27. In comparison, the Chinese
version of DotA Allstars 6.32 wasn't released until August.
Before releasing a changelog, the Chinese version first released a FAQ addendum
that answered some questions posed by beginners such as how to farm, where
the secret shop is located, questions about orb-stacking and so on. It could be
said that Heintje put more than 100% of his heart into popularizing DotA in
China.
During this era, influential teams included coL (compLexity), JMC (Jax Money
Crew), tPD (Team Pandemic), vRG (veRGe), Say Plz, Team Q and BTo (Boomtown
Odense). Even though EU (European) teams were also widely influential during
this era, for brevity's sake, only the NA (North American) teams will be explained
in this section, with more of an emphasis placed on EU teams during Part 3 of
this history.
Tournaments:
During this era, the most important NA competition was the CAL (Cyberathlete
Amateur League). The first three seasons were contended over by the four teams
coL, JMC, tPD and verGe with their skill levels being such that they could
dethrone each other at any given time. coL dominated the scene for quite some
time, before they were defeated in a 2-0 upset by JMC during the finals of the
first CAL season. However, coL would get their revenge in the second season as
they dethroned JMC to become champion.
The second season brought in hundreds of new NA teams, so for the third
season, CAL expanded their DotA competition to four categories: Invite (I), Main
(M), Intermediate (IM) and Open (O).
Influential teams and star players:
coL was the first NA powerhouse. Originally called clan PluG, coL was one of the
first DotA teams to get sponsored. They were a team with strong individual skill
and impressive results. Aside from their influential playstyle, coL players also
became the first-generation of DotA stars who everyone tried to model their own
play after. coL.Fear and coL.ezy were particularly influential.
1. Fear of coL, one of the legends of DotA

coL.Fear was renowned in all aspects of his play. Aside from tournament replays,
he also had many IH (in-house) replays. He played all sorts of heroes and had a
deep understanding of every single hero. His grasp of match tempo and when he
should engage were very outstanding. Fear's beginnings were in the IGS
(International Gaming Syndicate) where teams would join other clans' Battle.net
channels and ask to play. It was very common for teams to play 3v3 in this
league. His first clan was "OwNT". Later, he formed the famous clan PluG which
would become the juggernaut that was coL.
Recognized as DotA's strongest player of the time, Fear became the very first
player in the world of DotA to reach Legend status. Many players watched his
replays in order to learn from his play. Later after coL had disbanded, in a vote
held by GotFrag in 2007 for the Top 10 DotA players of All Time, Fear still claimed
5th place despite the poll having been held over 6 months after he had retired
(he has since made a comeback). This goes to show how considerable Fear's
influence truly was.
coL.ezy was the era's most famous farmer after JMC.Merlini. Nowadays, everyone
knows how important last-hitting and farming is, but back then not many players
focused on the fundamentals. ezy's epic replays playing Clinkz showed everyone
firsthand how important last-hitting and farming was. It was only after watching
his replays that many people began to practice last-hitting diligently as a
fundamental skill in DotA.
Aside from coL, JMC was another NA powerhouse. Also originating from the days
of the IGS league, the team was called FAG (Fang and Gang) named after JMC's
captain. The name was changed to Apex to make the process of signing up for
competitions smoother. Upon receiving JMC's sponsorship, the name was once
again changed. Everyone on the team was of Chinese ethnicity. Beyond a doubt,
Merlini's influence was the greatest. He played the most imbalanced Silencer of
the time, which combined with the dream-like grandeur of his playstyle and his
breathtaking performances filled countless DotA players with admiration. It was
during this era that Merlini raised Silencer to the hero's peak of popularity. Merlini
first made his name in IHLs (in-house league) where dominance in solo lanes,
farming and clutch moves made him memorable.
1. Merlini of JMC, another legend of DotA

Another member of JMC called inDe_eD also had exceptional ability. He
introduced many heroes into CW (clan wars). For example, he was the first to use
Silencer in a competitive match. He wrote many DotA hero guides and articles on
hero selection analysis. Many were translated into Chinese and provided
excellent advice to aspiring DotA players.
tPD was the third team that caught people's attention. Originally called team
ADA (Arrogant DotA Arseholes), the team received Team Pandemic's sponsorship.
As coL's strongest rival, they often experimented with new strategies using
unorthodox heroes. They continuously changed roles between teammates to try
to get themselves used to hero combinations, thus playing with flair and
originality. This got many people to notice them. Even their opponents could
make no secret of enjoying watching them play. Merlini and p0c would both later
profess that tPD was their favourite team.
tPD.Fachh was tPD's captain. Also of Chinese descent, he attained the acme of
perfection with Juggernaut bringing the hero into a new light. Juggernaut had
long been one of the least popular DotA heroes. Fachh's legendary performances
showed everyone the incredibly destructive force that laid within, leading to his
and Juggernaut's popularity.
verGe was the fourth big NA team. Originally called WaC, they were eventually
able to outlast the other three teams and get eMg's (eMazing Gaming)
sponsorship. Later on, they made it so big that one of the oldest NA e-sports
gaming organization EG (Evil Geniuses) sponsored the team.
Tournaments:
During the period of time between 6.27 and 6.32, Chinese DotA developed
quickly. It became the most popular map on college campuses. Not merely did it
grow rapidly in numbers of players, but large amounts of EU/NA tournament
replays and hero guides flooded intoChina. High quality forum posts and hero
guides began to emerge in large numbers. The level of Chinese DotA began a
speedy ascent.
During the 6.32 era, there were two major competitions in China. One was the
first U9 DotA Invitational. The other was the CPL DotA Challenge Competition. In
June and July 2006, The first U9 DotA Invitational was held with 30 teams
participating. GL took first place, IFNT second place. In August, RN held a fierce
competition from which IFNT emerged victorious.
In October 2006, the famous e-sport organization CPL (Cyberathlete Professional

League) hosted a DotA tournament in China. It excited many DotA fans endlessly.
This event's grand finals were the first LAN (local area network i.e. offline) event
in China to have widespread influence. In the end, lzlqcl-led Nebula team
returning from overseas took first place, HUST took second place and GL's two
teams third and fourth places.
1. The CPL DotA Tournament was the first LAN tournament in ChinaThe
winning team Nebula from left to right: EYE, lzlqcl, 521, Longdd, nono
This LAN event provided an excellent stage for the leading Chinese DotA teams
and players to interact with each other. I can't help but mention that GL saved up
for a rainy day. After the tournament ended, they were vigorous keeping up
relations with players who caught their eye in the tournament. So it was that
PLU's Snoy, Nebula's Zilong (later known as Longdd), Zhanguotianxia's DC were
all poached by GL later on. To say GL's manager was farsighted would be an
understatement.
This tournament also encouraged two companies (now DotA-related) to take

interest. One was OGame.net's DotA division that relied on fast-breaking news
and replay releases to become the biggest replay download and DotA news site
in China. In the beginning of year 2008, they made the strategic decision to
transfer all DotA content to SGamer.com before shutting down. The other
company was the VS gaming platform that relied on the simplicity and
competitive nature of its point-based system, quickly becoming the most popular
DotA gaming platform in China.
After being tested by several tournaments, a few teams stood out from the rest.
For a considerably long period of time, they stood on the highest pedestal of
Chinese DotA: GL, IFNT and HTML were the three most exceptional teams. After
winning CPL, Nebula went through a period where no news was heard from them.
After this period, they declared that they were going to disband.
If GL was a living person, this person could be said to have aristocratic blood
running through their veins. Even just after they formed, they already were a
top-tier team. After Tossgirl (not the female Starcraft progamer from Korea)
who'd received abundant CW experience overseas returned to China on vacation,
GL inherited the most advanced strategies of the time. When the playstyle of
Chinese DotA wasn't yet mature, Tossgirl's strategic understanding and
experience gave GL a firm seat on the throne of Chinese DotA for a considerably
long period of time. At the same time, GL was under excellent management and
were strict to the point of ruthlessness in their test for players interested in
joining the team, thereby ensuring that every team member had top-notch
individual skill. These factors combined to allow GL reign as the strongest team
in China for a long time.
IFNT followed the model by letting overseas Chinese students onto the team in
April 2006. Once the strong EU team Dcn's overseas students returned to China
and joined IFNT in succession, IFNT received advanced strategy and the valuable
tournament experience accumulated in EU DotA leagues. Afterwards, IFNT was
filled with numerous talents and for a time held the moniker "When all the pieces
are in place, IFNT is invincible." It's a shame one or two players weren't able to
attend the competitions...
HTML was a team formed by ice_show (At the time DotA.cn's head admin.
DotA.cn was the go-to forum in China if you wanted to improve) and Heintje
(translated Chinese versions of DotA). The charisma of these two people drew
players from all around China to their team. It was only that the skilled players
were all in EU/NA and Chinese players were still weak (but were quickly
improving) or else ice_show and Heintje would have enjoyed a greater degree of
success.
Concurrently, DotA in SEA (South-east Asia) was also taking off rapidly. They
adopted -AP (All Pick) mode favouring ganks. This playstyle was completely
different from the EU/NA's preference of -LM (League Mode) for competitions
where players would focus on lane-control. Originally, Chinese DotA players
consisted of students who'd gone to EU/NA to study, so their playstyle and
competitive mode (i.e. -AP) were modeled after EU/NA. SEA replays and forums
weren't prevalent in China, which limited the influence the SEA playstyle had on
Chinese DotA.
Nevertheless, teams such as Singapore's Zenith, the Philippines' Team Flow and
Team 129 had some replays showing Chinese players the fierce and captivating
nature of a frenzied gank playstyle. In particular, Zenith's novel playstyle and use
of unorthodox heroes completely captivated the viewer's gaze.
Mainstream strategies and hero picks
AOE was mainstream during the 6.32 era. Whether it was 5 AOE spellcaster push
strategy or AOE 4-protect-1, you didn't go without fierce AOE coordination. This is
why the 6.32 era is often referred to as the "AOE era".
During the 6.32 era, the mainstream strategy still followed the previous 6.27
era's AOE strategy of emphasizing harassment against opponents in-lane, so
roaming ganks werent a common sight. Upon acquiring a certain amount of
superiority or after completing an essential item (Mekansm, for example), the
team would gather to push.
The inspiration of this playstyle perhaps came out of traditional Western

concepts of warfare such as forming into ranks and firing off volleys (of spells in
the case of DotA). After an intense AOE spellcaster battle began, triple and ultra
kills were not uncommon. Rampages also weren't rare. (Note: The sounds for
"ultra kill" and "rampage" didn't exist back then. You could only hear a repeat of
"triple kill") The AOE strategy required extremely good coordination from
teammates. This is why early DotA teams from the AOE era endured a trial by
fire and perhaps had better teamwork than later teams.
1. Mekansm ad infinitum
The 6.32 version's Mekansm heal could be stacked. Since Sentinel could not
withstand the five spellcaster mass AOE push by the Scourge, a 4-protect-1
strategy protecting Silencer was developed, who was a good physical DPS
(damage-per-second) hero as well as the bane of any AOE strategy. Thus this led
to Scourge developing a 4-protect-1 strategy around Visage.
Late in the 6.32 era, nearly all Chinese teams were using the 4-protect-1
strategy. Despite being 4-protect-1, there was still an abundance of AOE. The
ganking 4-protect-1 had also emerged, but it wasn't mainstream, because
ganking hadnt matured yet.
Aside from Silencer and Visage during the 6.32 era, Morphling and Clinkz were
also common sights in CW. Morphling's morph ability and his ultimate
"replicate" were good weapons to deal with Visage. The despicable Divine Aegis
strategy used by Clinkz was an endless source of headache for Sentinel heroes.
Aside from these physical DPS heroes, AOE heroes including Enigma, Crystal
Maiden, Rhasta and Krobelus were all popular during the 6.32 era. Furthermore,
Lich's nearly 100% appearance rate in CW during the 6.32 era shows that he was
the hottest hero during the era (cheesy pun, because if something gets cold
enough, it will feel like getting burned by something hot). For many teams, the
test for players interested in joining the team was facing Lich 1v1 solo-mid using
Silencer.
The above represents the violent AOE era of DotA's history.

Part 3 - Fast Push: The 6.37 Era
On September 10th 2006, DotA Allstars 6.37 was released. On December 6th, the Chinese
version came out. The 6.37 version was the second stable competitive version in the 6.3x
series. There were many big changes that finally brought an end to the AOE (area of effect)
era and marking the beginning of the fast push with summons strategy.
As promised, this section will focus mainly on the European (EU) scene since the previous
dealt mostly with the North American (NA) scene. The international-scale of competitions
during this era brought to a clash the EU and NA powerhouses of DotA. Due to EU's success
in the ESL (E-Sports League) DotA Premiership and the MYM Prime Defending (Meet Your
Makers) series that followed, as well as the instability and eventual disbandment of old NA
powerhouses coL (complexity), JMC (Jax Money Crew) and tPD (Team Pandemic), it could
be said that NA lost to EU its position as the centre of the DotA world.
Tournaments:
The most important competition during the 6.37 era was the ESL DotA Nations Cup.
Participating teams numbered 12 in total including NA powerhouses coL, JMC and tPD, as
well as strong EU teams such as Team Q, Say Plz, TeG (The Elder Gods) and JoY (Jukes on
You). Without a doubt, these were the top teams of the time. Since the competition stretched
so long in duration, teams disbanded and players didn't always remain with original teams for
the entirety of the competition. Nevertheless, this was the most high-skilled international
tournament before the MYM Prime Defending series of competitions.
The most dominant team in the ESL was tPD. Early in the 6.37 era, tPD experimented with
Pandaren Brewmaster, Syllabear and other heroes before finding the perfect meat shield for a
fast push strategy: Bristleback. From that point onwards, the Bristleback, Enchantress, Twin
Head Dragon, Beastmaster and Holy Knight lineup swept aside all teams at ESL who had no
way to withstand their onslaught.
It was a shame that at a critical juncture in the tournament, the Bristleback God that was
SwissBeatz became inactive having gotten into World of Warcraft (WoW). Then, Say Plz
stole tPD's own strategy and used it against them sending them into the losers' bracket in the
semi-final match. In the losers' bracket, Team Q followed Say Plz's initiative and eliminated
the inventor of the fast push with summons strategy. It's lamentable that tPD fell into a
downward spiral soon after.
In the finals of the ESL after Say Plz won Game 1 due to one of Team Q's players (CatQ)
having internet issues and the team being forced to use a stand-in, they fought a bitter, hardfought 2h 30m 46s match against Team Q. After a heaven-startling and earth-shaking
comeback (no pun intended), they managed to claim victory. This was one of the most classic
matches in the history of DotA.
On November 6th 2006, after hosting three small-scale DotA tournaments that didn't have
much worldwide impact, e-sports organization MYM held the MYM PriDe Xtreme #1
Tournament (Prime Defending) filled with high-skilled players. From MYM PriDe #5
onwards, this tournament series would go on to become the most influential online DotA
competition in the world. MYM PriDe Xtreme #1 was won by the old school Romanian team
TeG who defeated coL and Team Q on their way to the finals. Second place was claimed by
Say Plz
The famous EU DotA website DotA-League held the 6th season of its popular online
tournament Pick League. Each team would accumulate points based on victories. In the end,
the German team WE (World Eaters) won. WE|Kuroky had made his mark on the world of
DotA for the first time.
During this tournament in a match between MYM and WE, the recently-joined MYM.Merlini
used for the first time ever in a competitive match Boots of Travel (BoT) Tinker strategy of
flying everywhere on the map to gank. So it was that a classic DotA strategy emerged. Later,
in the 6.52 era, Indonesia's XcN (eXeCutioNer) would bring the BoT Tinker strategy to its
pinnacle.
Surprisingly, this strategy was developed by a pub player called Virot2 who had been
perfecting it since 6.27. He published an influential guide between the 6.32 and 6.37 versions
that was the first to advocate such a build considered highly unorthodox at the time. If there
was a case of a pub player revolutionizing the DotA world, this would be it.
On September 29th, the famous 6.32 era team JMC announced that it was disbanding.
On November 15th, 2006, e-sports organization MYM began sponsoring the recent winner of
MYM Prime tournament, JoY, thus prompting them to change their name to the one we're all
familiar with. The key members were Paccie, MaNia, Maelk, Akke and Loda (stands for Lord
of Dol Amroth). Half a month later, they claimed victory in the DotA category of the
renowned LAN (local area network, i.e. offline) tournament DreamHack. After winning the
tournament, Loda and Akke left MYM to form a new entirely-Swedish team called T_T
(Team_Team). After Loda left, MYM reached out to members from the disbanded JMC. The
addition of Merlini, Fang and p0c boosted MYM's popularity and prestige making it one of
the most followed teams.
1. Before Loda and Maelk were bitter rivals, they won tournaments togetherFrom left to
right: Loda, MaNia, Maelk; in front: Akke, Paccie
During the 6.37 era, the most influential team was tPD without a doubt. Despite not being
able to win ESL, their fast push strategy became 6.37's tempo. If it wasn't for SwissBeatz
giving up DotA for WoW, we can rest assured that their exploits would have been even better.
The Russian giant Say Plz began their march towards DotA worlds limelight. In terms of
popularity Say Plz, as one of the oldest teams in DotA, had already supplanted coL. They
were considered one of the best teams in the world playing with maturity, having stable
players and rarely committing mistakes.
After being defeated in the finals of the CEVO tournament by tPD, coL began to fall apart.
throzz retired, DOGKaiser fell under team verGe's enchantment and warr1ck didn't know
what to do. With Fear as leader of coL, they had been one of the strongest teams in the 6.32
era.
iMbaQ had served for a time on Say Plz and STFU (Skill The F Up). With STFU, iMbaQ an
Englishman overcame historical rivalries to join forces with Frenchman and star player
SoyCD. Also on this legendary team were FocusIRE (also known as DoTa[expert]), Get-Lost
(FocusIRE's brother, also known as DoTa[pro]) and CatQ who were extremely skilled players
in their own right. Even the legend LighTofHeaven was a stand-in on this all-star team that
took MYM PriDe #2 by storm crushing the opposition.
SoyCD was a strong solo-mid player who many considered to be the best player in the world
at the time. He was quite proficient in using every hero. The only other player who stood a
chance to compete for the title of best player during this era would be FocusIRE. He was
another strong solo-mid and had won Season 2 of Dota-League's SIG (Single Instant Game)
Ladder. After STFU broke up after finishing what they had set out to do (winning MYM
PriDe #2), the players left for different teams and SoyCD went to tPD.
After joining Team Q, iMbaQ played the role of a carry. With his individual ability, he served
Team Q with distinction in the TFL (The Frozen League) and ESL contributing to Team Q's
dominance during this period. Aside from iMbaQ, the JesseQ-led Team Q had elJefeQ,
BarbaraQ, JesseQ and CatQ who were all high-skilled players and friends in this clan that has
been around since the Starcraft times. PenguinQ, nRiQ, QOa and leppasQ were also in this
team. iMbaQ didn't use spaces when he types, preferring the underscore instead. He had a
considerable amount of personality. Some say he was the Einstein of the DotA world, so great
was his influence at the time.
LighTofHeaven had become the representative of EU DotA during the 6.32 era. Following
strong performances by Say Plz, he drew more and more attention due to his spectacular
performances in the carry role. He combined exceptional farming capability with aweinspiring abilities of reading the game and stability in his play. He was a pioneer of the
Necronomicon Silencer item route and played a crucial role in the advancement of Silencer in
terms of how he should be played.
Having joined MYM, Merlini showed a renewal of his 6.32 era prestige and influence, filling
the skies with heat-seeking rockets and once again propelling himself to dazzling stardom. To
say that he was the most influential DotA player in the world wouldn't be an overstatement.
He became the first player after Fear to attain Legend status.
Loda, ARS-ART, M.Admiration, FocusIRE and Levent, these later stars began gaining
international renown during this era.
IceFrog's 6.37 version lasted from September 1st, 2006 until February 2007, but its influence
on the Chinese scene wasn't actually that extensive. It wasn't until December 2006 until the
Chinese version came out and was quickly replaced by 6.41 two short months later. In
between was also the Chinese version of 6.38 and the Chinese New Year. Also during the
6.37 era, there weren't any big tournaments aside from CDL-I. Compared to the EU/NA
scene, the Chinese scene was quite small.
On December 7th 2006, OGame.net announced they were going to host a Chinese DotA
Tournament called the CDL-I Tournament. This time, their announcement was sufficiently
loud. In fact, their eye-catching advertisement was on the 6.37 Chinese version's loading
screen which was just released on December 6th. This edition of the tournament stretched a
very long time lasting over half a year. It strode across three competitive versions from 6.37
until 6.43.
There were 12 teams that participated. Almost all were the 12 strong teams invited by CPL
(Cyberathlete Professional League) as mentioned in Part 2 of this history. In the end, IFNT
defeated HTML to take the victory. This was the more carefully organized online DotA
tournament. Advertisements giving advance notice, replay release after the tournament and
live casting were all performed fairly satisfactorily.
It is interesting to note that the now infamous trilane (3-1-1 laning) emerged during the time
between the 6.32 and 6.37 eras in the SEA scene. It is rumoured to have first been used by
lesser known teams at WCG Malaysia 2006 in August. The first time it can definitely be
proven to have been used in a competitive match was in the semi-final BO1 (best of one)
match of WCG Asia 2006 by Singapore's MI2 (stylized way of writing MR) facing their
dominant countrymen, Zenith. With Zenith's star-studded squad of GPS, Ant, ToFu, LuX and
iceiceice on ten month long winning streak, MI2 needed a miracle.
1. MI2, winners of WCG Asia 2006 and pioneers of the trilaneFrom left to right:
ShouRy (mutton), jiabaoZ (jb), dot-dotrk, K-yLeng, Scotts
Facing a gank-heavy lineup from Zenith with the possibility of a dual-stun lane, MI2
ingeniously trilaned an Enigma, Vengeful Spirit, Medusa bottom against a solo Sven.
Threatened with complete lane domination, Zenith was forced to pull the dual jungling Sand
King and Chen all the way from Scourge jungle to bottom lane for support, costing them
experience and gold. Ultimately, with Medusa strong beyond imagining, MI2 was able to take
three towers with their first push and force Zenith to "gg" with the next.
On September 24th 2006, in a showmatch between MI2 and coL, Asia's gank style met EU's
lane-control style to determine which one was stronger. The match became the focal point of
discussion for many and appealed to countless fans.
MI2 was the winner of the most recent WCG Asia 2006 (World Cyber Games). coL had just
defeated tPD and become the winner of CAL (Cyberathlete Amateur League). The two teams
met at their peaks and the match attracted worldwide attention. Due to poor internet
connections, both sides fought well in one match each and the contest was split one apiece.
In the first match, coL dominated with their standard AOE 4-protect-1 Clinkz. (This was still
early on in the 6.37 era) In the second match, MI2 dazzled with their offensive trilane (as
opposed to their farming trilane vs. Zenith).These two matches were classic matches full of
historical significance. From this point on, the gank and lane-control styles of play began to
interact, both trying to borrow from the strengths of the other.
Soon after this showmatch, EU and NA teams led by MYM and coL began experimenting
with trilanes as a situational strategy for offensive purposes or farming. Popular picks in the
SEA scene such as Viper and Queen of Pain entered the competitive pool of EU and NA
DotA.
As alluded to previously, there were many big changes since the 6.32 version that brought an
end to the AOE era and begun the fast push with summons era. These changes included:
-Mekansm could no longer be stacked. -The items Vanguard and Bottle were introduced. Tangoes were buffed to heal 75 more HP (health points). -Denied units gave off some
experience instead of none. -A reward of 200 gold was now given to team members when an
opposing tower was destroyed.
Changes to game mechanics to denies as well as the buff to tangoes allowed melee heroes
such as Beastmaster and Bristleback to become viable for the first time.
6.37 wasn't actually a very balanced version. Under -LM mode in 6.37, the Sentinel fast push
using summons strategy with Chen and Enchantress was almost unstoppable by Scourge.
Even with the Spectre trilane strategy, Scourge lost more games. This is why players began to
doubt the balance of competitive matches and to consider the possibility of using -AP mode
over -LM. Thus began a shift in public opinion regarding the competitive mode.
Several versions that followed 6.37 were stable competitive versions, but these versions made
some important changes with some looking like they'd been made in a rush.
1. Birth of Bottle-Crow
6.38 introduced the new items Arcane Ring, Flying Courier, Mjollnir and Vladmir's Offering.
As well, the siege unit was added as a creep type. The Bottle was buffed immensely by
allowing runes to refill an empty bottle and a buff to the mana regeneration of each sip. A
new hero Priestess of the Moon was introduced.
6.39 continued with the changes, the significant ones being: addition of -RD mode, addition
of the OB (observer) stat table, and two new heroes, Geomancer and Dazzle.
DotA 6.3x was the era where DotA spread worldwide and continued its evolution as an esport. During this time, large-scale tournaments with influence worldwide were held
providing the conditions for different DotA playstyles to interact (trilanes and Queen of Pain
being two examples). The rationales behind different strategies blended and gained from the
strengths of each other preparing for the arrival of a new era.
The above represents the fast push with summons era of DotA's history.
Part 4 - Trilane and the Global Strategy: The 6.41 Era
On February 7th 2007, DotA 6.41 was released. On February 28th, the Chinese version was
released. 6.41 addressed balance problems to a large extent. It replaced 6.37 as the version
used in competitive matches. 6.41 lasted a very short period as it was replaced by 6.43 a
month later.
Nevertheless, 6.41 was a version with particular historical significance. In this version, -AP
replaced -LM as the official competitive mode. Furthermore, there were many tournaments
held using this version. For these reasons, version 6.41 was a good testing ground to pave the
way for 6.43.
Tournaments:
On February 28th 2007, the first large-scale -AP mode tournament was the Russian ASUS
Winter Open 2007. Russia's team MaGe (Magic aGe) claimed victory. This was the first time
Vigoss came into everyone's vision. Second and third place were claimed by Russian teams
DoTa[] and Say Plz respectively.
1. MaGe winners at ASUS Winter Open 2007From left to right: HoroN, NS, Jolie,
GashY, Vigoss
On March 7th 2007, MYM PriDe #4 (Prime Defending) started. After experimenting with the
first 3 editions, the MYM tournament has attracted the attention of the world with 137 teams
participating. Compared with the first edition 3 months ago, you can see how rapidly DotA
was growing. This MYM tournament had two rules that caught one's attention: firstly,
Bristleback was auto-banned; secondly, every hero could only make one Aegis of the
Immortal. These two rules became standard in competitions for the 6.41 version. It is also
what began the legend of Bristleback's invincibility.
Soon after MYM PriDe #4 began, three Russian teams were banned from the competition:
Say Plz, MaGe and a team not well known called SD. The reason was Say Plz and SD were
both using a player called HoroN to play their games, but HoroN was actually MaGe's player.
This led to the organizing committee banning all three teams (another rumour was that MaGe
was actually banned for having used Bristleback). Say Plz's manager Matrix protested with
great indignation. He claimed that even though Say Plz did break a rule, MYM's punishment
was overly severe. He even went so far as to claim that kicking them out was the result of an
inside plot and as may be imagined, his words caused much controversy.
This was the first significant claim of corruption in DotA tournament organizers. Following
DotA's continuous development as an e-sport, everyone's standard of fair play had also
increased. This is a natural development in a competitive game's path towards becoming a
professional e-sport. Therefore, there's no ground for blame towards the MYM PriDe #4
tournament organizers. You can't let a team break rules just because they're famous. Without
rules, nothing can be accomplishedthis happened to be MYM tournament organizers'
philosophy. Their decisions led to the MYM tournament series becoming famous and
respected worldwide.
In MYM PriDe #4, dark horses burst onto the scene. Zenith, MYM and tPD these old-school
teams got eliminated in the Round of 16 by teams no one had previously heard of. In the end,
team DoTa[] led by core veterans FocusIRE (DoTa[expert]), Get-Lost (brother of FocusIRE,
also known as DoTa[pro]) and ars-n00b (DoTa[gosu]) defeated Kuroky's upstart German
team WE (World Eaters) to become champion. Worth noting is that also on this team were
future stars ARS-ART and M.Admiration (DoTa[hasu]) who would go on to form the core of
VP (Virtus Pro).
The disintegrating coL had to field an entirely new roster relying on ex-JMC and ex-tPD
players. Their players were Fear, ezy, imMIKEJONES, Shroomz, Shaang and hit0mi with
BarbaraQ, CatQ (also known as MoON, not the Korean WC3 progamer) from Team Q as
stand-ins since their team wasn't participating in this MYM PriDe. Despite the lack of
commitment, the team had very strong players and was very successful in the tournament
making it all the way to the semi-finals where they forfeited the match to the dismay of their
fans. They decided to forfeit the third-place match as well and the team disbanded soon
afterwards.
1. Original team SK's 6-player roster, featuring from left to rightTop row: Bogdan, Loda,
Akke, KwoM, Renji, Drayich
On March 10th 2007, TFL (The Frozen League) began. This was the other influential
competition during the 6.41 era. TFL was an invitational, but didn't invite Say Plz during
their peak, so the tournament organizers were called into question. However aside from
omitting Say Plz, all other strong teams participated, so it was an international-scale
tournament. This competition was similar to the Chinese CDL-I tournament in that both
lasted a very long time. While the tournament was running, teams dropped out one by one.
Four months later, the team that began the tournament as T_T ended the tournament as SK
and defeated MYM to claim victory.
There was a scandal in TFL too. During the match between TeG and VP, TeG-KANGA was
caught maphacking. Soon after, TeG had another team member caught maphacking leaving
no choice for TeG but to forfeit their remaining matches. TeG was an old-school Romanian
powerhouse, winners of MYM PriDe Xtreme #1 (a tournament that took place between
MYM PriDe #3 and #4). This scandal dragged their reputation through the mud and after the
tournament, their playing ability was severely impacted. Later, they recombined with new
players and while not attaining dominance, would remain a force teams needed to watch out
for. So it was that TeG furthered its legacy as one of Europe's oldest teams.
On April 12th 2007, MYM PriDe #5 got off to a start. MYM PriDe #5 continued to use 6.41
as the competitive version. This was a very successful tournament as over 200 teams
worldwide participated. This officially made the MYM tournament series the World Cup of
the DotA world. Some even went so far as to claim that MYM PriDe #5 changed DotA, that it
was the beginning of a new era by saying:
"Of course it didn't add any new heroes or items. Of course it didn't rebalance any skills. But
with truth as my witness, this tournament did more for DotA as an e-sport than any of
IceFrog's patches!"
Even though these words might be a bit of an exaggeration, they do have some merit. MYM
PriDe #5 broadened DotA's influence on the world. The tournament's level of organization
and rules set the standard for future tournaments to follow, and a provided a great opportunity
for international teams to interact. Many new, original strategies were explored in this
tournament. These strategies yielded better understanding of how deep DotA truly was.
In MYM PriDe #5, Loda led team T_T to abandon the by-now popular trilane strategy. He
came up with a spectacular global gank strategy defeating Say Plz, annihilating DoA (Dead
or Alive), overthrowing TeG, braving MaGe before finally triumphing over MYM to become
victor. In an interview, Loda says that he and Bogdan perfected the concept after seeing
Kuroky's WE use something similar in a scrim against them.
The global strategy is a lineup involving the heroes Zeus, Furion and Spectre. The ultimates
of all three heroes have global effect and the latter two can move to an engagement
happening anywhere on the map bringing great impact to small-scale battles and ganks. Back
then, the global strategy was limited to these three heroes. MYM would later add BoT Tinker
to the global arsenal and it would be further expanded with the introduction of new heroes
such as Clockwerk Goblin, Ancient Apparition and Gyrocopter.
By necessity, a global lineup requires the team to abandon the trilane strategy, because it
would be impossible for three heroes on a team to reach Level 6 in a short amount of time
due to the fact that at least one out of the three will be forced to split experience on the
trilane. Furthermore, this strategy could be said to be a counter to the trilane strategy in the
sense that with proper execution, a team can take advantage (by ganking) of the timing
window where they have ultimates on their three key heroes while the other team might still
have heroes stuck on Level 5.
Early ganking cannot usually be guaranteed to succeed without a hero first farming up a blink
dagger or by using Nerubian Assassin (Storm Spirit wasn't added until 6.44), but T_T
managed to chance upon a clever and efficient way of ganking with the only requirement
being to reach Level 6 on their key heroes.
Regarding the two heroes completing the global strategy lineup, teamfight heroes with
powerfuly ultimates such as Sand King, Shadow Fiend and Warlock would often be picked.
This completes the synergy with the other three "global" heroes, because the ultimates of
those three are quite useful in teamfights as well. The result was a lineup strong in mid-game
ganks as well as late-game teamfights.
The 6.41 era was quite chaotic as teams tried to find the perfect hero combination since they
were no longer restrained by the Sentinel-Scourge limitation in hero choices of -LM mode.
Many teams had bright points in their play. Of these teams, the team with most influence was
MYM. To begin with, MYM was already a worldwide famous e-sports organization. By
adding an international DotA team filled with high-skilled players, they received much
attention and gained massive popularity; their replays were studied by many. This led to the
rapid popularization of heroes they unearthed.
1. MYM from left to right: MaNia, Maelk, Merlini, p0c, H4nn1, LevenT
Back in the 6.37 era, MYM.Merlini had demonstrated the global gank strategy based around
Tinker. Drawing on his legendary abilities to dazzle the world once more, he demonstrated
that his understanding of fog was simply incomparable.
MYM.LevenT went beyond godlike with Lina nearly every match. This led to people
referring to him as the Mouth of Lina (as if he were her spokesman). This female hero
became the most popular hero in the 6.4x versions.
MYM.Fang was indisputably a legendary player at using Sand King. He took Sand King
from a traditional AOE (area of effect) hero to a roaming gank hero. Sand King played the
role of the "man" in the famous "Dog, Man and Woman" gank combination of the 6.4x
versions.
MYM.H4nn1's mastery of all aspects of the game and his refined individual abilities got him
Star status. Together with Loda, he made the 6.41 era into Shadow Fiend's era.
Aside from team MYM, the play of the eventual winners of MYM PriDe #5 T_T were the
most eye-catching. Developing the global gank strategy which directly inspired VP's later full
pressure gank strategy, they greatly influenced later DotA.
1. Loda attains Legend status(If you haven't figured it out by now, Legend status = right
to append God to the first letter of your name i.e. L-God)
T_T's core player Loda demonstrated to everyone for the first time how imbalanced the 6.41
Shadow Fiend could be. From 6.41 onwards, Loda officially attained Legend status. His
abundant individual ability and the unique glamour of his play gave him the capability for
quite a long time to carry his relatively mediocre teammates against MYM and VP, two starstudded teams.
In the 6.41 version, Team Q's original lineup of Keeper of the Light, Earthshaker, Silencer
and Shadow Fiend showed profound influence.
The Russian team MaGe were victors of ASUS Winter 2007. The team's Vigoss and Jolie
were on the brink of their meteoric rise to stardom.
In March 2007, the second edition of the U9 DotA Championship was held. This was the
most influential competition in Chinese DotA during the 6.41 era. At the time aside from the
incredibly long CDL-I, there weren't any other competitions. From growth between 6.32 and
6.41, Chinese DotA players were blowing up in numbers forming numerous teams. This led
to many DotA fans in succession registering for the U9 DotA Championship. In the end, over
60 teams participated.
This event drew many college teams out of their normal school circles letting them attend a
large-scale tournament. In particular, AVNC (led by a player called 2009) and HFUT were the
most successful college teams during this era.
Newcomers such as EAST, AVNC, GOW and LOST.P were incredibly strong. In matches
against the old guard GL, IFNT and Nebula, their play were extremely eye-catching. In
particular, the LOST.P team formed by Danche (N3komatA) was the biggest underdog. In the
winners' bracket finals, they sent GL down to the losers' bracket and emerged as the darkest
of the dark horses. EAST and AVNC claimed 3rd and 4th places respectively laying down
fine performances.
1. GK of team GL, talented player of the second generation

The new generation of players including GK, 2009, 830, Soulk and Dgc were all very capable
players.
Overall, this edition of the U9 competition was the first event in China to test the skill levels
of the different teams. The new generation of teams and players shined on-stage. They
infused the Chinese scene with a newfound source of vitality and passion.
During this tournament, VS gaming platform's CW (clan war) room became the main place
for teams wanting to learn from each other. In the forums, chat between new teams and posts
to schedule CWs could be found. The Chinese scene was continuing its development.
Singapore's Zenith began taking part in online EU events starting from MYM PriDe #4. Since
they'd been playing -AP mode from the beginning, people gave them good expectations of
winning. However due to poor connections and at times playing not very maturely, they were
eliminated from TFL and MYM PriDe #4.
Nevertheless, they were the first team from Asia to go do battle in EU/NA and some of their
strategies have had worldwide influence. Rushing Eye of Skadi before Boots was particularly
memorable. Their strategy of switching Queen of Pain from gank to DPS (damage-per-
second) would become mainstream after 6.43. Another of their contributions was five heroes
getting Blink Daggers in a competitive match. Blink Daggers would become standard in 6.4x
versions.
6.41 was the first version to use -AP mode as the competitive mode instead of -LM. Earlier
on in the new version, the playstyle carried remnants of the old -LM styles: AOE, fast push
and gank were all being executed using the 3-1-1 laning system. Trilanes that were seen only
as a novelty in 6.37 now became mainstream.
All the teams were trying out new heroes for use in CW. After a period of feeling their way
around, small-scale gank 4-protect-1 became mainstream. High burst-damage heroes took
centre-stage in CW. Heroes like Shadow Fiend, Zeus, Warlock, Tinker and Nerubian Assassin
became popular during this era. The Leshrac and Lina stun combo was particularly deadly. In
the Chinese scene, Alchemist and Spectre were popular late-game heroes.
Later in the era, the global strategy was discovered and used to devastating effect bringing
T_T the title of MYM PriDe #5. This strategy was particularly effective against the
experience-starved trilane heroes on the other team. Whether it was for this reason or some
other that led to the disappearance of trilanes, it is unclear. What is clear however, is that soon
afterwards, the trilane strategy lost favour in the European DotA competitive community as
teams resorted to the familiar 2-1-2 and sometimes 2-2-1 laning. This would not be the last
the DotA world saw of trilanes.
The dazzling power of a global strategy to gank a hero anywhere on the map was truly
incredible. It is theorized that this strategy became the inspiration of VP's full pressure gank
strategy later on.
The above concludes the first incarnation of the trilane in DotA's history.
Part 5 - Rise of the Blink Dagger: The 6.43 Era
6.43 was one of the golden eras in the history of DotA. Numerous strategies emerged and
many unpopular heroes were introduced into CW. The game's seemingly infinite variation
drew more players into the world of DotA.
6.43 fixed many bugs and balance issues that existed in 6.41. At the same time, several
important changes were made. These changes made 6.43 into a stable competitive version
with one of the most profound and far-reaching effects in the history of DotA.
Between 6.43 and 6.48, none of the versions were stable versions. Their individual influences
can be ignored, so I'll put all mention of pre-6.48 competitions under the 6.43 heading.
Tournaments:
On May 8th, VP (Virtus Pro) was formed from players out of MaGe and DoTa[]. In the ASUS
Spring 2007 Tournament, the LighTofHeaven-led Say Plz defeated VP to become champion.
Just like how Michael Jordan had to overcome many difficulties before dominating the NBA,
after this defeat VP ruled the DotA world from 6.43 to the 6.48 era.
On June 8th, MYM hosted the MYM Prime Nations #1 tournament with players representing
their countries that ran concurrent to MYM PriDe #6. In total, 18 countries attended. China's
team was organized by ChinaPanda who took care of players who wanted sign up and play.
GL ended up representing China, but due to the bad internet, they were eliminated after one
win and one loss. In the final, Russia defeated Denmark to become victor.
1. Vigoss, shares title of King of Gankers with ARS-ART

Another important tournament in June was DreamHack Summer 2007. Using version 6.44,
this was the first international-level competition that used -XL mode (three bans for each
side). Carrying widespread influence, this tournament drew 33 participating teams.
Ultimately, MYM defeated T_T with their own version of the devastating global strategy,
swapping out Spectre for the famous MYM Tinker surprisingly not played by Merlini. This is
because they introduced an innovation of their owna jungling Beastmaster by Merlini
together with a jungling Furion to quickly reach the all-important Level 6. Beastmaster
synergized very well with the lineup providing excellent vision for ganks as well as a creep
for a quick teleport from Tinker. T_T would go on to win SK Gaming's sponsorship, and
become another powerful and influential team following the steps of MYM and VP.
MYM PriDe #6 turned out to be a cakewalk for the Russians with five Russian teams making
the playoffs. The finals were between Say Plz and VP. After a bitter 84min contest, VP
emerged victorious. They were on their way of creating their own legend of winning three
consecutive MYM PriDe events.
After MYM PriDe #6, the long and drawn out TFL competition finally reached the playoffs.
In the first round, SK fought three hard fought battles to defeat VP at their peak. VP got sent
to the losers' bracket where they were eliminated by the previously unheard of South Korean
dark horse team xDT (Extreme DotA Team). xDT commonly employed heroes that were
extremely unpopular at the time like Anti-Mage, Terrorblade and Faceless Void often
surprising the opponent. In the finals of the TFL, SK got their revenge for Dreamhack
Summer by defeating MYM to claim victory. TFL was the only tournament during the 6.43
era that VP did not win.
1. ARS-ART with the cold, emotion-less eyes of an assassinshares title of King of

Gankers with Vigoss
On August 24th, ASUS Summer 2007 began. VP went undefeated to take the tournament
while Say Plz took 3rd place.
On September 6th, MYM PriDe #7 began. Even though IceFrog had just released 6.48b the
day before, this tournament still used 6.43b as the competitive version. MYM first defeated
VP in the winners' bracket, but they were then defeated by VP slaughtering their way out of
the losers' bracket. It was a fierce, seemingly preordained meeting that was hard to forget.
If MYM PriDe #6 was said to be Vigoss's mainstage, then MYM PriDe #7 was ARS-ART's.
He seemed to be naturally endowed with instincts of an assassin and filled to the core with a
desire for aggression. He attained an acme of perfection with heroes like Nerubian Assassin,
Gondar and Pudge. Without a doubt, his and Vigoss's performances both deserved the title
King of Gankers. At the time, VP's captain and strategic mastermind Jolie described ARSART and Vigoss as thus:
ARS-ART's (Virtus.Smile) playstyle is very unique, different from any other. His solo-killing
ability is simply incomparable, often seizing an opportunity another player would have
missed. Even though he is not as good a support player as NS, he can provide many Observer
Wards.
Vigoss is our other hero killer. Unlike ARS-ART, Vigoss prefers to gank with his teammates.
His reaction speed is simply shocking and he has exceptional powers of prediction. These
qualities make him DotA's best ganker. Another positive trait he has is that he never gives up
and keeps fighting to the end.
On September 29th, the Garena gaming platform announced the Asian DotA Championships
(ADC). This was a big online tournament held over the course of four months with 32 teams
from 10 countries in Asia participating.The tournament began with 6.43b and ended with
6.48b. Together with PLU, a livestream was provided online. This was the first DotA
competition that provided an online livestream to the Chinese audience.
During the 6.43 era, VP was dominant. Out of five important international competitions
DreamHack Summer, ASUS Spring, ASUS Summer, MYM PriDe #6, MYM PriDe #7 and
TFL, VP won three while MYM, Say Plz and SK took one apiece. At the time, Say Plz was
reaching its twilight and trying to continue on despite its problems. SK had no star players
aside from Loda. This led to contests between MYM and VP being the most eagerly
anticipated. Their meetings in consecutive MYM Pride tournaments are considered classic
matches in the history of DotA.
1. From left to right: M.Admiration, Jolie, Vigoss

Later on in the group stages of MYM PriDe #7, this team made a huge comeback to defeat
VP. Going without even Boots at 42min, Syllabear managed to farm up Radiance. 20min
later, they had pushed into VP's base. This made the disconsolate VP type out after GG the
two phrases "guis U SO COOL" and "FUCK U". This was the famous Profanity-Gate affair.
After group stages, VP, rB (French team Redbear) and MiZen (Singaporean team formed
from Micronology and Zenith) were in a three-way tie, so tiebreakers were played. However,
the tiebreaker results didn't solve anything, so they were forced to looking at stats from each
game (hero kills/tower kills/barrack kills/number of Aegis). MiZen playing a conservative
playstyle and often being in an inferior position was eliminated. It was very tragic, because if
their luck was just a tiny bit better, VP's three consecutive MYM Pride wins would have been
interrupted.
After the hit0mi-led NA team x6's (Check-Six) fine performance in MYM PriDe #6 that led
them to a 3rd place finish, instability in team members cost them their sponsorship. Even
though they left their mark on MYM PriDe #7 by claiming 3rd place, NA were no longer the
dominant force they were in the 6.32 era.
1. hit0mi uttering a summons to the underworld before facing LighTofHeaven's Say Plz
at MYM PriDe 6
hit0mi has been a core member of NA teams including JMC, x6, coL, tPD and later eMg.
Aside from Fear and Merlini, he was the only player from NA to make the aforementioned
GotFrag list of Top 10 DotA Players of All Time in 2007. (He is actually from Germany and
came to NA for college, but he was awarded honorary NA status on the GotFrag list, so I will
continue this tradition). With teams x6 and eMg, he attained 3rd place placings in consecutive
MYM PriDes.
He was known for his game sense, grasp of the tempo and strategic mastery. As attested to by
a former x6 teammate, he was also known for his leadership and was possessed that special
ability of making good players around him even better. As we will see later on, players such
as MYM's Maelk also possessed this rare quality. As a result, hit0mi is remembered as one of
the famous leaders in the history of DotA.
During the 6.43 era, VP emerged with great splendor drawing the gaze of the whole world.
Vigoss and ARS-ART became superstar-level players. One became the #1 DotA player in
world between versions 6.43 and 6.48 inclusive; the other became known as the King of
Gankers.
1. ASUS Spring 2007 runners-up VP (Virtus Pro)From left to right: Vigoss,

M.Admiration, Jolie, ARS-ART and NS
VP's popularity also brought acclaim to NS as the world's best support player. Just as how
ezy's appearance in the 6.32 era showed DotA playerseven the casual onesthe
importance of good fundamentals, NS's exquisite ward placement showed everyone the
importance of good map vision.
Behind Vigoss and ARS-ART, Jolie only had to worry about the grand strategy and tempo
management, which led to him being referred to as VP's metronome. M.Admiration was VP's
most stable player. Without a doubt, VP's players were the best even among top players.
Together, they succeeded at making VP a legend.
It is often forgotten that VP had not a 5-player roster, but one with six players. The last
member was Sahka. He usually played the role of support along with NS and contributed
much to VP's dominance during this era.
1. From left to right: Jolie, Sahka, Vigoss, ARS-ART

At DreamHack Summer early in the 6.43 era, MYM.Merlini was brilliant in his jungling
Beastmaster from Level 1 as part of MYM's take on the innovative global strategy. It was a
shame that soon after this tournament, Merlini temporarily went back to Taiwan on vacation.
After he returned, he wasn't in his old form.
As a replacement for Merlini's Tinker during his vacation, MYM found a new team member
in slahser. His individual ability in all aspects of the game and flashy ganks were particularly
memorable quickly reaching Star status.
The first important tournament was the Chinese qualifiers held in Beijing on May 15th for
WCG Asia competition (ACG) in Singapore. The winner was team GL with Snoy, Stephy,
DC, 820 and DiviDust (he changed his name from Tossgirl during the finals in Singapore).
The runner-up was Nebula. Later on August 5th in Singapore, ACG Grand Finals, GL lived
up to the highest expectations by defeating the Malaysian team Ct (Cybertime). This was a
Chinese DotA team's first foray out of China and actually was able to achieve glory. GL's
path to the finals received much news coverage in China.
This time, the Chinese qualification competition was organized very poorly. Before the
competition, only 30min were allotted per match and hero and tower kills were used to
determine the victor. This kind of match regulation caused much commotion. Furthermore,
the grouping left people feeling very helpless. There were 4 groups. Group A had 8 teams of
which 4 were leading teams of the time: AVNC, IFNT, HTML and GL. However, Group D
had merely 2 teams. The omission of replay release after the tournament was also a source for
further castigation.
In early June, CDL-I finally entered its late phase and playoffs began. 4 teams were left: GL,
Zhanguotianxia, HTML and IFNT. Zhanguotianxia was GL's B-team. Rumour has it that it
was a team led by an overseas student (I think it was Tossgirl, but I don't remember too
clearly). CDL-I's rules were extremely stringent that even GL's A-team choked at a critical
juncture. In the end, IFNT defeated HTML to become victor. IFNT was one of China's best
teams at the time. Its talented players were numerous, but they hadn't won a major
tournament since then.
1. GL after winning WCG 2007 ACG tournament from left to right: DiviDust, 820,
Stephy, DC, Reporter, Snoy
After CDL on the evening of July 9th, IFNT and GL fought another fierce struggle between
two mighty and evenly-matched teams. In a Bo3 on the line was WE's (World Elite)
sponsorship to become China's first professional DotA team. The first match, IFNT won. The
second had only gone some 20min when the computer of IFNT carry player 2046 playing
Queen of Pain restarted, because they couldn't stop the cybercaf from shutting it off. IFNT
was forced to play 4v5, eventually losing. The third match, GL relied on 820's incisive
Silencer to defeat IFNT winning them WE's sponsorship.
At the time, everyone thought GL had won WE's sponsorship thereby becoming China's first
professional DotA team. In ACG 2007 that followed, GL also used WE as their team name.
However, Snoy later wrote in his blog that WE had not actually provided any funds to them.
So it was that even though GL won the competition, they didn't actually become China's first
professional team.
On September 26th in the finals of WGT China 2007 (World Gamemaster Tournament),
Longdd's exceptional performance led HTML to defeat IFNT for the victory. PLU provided
the livestream for this match. This was the first time that mass media was used to provide a
livestream of a DotA event. At the time an advertisement said:
WGT and PLU are making history, and you as a DotA fan are also making history, because
the ultimate goal of mass media's publicity and livestream is to attract you fans towards the esport. Your IP is the debrillator for the heart of future DotA.
The victory at ACG brought GL to the peak of their popularity and made them indisputably
the best team in China. HTML was also very strong during this era. In the CW room in the
VS gaming platform, a popular saying was "come try to beat us, GL and HTML players not
welcome." In my recollections GL often played standard lineups and crushed teams with
mainstream strategies. HTML used weird lineups with a graceful playstyle, which frustrated
opponents to no end.
Playing against GL was like reading a Jin Yong novel (popular Hong Kong author who wrote
novels about adventures of martial artists)you felt there was a majestic atmosphere.
Playing against HTML was like reading Gu Long (popular Mainland China author of same
genre, but who liked to delve more into the psychology of his strange characters)you felt
befuddled by strange and peculiar sights. HTML's Nerubian Weaver and Tinker strategy had
an awe-inspiringly illustrious reputation.
Actually during the 6.43 era, there was another powerful DotA clan in China that if you
wanted to use the number of clan members as a metric, was the strongest in the world. MYW
and Xiaobaitu these average teams had a large influence on the development of Chinese DotA
by giving it exposure to large numbers of people. In the long run, DotA even without any
competitive nature attached was very fun to play. Some teams had competition as their end
goal, while others had entertainment as theirs; these are two completely different ideals. Both
made enormous contributions to the development of DotA in China.
After Chinese qualifications for ACG, AVNC disbanded. At the time, when 820, Huati, 2046
and others did some interviews where they all expressed regret. After AVNC, HFUT, XJTU,
SMTH and other college teams emerged during the 6.43 era. With excellent individual ability
and excellent chemistry from sitting beside each other in real life, these college players were
shockingly good.
In early July, the once magnificent CPL LAN tournament winners Nebula announced they
were disbanding due to pressure for team members to go work and study. From these
pressures and the fiasco with the sponsorship, IFNT, GL and HTML which formed the first
generation Chinese teams after performing gloriously and inciting much excitement during
the 6.43 era have all gradually lost their vitality. In succession, they walked off the centerstage of history.
On September 30th, a consolidation of Chinese experts formed the team SNM. On the eve of
their formation, they gave people much hope for the future. It's a shame that nothing came of
it. After making noise, the team disappeared. It's lamentable, because if these experts were
really to have been gathered, it wouldnt have been impossible for them to re-enact a second
coming of GL.
In the 6.43 era, the playstyle mainly studied was VP's full pressure gank strategy. Individual
brilliance was often overcome by good chemistry and teamwork. GL's five players who
attended ACG were certainly deserved Star status. After Longdd left for HTML, his elegant
playstyle and flamboyant ganking drew him much attention. HTML's GK also gradually
became a star player.
Dgc, Soulk and 830 who played for both GOW and IFNT also flourished during this time.
HTML's amei, Shuairen, IFNT's 2046, hanhan, and others also shined for a while.
To sum up, the 6.43 era was an explosive period in Chinese DotA with large amounts of new
players joining the gaming community. Various teams and discussion forums emerged in
large numbers like mushrooms in the rain. Livestreams began and tournaments happened
more frequently than before. Sponsors began noticing DotA. A very good foundation was laid
for Chinese DotA teams to move towards the professional direction.
The powerful and influential Singaporean team Zenith from SEA that had swept away all
competition in 2006 was now facing growing troubles. First at ACG Singapore qualifications,
they met an unexpected setback and didn't qualify. Being a leading team in Asia and not
winning ACG for two consecutive years led people to begin questioning their strength. After
ACG due to some team members not being stable, they combined with another top
Singaporean team Micronology to form MiZen.
The South Korean dark horse xDT (the team who eliminated VP in TFL) had some
memorable players. Even though it was the team that picked unorthodox heroes like AntiMage and a jungling Terrorblade, their main carry xD.Scout played no small part in ensuring
that it worked. Even now, this player is still invigorating the DotA world. He was seen
playing on team SuP (Sponsor us Please) in ADC 2009 and more recently on How.kr playing
under the alias Tomato in ADC 2010.
These teams were founded and led by ex-xDT player Heen to win all the Korean DotA
tournaments during this period, earning them the right to represent Korea in international
tournaments such as ADC and ACG. His team would achieve a 4th place finish at ACG 2009
ahead of the Chinese team led by Zhou, cD (Comme Dieu) and a 3rd place finish at ACG
2010.
Team xDT was originally formed from two teams in NA, TreXoN (winners of CAL Open
Season 3) and Tofu. Aside from Scout and Heen, other famous Korean players include Chu
and March. Both represented Korea at ACG 2008. March would go on to take part in ACG
2009 and 2010 with Heen and Scout. Chu was famous for his Meepo play and would go on to
join tPD. March would go on to become an active member of the NA DotA community and
join the world class team Nirvana.Int (Nirvana International).
Early on in the 6.43 era during DreamHack Summer 2007, MYM.Merlini, the traveler from
afar, demonstrated the jungling Beastmaster playstyle. In fashion for a while, it was 6.43 era's
first mainstream strategy and its repercussions are felt even today.
After MYM PriDe #8 began, everyone's glance was drawn to VP. Nowadays when version
6.43 is mentioned, the terms "VP", "full pressure gank" and "Blink Dagger" will jump to
mind. It's true, 6.43 was VP's era. The passionately fierce full pressure gank playstyle was
emotionally stirring. VP also had great success in various tournaments. This led to nearly all
players who watched the 6.43 era replays to become a fan quite involuntarily. VP's brilliance
had illuminated the entire DotA world.
1. Recipe for nightmare fuel when the horror movie just doesn't cut it
With 6.43 being VP's era, to say full pressure gank was the mainstream strategy would be
correct. With gank-style being mainstream, the high burst-damage heroes developed during
the 6.41 era found their time of popularity lengthened. In particular, Lina and Queen of Pain
were especially popular. Others included Sand King, Zeus, Leshrac and Sven. VP often ran
dual-stun lanes which led to kills in the early-game becoming a common occurrence. To
express how VP achieved dominance relying on the Blink Dagger during this era, we can
examine the words of NS during the 6.48 era:
At present this is obvious, and this is strong. Even the shortest stuns(0,5 sec for example) you
can strike one more time and strafe to make 1-2 more strikes. So as the longer the stun is,
the more strikes and more strafes you can make. A hero with 600 range that begins attacking
his target at melee range can do a lot of damage before the target runs away. Of course, this
depends on move speed of both heroes, animation of the attacker, both heroes items and other
factors, but the fact remains certain ranged heroes with stun can do a lot of damage after the
stun finishes strafing and striking again.
Why VP (not only VP now) usually win their lanes is because we had this knowledge we
were the first to learn how to do this, we abused it early and still abuse it now. Some teams
shared our experience, MYM was even using "our" strategies. The benefit of stun is that
while target is stunned u can strike it, and most of damage in DotA before 5x5 battles begin is
done by hands(except some Power Nukers like Zeus, Lina, Lion and few more), so in any
1x2, 2x2 battle stun damage does not do much effect its duration is much more important.
Accordingly the best counter to stun is blink. Blink can save you from almost anything that
can be a threat to you in DotA - there are a lot of different spells in DotA except stuns, and
most of them can be avoided using blink. Blink is a counter to any of your rivals plans, if
your enemy does not have blink, and you do - it becomes really imbalanced.
So, it is consistent that heroes that have blink as a skill are extremely powerful they dont
have to waste 2150 and slot to buy dagger and even more abnormal and strange is that those
heroes have powerful spells - by these heroes I mean Queen of Pain and Priestess of the
Moon (also Puck red.). There are a lot of heroes that neither have nukes nor blink and I
dont see what use you can make of them. Also any hero only with a nuke Death Prophet
for example is a lot worse than hero with blink and at least one useful spell.
Our team was the first to use mass-stuns and mass-blinks, it was the main reason we
dominated half a year back, and it is the reason why we cant win so easy now. Of course we
have high-skilled players, and a good roster, but we are not cyborgs and not from Mars,
currently there are guys that play on the same level. They shared our experience, and can now
give us a battle, of course I speak about MYM first and foremost, but if nothing will change
at competitive scene there will be about 10 more teams to conquer in near future.
The above represents the beginning of the Blink Dagger era of DotA's history.
Part 6 - Lessons in Ganking from VP: The 6.48 Era
On September 6th 2007, version 6.48b was released and a new stable competitive version
emerged.
Tournaments:
In the EU/NA scene, EuroCup was 6.48's first tournament. This tournament ran into many
difficulties. VP erupted with a big scandal. After the livestream was already set-up, their
lineup was still incomplete. Apparently there was some miscommunication as M.Admiration
was at home playing IHCS (a DotA League) rather than taking part in the competition,
because he was under the belief that Sahka had been selected from their 6-player roster to
play the match. This was another scandal in VP after the Profanity-Gate affair. After VP gave
their explanation, the organizing committee let them off with a warning. In the semi-finals,
they were eliminated by MYM 2-0.
On November 4th, MYM PriDe #8 began. Over 400 teams worldwide signed up. It became
known as the World Cup of the DotA world.
On November 26th, in the ASUS Autumn 2007 tournament, Singapore's team Zenith made
their first foray out of Asia. Even though they'd begun taking part in EU events since MYM
PriDe #4, this was the first time they flew to EU to compete. Flying to Russia, they were
eliminated in the knock-out stages by the eventual winner of the tournament Say Plz. The old
rivals Say Plz and VP once again met in the finals of a tournament. VP tried to change what
had worked for them for a long time by abandoning their trademark full pressure gank
strategy and playing 4-protect-1 against Say Plz, who everyone knew were the masters of the
4-protect-1. The outcome naturally resulted in a rout. Say Plz simply overwhelmed them and
became champion.
In early November, the official DotA website made a loud ruckus about the level of DotA in
China. Evidently someone had sent them five outdated Chinese replays all containing
Bristleback and in every match, the side with Bristleback won. This led to the EU/NA scene
concluding the Chinese DotA to be too boring and their strategies far behind the times. Due
to the bad internet provided by China Telecom, there was no way to show the true strength of
Chinese DotA; they could only do battle with words.
On December 3rd in DreamHack Winter 2007, MYM defeated SK to become champion. In

the finals, Priestess of the Moon's (Potm) elegance shone through thoroughly. First Loda's
beyond godlike Potm struck terror into everyone's heart. Then H4nn1's Eye of Skadi, Stygian
Desolator, Butterfly and Aegis of the Immortal Potm crushed SK. After their trip to ASUS
Autumn, Singaporean team Zenith attended this tournament as well, but fell to SK twice:
once in the winners' bracket and again in the losers' bracket. Nevertheless, it was enough to
claim 3rd place.
On December 5th, MYM PriDe #8 reached its knock-out phase. In the first round, Vigoss
played a hero one would get flamed for using even in pubs, Sniper. By defeating the strong
Malaysian team mkvl, Vigoss's reputation was brought to a whole new level.
The final four in MYM PriDe #8 were MYM, VP, KS (Kingsurf) and SK. While no one
thought much of KS, they eliminated SK and slaughtered their way into the losers' bracket
finals. Every match they played was highly exciting. Yamateh's consistently exciting
performances led to his rising popularity in China. On forum pages where the Chinese DotA
community would comment on KS replays, KS team members would sometimes post replies,
which brought them many fans in China. In the finals, the old rivals VP and MYM met once
more.
After VP gave up their 1-0 winners' bracket lead in the first game, in the second and deciding
match of the finals, M.Admiration in by far the most crucial juncture managed to farm up a
BKB (Black King Bar) and shattered MYM's fast push. At the same time that the Mouth of
Sven M.Admiration took his place among the legends of DotA, it is sad to note that having
just returned from several month long vacation Merlini was unable to farm up his items
drawing much criticism. After this match, Merlini's inspiration seemed to have run dry and a
star dimmed in the heavens.
After SK was defeated by MYM at MYM PriDe #8, the founding father of SK DotA Drayich
left the team to soon after join Mouz. This enabled Mouz Gaminga reorganized BtB (Back
to Basics), a team that had enjoyed some fine performances in the pastto become a major
force in DotA. Also on this team were later stars PlaymatE and Miracle.
On December 20th, ESWC 2008 announced DotA as an official game title for the
competition. This was particularly big event in DotA's path of becoming a professional esport.
On December 28th, eMg's Fire in Ice 2007 LAN tournament began. In the end, MYM
defeated the American team eMg to become champion. The prize amount in this tournament
was princely; the winning team secured $6000 USD.
On January 27th, MYM Prime Nations #2 began. Over 60 nations participated. China also
registered, but due to it coinciding with the Chinese New Year, players couldn't meet up and
practice. This reason along with the bad internet provided by China Telecom meant they
would ultimately be eliminated from the tournament. In the end, the finals were between
Russia and Ukraine, which Russia won to successfully defend their title.
During this tournament, matches between Germany and Singapore, and Singapore and Russia
were very exciting matches between high-level players. Passionate and intense, every one of
these matches was a classic.
At the same time, MYM PriDe #9 began. Two overseas Chinese student teams participated.
One was IFNT's European team, the other WGA. Both were defeated in the preliminaries.
After facing a previously unheard of team in the preliminaries, the MYM referee arbitrarily
accused KS of maphacking, drawing much criticism. The official DotA forums had several
hundred page threads criticizing his decision, which ultimately led to the referee making an
apology and withdrawing his accusation.
1. Legendary old-school players ezy and Fear awaken to shake up the world of DotA
once more
On January 28th, once dominant Fear and ezy re-entered the DotA scene. They formed team
PluG (this was the name of coL before they got sponsored) and joined MYM PriDe #9.
People had high expectations of them before the tournament. It was a shame that they were
eliminated in the first round of the preliminaries.
On February 18th, Begrip Gaming added a DotA squad. It was essentially the same squad as
the old Say Plz. Later, Begrip became Rush3D. Just as the competitive DotA scene was being
invigorated by the return of the old Say Plz, their old rivals VP had sunk into massive trouble.
On February 22nd, SK with its thin roster was eliminated by TeG from MYM PriDe #9 only
making it as far as the Last 8.
On February 24th, MYM easily defeated the Vigoss-less VP. During this period, rumours of
internal disputes within VP took flight.
On February 25th in ASUS Winter 2008, VP only made it as far as the Last 16 having been
eliminated by a small, previously unheard of team. The recently formed Begrip ultimately
won the tournament drawing everyone's gaze.
1. Begrip Gaming, winner of ASUS Winter 2008 would go on to become Rush3DFrom

left to right: blowyourbrain, PGG, Drag13, FocusIRE, LighTofHeaven
After VP was eliminated at ASUS Winter, they immediately announced their forfeiture of
MYM PriDe #9's losers' bracket final match. The Ukrainian side WG (Wolk3R Gaming)
would play MYM for the final. Wolk3R Gaming was a Ukrainian team composed of Travka,
DkPhobos, Axypa, GOblak (also known as Go[Blin]) and the young prodigy, Dendi. The
team's manager was v1lat who would later become a famous caster. In the end, MYM finally
broke the curse, easily defeating WG to win their first MYM PriDe event. At this time, there
were countless MYM fans with tear-filled faces.
Just as rumours of VP disbanding filled the air, the already-thin SK roster was further
depleted by the departure of two veteran members Renji and Kwom. Loda announced the
search for high-skilled players fueling further speculation.
On March 2nd, shocking information finally confirmed that there were indeed internal
disputes within VP. ARS-ART announced he was joining SK under the ID of SK.Djan. At the
same time, the previously unknown support player Hailo was added to SK as well.
1. New and revitalized SK Gaming roster featuring from left to right:Akke, Loda, ARSART, Bogdan, Hailo
In just his first competitive match with SK, ARS-ART already showed his bloodlust. Against
nEph (nEophytes), he claimed 18 hero kills in a single match. In a glance, the floundering SK
had sounded its resurgence. The perfect collaboration between Loda playing carry and ARSART's ganking was an immediate threat to MYM's throne.
The reality unfolded very similarly to what one might imagine. On March 11th, SK neatly
and skillfully defeated the recent winners of MYM PriDe #9 MYM, by winning the first
season of ESL Major Series (EMS). After a brief period of stagnation, they had stormed back
to reclaim their rightful place amongst the leading ranks of DotA teams. It is interesting to
note that Puppey who was fairly unknown at the time began making his mark on the DotA
world by helping his team XsK (Xero Skill) took 3rd place in this tournament.
Perhaps feeling the pressure soon after MYM's defeat at EMS, Maelk expanded an already
luxurious roster by adding Fear and ezy. MYM's decadence had reached nine world-class
players on a single team.
After ARS-ART's departure, M.Admiration suddenly left for Team Q. Facing SK and MYM's
build-up of forces, VP didn't let themselves get out-played in politics, and recruited Begrip's
(i.e. ex-Say Plz) veteran leader and star player LighTofHeaven, as well as the gifted
youngster blowyourbrain to maintain their status as one of the top teams in the world.
On March 6th, facing competition from increasingly frequent DotA tournaments, the MYM
entertainment division announced the start of MYM PriDe #10. At the same time, the newlyformed PDL (Prime Defending League) was used to help boost the visibility of MYM PriDe.
The top six teams from the MYM PriDe tournament and six other invited teams would fight it
out to become champion of the PDL competition.
On March 23rd, HTGL (Hostile Tactics Gaming League) competitions featured contests
between high-skilled teams. The recombined VP fought MYM. New members Fear and ezy
gave uninspired performances and the Maelk-less MYM once again fell to VP.
On April 7th, WG defeated the newly reformed VP to win the DTS Cup LAN tournament.
The new VP squad was weakened by LighTofHeaven not being able to attend the tournament.
On April 13th, in the HTGL European finals, VP defeated SK 3-1. Following the addition of
LighTofHeaven, VP's style changed from full pressure gank to 4-protect-1. With this new
style, VP maintained its iron grip on the DotA world. Vigoss's gank, LighTofHeaven's carry
and NS's support were an imbalanced combination. Puppey's XsK picked up 3rd place in this
competition as well.
If it weren't for having broken a rule in the MYM PriDe tournament by having unrostered
players fake-nick and be disqualified, it's very likely that they would've been the victors in
MYM PriDe #10.
In early April, DotA's official website DotA-Allstars.com published an article discussing the
-RD (Random Draft) mode. It set off a debate amongst many players regarding the possibility
of -RD replacing -XL as the mode used in competitions. This debate greatly increased the
visibility of -RD as a viable mode. After 6.48, -RD became the standard mode for having fun
and -CM the official competitive mode. The banlist was expanded by one hero to a total of
four.
On April 21st, the Last 16 in MYM PriDe #10 began. The last team to enter the Last 16 VP
gave everyone a scare, but ultimately Vigoss's fierce and stubborn Warlock delivered for VP.
This match was one of the most definitive at highlighting Vigoss's extremely high individual
skill. It was only that these types of performances were growing fewer and farther in
between.
One day later, the Ringer-Gate scandal broke out and nEph was disqualified from MYM
PriDe #10 for using a ringer. SGC replaced them in the Last 16 beginning their legendary
dark horse run through the tournament.
In the Ro16, VP was in a poor state and was easily eliminated by x6. Soon after, another
Ringer-Gate scandal broke out. Three of VP's players were ringers. This time, the prizes
money was large, so the MYM organizing committee wanted to avoid any suspicion of
unfairness. They summoned 6 star players from different countries and teams to be the judge.
In the end, they all voted in favour of VP's disqualification.
After SGC's good fortune in getting into the Last 16, they struck terror into everyone's hearts
with their performances. In the first round, they 2-0'd the defending champions MYM who
had been on a winning streak knocking them into the losers' bracket. Concurrently, the first
time Danish attendees MeT (Mom equals Toilet) defeated the strong Malaysian team KS.
Next, KS eliminated MYM in the losers' bracket. These consecutive matches seen as upsets
shocked fans around the world.
1. SGC, one of two dark horses of MYM PriDe #10From left to right: Xali, zax, Tulex;
in the front: tipek, neKro
In the end, the two dark horses MeT and SGC slaughtered separate paths through the
tournament sending strong teams into disorderly retreat. SGC eliminated Team Q who had
reorganized and come back stronger than ever. With M.Admiration, Team Q had been
considered a major contender before the tournament. MeT defeated the well-performing
Mouz. Finally, the two dark horses met in the losers' bracket semi-finals. In the end, SGC's
resolute 4-protect-1 defeated MeT winning the dark horse battle. However, SGC was in turn
defeated by WG who employed a similar playstyle. The finals were set to take place between
WG and SK.
The reappearance of ARS-ART who had been missing for a while completed SK's roster.
With the surge in morale, they swept WG in two games to easily take the tournament. After
leaving VP, ARS-ART hadn't gotten the chance to play his trademark heroes and he'd been
stagnating for a while. In these two matches, he used his emblematic Potm and Lina to
perform exciting ganks once again proving that the King of Gankers had not yet left the
world.
The partnership between the valiant Loda and the surgical ARS-ART finally exhibited the
results one would imagine such a collaboration would bring on paper. However, beauty is
always fleeting. After MYM PriDe #10, ARS-ART left SK.
1. MeT, the other dark horse of MYM PriDe #10From left to right: Smiske, miGGel,
Misery, DanishPride, Angel
Winning MYM PriDe #10 made ARS-ART the leader in terms of MYM PriDe tournaments
won. As a core player on every team that won, he contributed to a total of five tournament
wins. After this tournament, ARS-ART graduated from college. Facing work and familyrelated pressure, he made fewer and fewer appearances in the DotA world.
On May 15th, MYM defeated SK to win the DBL (DotA Ballers League) tournament. After
their defeat in MYM PriDe #10, they were able to get some consolation with this victory.
On May 18th, the last EU/NA DotA tournament of the 6.48 era, ASUS Spring 2008 began.
SK flew to Moscow to attend their first ASUS. The final four were SK, WG, VP and Rush3D.
VP held their dominance over the DotA world by valiantly defeating WG two straight to win
the tournament. It took merely 25min for them to win the first match. In the second match,
they were able to win 4v5 after blowyourbrain disconnected early on.
On May 30th, MYM held a trial tournament to test out the 6.52 version. The 6.48 era had
ended. Afterwards, there were some tournaments that continued to use 6.48 such as the
international ESWC tournament, but they were sporadic so I won't continue to dwell on this
point.
The 6.48 era continued to be a contest of supremacy amongst 6.43's triumvirate, but at the
same time many new strong teams emerged. Aside from VP, MYM and SK, the Ukrainian
team WG won the most honours late in the 6.48 era having been runners-up to MYM PriDe
#9, #10, to two different ASUSs and having won the DTS tournament. They were already
beginning to show the air of a dominant team.
Three days after Say Plz defeated VP to win ASUS Spring, they announced they were
disbanding. The reason was that when PGG, PUB and HoroN were playing against VP in the
ClanBase tournament, they had some serious disagreements with the bans and picks.
Furthermore, Say Plz's manager Matrix was moving to another city to work, so after
discussing with the team decided to disband. The team logo was going to be sold. Truth be
told, Say Plz's popularity wasn't something to be sniffed at. On the official DotA website,
"Say-" and "-Plz" were used in many fake nicknames. Rumour has it that even Merlini had a
dual account with Say Plz there. We can see from this what popularity and deep roots the
team had. To tell you the truth, Say Plz this kind of ID was really popular. Even on the
Chinese VS client, you would see many Say Plz IDs.
Say Plz was the oldest and most stable team in the history of EU DotA. Just when they began
to win some tournaments, VP swooped in to steal their spot in the limelight. Later in the 6.5x
era, Rush3D returned the favour to VP. Was this some sort of cosmic karma?
Soon after finishing in 3rd place of MYM PriDe #10, SGC disbanded and combined with
nEph.
The other MYM PriDe #10 dark horse Denmark's team MeT after pulling out a coup,
maintained their competitiveness going on to become one of the heavy-lifters in more recent
DotA.
During this time, Mouz was still in the process of figuring things out, so they didn't achieve
any good results. After Drayich became Mouz's captain, they successively recruited Twisted
and Kuroky the prodigy who used to play for WE. This set up a very good foundation for
Mouz's dominance in the 6.52 era.
1. Drayich, a founding father of team SK and captain of Mouz

10 months later, the website GotFrag did a vote on the top 10 DotA players of all time. Vigoss
got first place and became universally acknowledged as the best DotA player and the first
legendary status player of the new generation.
In the Last 16 in MYM PriDe #10, in a disadvantageous situation, Vigoss played an

incredibly decisive Warlock using every last ounce of effort to make a comeback displaying a
perfectly-performed one-man show. This match was one of Vigoss's magical performances. It
was his magnum opus out of all his MYM Prime performances.
In MYM PriDe #8, M.Admiration played a stable but fierce Sven becoming another source of
brilliance after legends like Vigoss and ARS-ART. As blood splashed across his blade, his
ultra kill Sven was the most epic moment in MYM PriDe #8.
Speaking of team MYM, under XL mode the few faults Merlini showed playing certain
heroes were magnified. He never seemed to get to play heroes he was trademarked for. Ever
since he returned to Taiwan on vacation, it seems hed been on a decline.
During the 6.48 era, H4nn1, slahser and MaNia became MYM's most exceptional players.
H4nn1 had impeccable technique, slahser was simply ingenious and MaNia projected an aura
of stability. After Fear had acclimatized to the new team, he was quickly instated as MYM's
carry. Levent was compelled towards a support role.
MYM's captain Maelk wasn't eye-catching in the 6.41 era. After half a year of bitter training,
he finally ascended to become a top player during the 6.48 era. His stable performances
which demonstrated his strategic understanding and a keen sense of judgment showed that he
fully deserved the title of being leader of MYM.
MYM PriDe #9's dark horse WG received consecutive top honours in the MYM PriDe #10,
ASUS and DTS tournaments that followed. Their carry Travka's stable and exceptional
performances made him a star player of the new generation. It's just that this person had a
very bad hobby: he enjoys announcing his retirement. After WG had won these many
honours, Travka announced his retirement. Before these successes, he had also retired more
than once. After his retirement, his position on WG would be taken by ArtStyle (xLo.Diesel)
who would go on to become a famous captain.
The amount of talent on this team was not inconsiderable. Players like Dendi and ArtStyle
who would go on to become the top solo mid and top captain in Europe respectively.
Go[Blin] and Axypa would also become mainstays in the Ukrainian scene.
Denmark's newly-formed team MeT's carry GlorYofGoD became a star player by showing
off an exciting Shadow Fiend. This ID was a bit too corny, so later he changed it to
AngeLofGod or Angel for short.
After MYM PriDe #5, Loda consistently produced stable performances to lead his muchcriticized teammates against VP and MYM. At MYM PriDe #10 with recently acquired ARSART and Hailo, he was finally able to defeat MYM and become champion.
The player joining alongside ARS-ART, Hailo became a pleasant surprise for SK. Having
been forced to switch roles to play support, his super-stable Earthshaker set him on pace to
overtake NS at quality of support played.
On the other hand, SK's much-criticized "leg-God" Bogdan (God of DotA players who play
with their feet instead of hands) relied on a completely unselfish performance at MYM PriDe
#10 to shed himself of this nickname. Bogdan's Sand King with just 50HP displayed
dauntless courage by turning around to impale four WG players saving his carry Loda from
certain death. This became one of MYM PriDe #10s highlight moments.
Overseas Chinese student Enigma (Zhaoyun) joined team SGC to participate in MYM PriDe
#10. Already in the 6.32 era, Enigma was active in the NA scene, making him an old-school
player. Before joining SGC, he used Zhaoyun, the name of the most famous legend from
ancient China as his ID in an IHCS match against Vigoss. His exciting performance brought
him many Chinese fans. In MYM PriDe #10, Zhaoyun played carry on the dark horse team
SGC. His performance was highly exceptional bringing him many more Chinese fans.
VP's captain and the world's best support player NS published a series of articles during this
era. First, he gave the inside story on why VP shockingly forfeited MYM PriDe #9. This
article got the chief manager of the MYM PriDe #10 tournament dismissed, its prize money
increased and its organizing committee changed.
Another article evaluated the strategy in the 6.48 version, where NS pointed out the
imbalanced nature of Blink Dagger. Even though this article might very well not have been
the reason why the Blink Dagger got so strongly nerfed, this article became the focal point of
discussion after the nerf. The articles can be found in the footnotes. [1]
At this point, the IHCS (Inhouse Clan Scrim) league deserves some mention. It started in
June 2006 on Battle.net hosted by the Russian admin Lego. I will post an excerpt of his
article "On the History of IHCS":
One notable thing here is that the league channel became the first and pretty much the only
place where all the players that later contributed to the development of DotA as a competitive
e-sport could meet and communicate with each other.
Another significant note is about the game mode development. At first, due to balance issues,
allrandom/mirrormatch was mostly used for league games. Then, for a relatively short period
of time, players switched to 'voterandom' mode, which is almost completely forgotten by
now. Then, finally, a 'Draft' mode was introduced, where heroes are picked from a randomly
generated pool. In IHCS, team captains do the picks themselves, in chat channel prior to
game start, and the pool has the size of 16 heroes. This mode instantly became the main mode
for IHCS games, and due to its success it was later implemented by DotA developers ingame.
The importance of IHCS to the development of DotA as a competitive game cannot be

denied. If you wish to read the entire article, it can be found archived by longtime GGnet
user Amock. [2]
Tournaments:
On November 5th, the ADC qualifications drew to a close and the actual competition began.
Strong teams like EHOME, Zenith, KS (Kingsurf), XcN (eXeCutioNer), SB (StarsBoba) and
xDT (eXtreme DotA Team) opened an intense contest for glory and prestige. In the end, XcN
claimed victory.
After Team KS's Yamateh's brilliant showing with Shadow Fiend at MYM PriDe #10, he
proceeded to crush the streaking MYM with the unpopular hero Obsidian Destroyer. This
match won him even more popularity.
This tournament served the role of providing a strong boost to communication between teams
from various Asian countries. Before, Chinese teams had focused their sight on EU and
studying European replays. Their playstyle imitated EU playstyles. After this tournament,
SEA playstyles which were widely different from those of EU caught the attention of Chinese
teams. This tournament was also excellent preparation for EHOME's ACG 2008 victory.
During the 6.48 era, the first important tournament in China was CDL-I which began on
September 20th. It was the first tournament in the world that used 6.48. It used the English
version as the official match version and banned all new heroes. One month later, the
tournament had progressed into the 8th round of competition when the ban on the new heroes
was lifted. In the play-offs stages, the games were broadcast on livestream by NeoTV.
Ultimately, EHOME defeated GL to become champion.
On October 10th, the Intel-sponsored IEF (International E-Sports Festival) nation-wide

cybercaf tournament began. In the October 29th final, the formed 3 days ago EHOME
defeated the college team XJTU to qualify. This was EHOME's first victory after
formation.On November 11th, IFNT defeated XJTU to become victor of the CETC
tournament.
On December 25th, the year-end DCN (DotA.cn) invitational began. The mysterious and
low-key CaNt won.
On December 30th, in the IEF Masters Tournament finals, GL defeated EHOME to become
champion. Ever since the ACG 2007 victory, there'd been rumours swirling around GL.
Especially after 820 left to join EHOME, there'd been rumours about GL's disbandment. In
this tournament, GL showed it wasn't affected by the outside world and defeated EHOME 2-1
to become champion.
On March 2nd, in the finals of the offline G-League Tournament, GL managed to become
champion despite their internal and external troubles. After the win, GL.Snoy announced his
retirement. Countless people expressed their sympathies.
EHOME was also beset by tragedy. GK wrote on his blog "Soulk couldn't attend the
tournament in Shanghai and we were once again confronted with surprise embarrassment, so
we were forced to find a lightweight replacement. Even though the replacement boasted
about his fearsome ability before the tournament, he really botched two matches in the
tournament."
On March 20th, the CDL (China DotA League) 2008 tournament began. Finishing on June
15th, CaNt, EHOME, HFUT and CT won the privilege of attending the offline finals.
On March 21st, the PGL (Pro Gamer League) tournament began, adding to the number of
DotA events. This was an invitational tournament with 12 teams attending. In the end,
EHOME's now fine-tuned roster defeated CaNt coming off the momentum from some
victories in CDL.
On April 18th 2008, the Garena gaming client teamed up with DCN (DotA.cn) to host the
GOA tournament. This competition was organized very poorly. One day before competition
began, they suddenly changed the tournament version from 6.51 to 6.48 drawing much
protest. During the tournament, replay uploads and tournament coverage were essentially
non-existent. These factors resulted in very little attention paid to a tournament whose
matches actually showed a very high level of skill. Aside from Chinese teams that attended
there were also strong SEA teams. In the end, EHOME slaughtered their way from the losers'
bracket to defeat KS for the win. This competition and the ADC competition both provided
EHOME with valuable experience paving a clear road to their ACG victory.
On May 11th, in the Shanghai regional qualifications for WCG China, CT defeated CaNt to
take 1st place. HFUT placed 3rd meaning they regretfully missed out on the WCG China
finals.
On May 17th, in the Beijing regional qualifications, EHOME took 1st place.
On June 8th, EHOME.GK defeated teammate 2009 to win the SG (SGamer) Solo-Mid
tournament.
In October 2007, the first Chinese all-female DotA team EuF (Encore une Fois) formed.
Despite being a team that played just for amusement, this flowery lace on the edge of the
DotA scene was a result of the burst of popularity from March 2007 and showed just how
trendy the game had become in China. Unpopular things aren't lined with lace.
On October 25th, the first Chinese professional DotA team was formed. EHOME's
entertainment division used HTML as the foundation to create their DotA team. The founding
members were the captain mN, amei, IsuN, GK, SatXIII^_^ and Longdd (in-game leader).
1. Founding members of EHOME from left to right: GK, Soulk, amei, mN and Longdd
After winning the finals of IEF, SatXIII^_^ left the team and IFNT's Soulk joined. On
November 28th, GL's leader 820 joined EHOME. Due to differences in opinion, 820 very
quickly left EHOME. Accompanying the talk about which teamEHOME or GLwas
going to get the last laugh were rumours of GL disbanding.
In November, the formation of CaNt was being planned by Fashao (IFNT's founding
member) with their founding members 820, McGrosS, 357, EC, Topman, hanhan and Inso as
manager. After the DCN year-end invitational, CaNt was officially formed.
1. CaNt from left to right: Fangsi (Topman), 820, McGrosS, 357, Inso, YJJ, Fashao,
Girl, Guy
While attending the DCN invitational, CaNt was not yet formed. Their team introduction was
written very mysteriously: "A team formed from the cream of the crop has become a new
contender for offline DotA tournaments. With Chinese DotA becoming more popular with the
passing day, they have chosen DotA for its bright-looking future as the game into which they
were going to invest all their effort. Worth mentioning is that they've already demonstrated
uncommonly good results in competitions while showing unforgettable playing ability.
Whether DotA will nurture their new course, let us eagerly await." Also during the whole
tournament they were fake-nicking so it was completely impossible to know who was who.
After EHOME and CaNt formed, Chinese DotA entered a period with two dominant teams.
In March after the 2008 Chinese New Year, Chinese DotA entered a reorganization phase.
The three veteran teams entered a cooling period. After over half a year of fruitlessly trying to
find a sponsor, GL finally announced their disbandment. As a legendary Chinese team which
has shown brilliance countless times, GL's disbandment made many DotA fans feel as if an
act of deicide had occurred.
HTML who had once been invincible for over half a year saw their core players move to
EHOME. IFNT who was once a crouching tiger hidden dragon saw their leader and manager
move to CaNt. The player transfers during the youth of both teams saw their team strength
greatly diminished.
Soon after 820 joined the recently-formed CaNt, they recruited another player from EHOME,
SatXIII^_^. Soon, they invited and added Snoy famous for playing his Bristleback in ACG
2007. At the same time, they also invited the experienced and successful overseas student
Eddie who was a participant from MYM PriDe #4-8 to join. Despite this invitation not have
been successful in the end, CaNt was red-hot during this period whether you look at their
results or the amount of gossip about them in the news.
After seeing 820 and Soulk depart due to personal or legitimate reasons, EHOME recruited
GL's legendary support DC (who together with 820 were known as GL's 2 superstars), GL's
core player Shasha and IFNT's core player Facegod entering a period of rebuilding. During
this time, EHOME's results weren't consistent and got eliminated from ADC.
GK and PD (also known as Angel_Lover) returned to the Changsha (city in Southern China)
LAN team CT. 2009 formed the new team ONCE. Team ZZZ was pretty low-key. HFUT and
XJTU remained consistent. These were the teams that demonstrated some ability during this
period.
During mid-April, facing rumours of high-skilled player Eddie returning to China and joining
CaNt, he ultimately joined DH.
In early May, Snoy moved from CaNt back to EHOME to train. At the same time, ONCE's
leader 2009 joined as well. EHOME's strength multiplied. The addition of strong players
were meeting the conditions for defending the title at ACG 2008 for China.
On May 25th, in the ESWC Masters invitational tournament, EHOME was getting ready to
attend, but sadly due to visa issues had no way of making it a reality.
XcN (eXecutioNer) was a large Indonesian gaming organization formed in 2003 beginning
with a Counter-Strike team. In late 2006, two DotA teams eVolve and BiG SnR merged to
form a team sponsored by XcN. Those two teams had attended ACG 2006 and 2007, but were
not able to produce any favourable results. After dominating the Indonesian scene, they first
broke into the international view by claiming 1st place in the 2nd season of GXL LAN
tournament over teams such as KS and Zenith in December 2007 going undefeated until they
dropped one game to KS in the finals. These three were the best teams in Asia.
1. XcN, winners of GXL Season 2 LAN tournament

The two teams KS and XcN met again in the finals of ADC 2007. In a reenactment of the
GXL tournament, XcN emerged from the winners' bracket, lost the first game, but would go
on to win the second to win the tournament.
Here is what GGnet user Thanatos.ph reminisces of XcN:

The Asian counterpart of Europe's legendary VP-MYM rivalry was the rivalry between XcN
and KS (but some would argue that it was XcN and Zenith or Zenith and KS). Although XcN
didn't quite have a player as big and popular as Yamateh or Hyhy, they were known to often
triumph against KS and Zenith using unorthodox but sublime strategies and excellent
teamwork, coupled with Lakuci's nifty tricks with Luna and Terrorblade, RitteR's
innovations, and BahamuT's skill with SF.
KS (Kingsurf) was a Malaysian team that had been around for quite some time. They had
been dominating the Malaysian scene and had won SMM 2007, which was at the time only
open to Malaysian teams. They finished 2nd in GXL Season 2 and ADC 2007, as well as 3rd
place in MYM PriDe #8 helping to put Asian DotA on the map. In every other MYM PriDe
season beginning with the first they took part in (#7), they finished no worse than Top 8.
1. Kingsurf (KS) after winning 2nd place at ESWC 2008 held in San JoseFrom left to
right: Xiaogui, Papaxiong, Sakura, XiaOma, Yamateh.
KS was led by Xiaogui who had players with incredible individual ability at his disposal.
Particularly memorable were Yamateh's Shadowfiend and Tinker. In an MYM PriDe #8
groupstage match, they defeated European powerhouse SK in what was considered a huge
upset in Europe. Yamateh farmed up a sub-10 min Blink Dagger on Shadowfiend against an
unimposing Magnataur. They used the bread and butter of the 6.48 era with dual stun lanes at
top and bottom taking advantage of SK global lineup's weaknessa lack of stuns.
In April 2008, the triumvirate Zenith, KS and XcN were the three foreign teams invited to
take part in ESTC 2008 (Electronic Sports Thailand Championship). Directly seeded into the
Top 32, the teams had no problem making it to the Last 4 along with local Thai team Trust. In
the semi-finals, XcN dispatched Zenith while KS took out Trust. A GXL and ADC rematch
between XcN and KS was set to take part. In the end, Yamateh's Shadowfiend was too much
for XcN to handle and KS managed to claim victory. Perhaps critical to the team's success in
this tournament was the recruitment of ex-Zenith superstar iceiceice.
In the Philippines, DotA was dominated by Team Flow. They defeated veteran countrymen
Team 129 in 2006 to earn the privilege of representing their country at ACG 2006, but lost to
the eventual champions MI2 from Singapore. In 2007, they defeated Ninja in the local
qualifiers to once against earn the privilege of represent their country at ACG. This time, they
won 3rd place giving the Philippines their ever medal at ACG.
1. Team Flow, Bronze medalist at WCG 2007

In the quarter-finals of ACG 2007, Team Flow was the underdog facing the illustrious
Indonesian XcN, a team who the Malaysian champions Cybertime could not beat even once
in more than 10 training matches. Nevertheless, Team Flow of Philippines took down XCN
with an impressive roaming Queen of Pain, Sand King, Venomancer strategy that reportedly
left XcN.Lakuci astonished. Queen of Pain had previously only been used as a carry farm
hero until that point of time, so the Team Flow played the hero in a way no one had thought
of before.
The team led by Arby consisted of himself, Jojo, Vinzyre, Lutan and Bru. Arby and Vinzyre
formed a deadly Chen-Sven combination. Shortly after their ACG victory, Arby left for
Canada to study, so the team decided to disband. Mineski was also becoming a juggernaut in
the Philippines and they managed to claim the honour of representing the Philippines in
future competitions beginning with ADC 2007. Nevertheless, it is important to remember the
important contribution Team Flow made to Filipino DotA.
Finally the 6.48 era ended. 6.48 was unprecedented in the history of DotA for the stability of
the competitive version, the number of tournaments and the dazzling excitement.
From 6.41 to 6.48, versions were continuously made, tournaments happened one after the
other and playstyles evolved from past styles meaning that the passionate ganking style
became the theme of this era. The strategy was similar to that of the 6.43 era, so I won't
bother reposting the same material.
So ended the first golden age in the history of DotA, the 6.4x era.
1. Chinese Author: IloveThis
2. Chinese Editor: xuyou
Thanks to the following GGnet users for providing corrections and suggestions: -3d,
tYphoon.J, M, Spitwad
Special thanks goes to shostakovich for reading over a preliminary draft and providing
suggestions and corrections!
CtChocula (Translator)
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Dota_History/Part_1

History of Dota

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History of Dota

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A History of Dota: Part 1

1. The first version with stable competitive mode: v5.84

The Emergence of Organized Competitive Matches: TDA and IGS

1. Guinsoo, legendary DotA developer is on the left

A Gathering of Parts: The 6.1x Era

1. IceFrog, our beloved developer

The First Light of Dawn: The 6.2x Era

DotA's rapid popularization and balance improvements greatly increased DotA's

Happenings in the Asian scene

The above represents the prehistory portion of DotA.

Part 2 - Violent AOE: The 6.32 Era

Happenings in the EU/NA scene

Influential teams and star players:

1. Fear of coL, one of the legends of DotA

1. Merlini of JMC, another legend of DotA

Happenings in the Asian scene

In October 2006, the famous e-sport organization CPL (Cyberathlete Professional

This tournament also encouraged two companies (now DotA-related) to take

Influential teams and star players:

Mainstream strategies and hero picks

The inspiration of this playstyle perhaps came out of traditional Western

The above represents the violent AOE era of DotA's history.

Part 3 - Fast Push: The 6.37 Era

Happenings in the EU/NA scene

Influential teams and star players:

Happenings in the Asian scene

Mainstream strategies and hero picks

Part 4 - Trilane and the Global Strategy: The 6.41 Era

Happenings in the EU/NA scene

Influential teams and star players:

Happenings in the Asian scene

1. GK of team GL, talented player of the second generation

Mainstream strategies and hero picks

A History of Dota: Part 5

Part 5 - Rise of the Blink Dagger: The 6.43 Era

Happenings in the EU/NA scene

1. Vigoss, shares title of King of Gankers with ARS-ART

1. ARS-ART with the cold, emotion-less eyes of an assassinshares title of King of

Influential teams and star players:

1. From left to right: M.Admiration, Jolie, Vigoss

1. ASUS Spring 2007 runners-up VP (Virtus Pro)From left to right: Vigoss,

1. From left to right: Jolie, Sahka, Vigoss, ARS-ART

Happenings in the Asian scene

Mainstream strategies and hero picks

A History of Dota: Part 6

Part 6 - Lessons in Ganking from VP: The 6.48 Era

Happenings in the EU/NA scene

On December 3rd in DreamHack Winter 2007, MYM defeated SK to become champion. In

1. Begrip Gaming, winner of ASUS Winter 2008 would go on to become Rush3DFrom

Influential teams and star players:

1. Drayich, a founding father of team SK and captain of Mouz

In the Last 16 in MYM PriDe #10, in a disadvantageous situation, Vigoss played an

The importance of IHCS to the development of DotA as a competitive game cannot be

Happenings in the Asian scene

On October 10th, the Intel-sponsored IEF (International E-Sports Festival) nation-wide

Influential teams and star players:

1. XcN, winners of GXL Season 2 LAN tournament

Here is what GGnet user Thanatos.ph reminisces of XcN:

1. Team Flow, Bronze medalist at WCG 2007

Mainstream strategies and hero picks

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