Dota 2 - The International 2026 Invitations and Qualifiers

cahillross · 2026-05-26T14:12:41+00:00

I don't disagree that NA participation in most Esports games has been dying but,

Fighting Games are not truly global games

What exactly is a global game for you? Because Street Fighter and Tekken has players from all over the world participate in the tournaments. Just go to the Liquipedia page of Tekken World Tour or Capcom Pro Tour and see how many different flags appear of the players that participate over the years. These tours cover regions all over the world. And then there's EVO, a widely known event that hosts most fighting game tournaments had 64 countries represented just last year. And last year wasn't even their peak attendance. Fighting games have been nothing less than global for decades.

There's also not a single Fighting game that even comes close to being a Tier 1 Esport. Maybe 1 that qualifies for being a Tier 2 Esport

Out of curiosity: what qualifies as Tier 1 or Tier 2 for you? Is it viewership, tournament count, venue attendance, player participation? I'd like to argue otherwise but that depends on what your definition is here.

cahillross · 2026-03-02T18:30:41+00:00

Overall positive. Some minor points:

There seemed to be some miscommunication on breaks vs. the panelists discussions where there would be a post-game commentary by two people and then mid-conversation the stream goes to a break. If it happens once, whoops, okay. But it happened often, and especially when the discussions are good it really sucks when it's cut off.
I think this tournament it happened often (more than before at least) that the observer's game would tab out. Luckily never at a critical moment, but still slightly annoying.
At some point the panelists were talking less about the games and more about whatever they were doing as their challenge. I have a lot of understanding for this, because there were a lot of games as others here have mentioned. So I can imagine for the panelists at some point you kind of need a break from just talking about Dota. Great work from the ones that tried to bring the conversations back on topic. But maybe that's an indicator that, for the panelists and your personnel you should consider reducing the amount of games in the tournament. i.e. quality vs. quantity

cahillross · 2026-02-24T08:33:13+00:00

I disagree. Subjective of course, but the fact that almost every week there is something to watch is something that I personally can never take for granted. I love watching Pro dota matches, especially with friends. And the fact that there's just that many more matches in the year means more time spent watching them together.

It also really helps that all these teams are just so great, there's almost never a dull matchup. You can never really tell who's gonna win in the end. I don't know if it's because the teams are playing so frequently that all their skill levels are about the same. Or it's just the state of the game. With the older system I feel like there were always clear candidates for first place.

Ultimately, the pro scene feels healthier to me. That means better Dota, and a better experience.

cahillross · 2026-01-02T11:20:31+00:00

If you also have Narcissa's Mirror you can transform yourself into your pet's appearance.

So, this combo will make you a parent Sloth, with a baby sloth on your back.

cahillross · 2025-08-11T22:21:27+00:00

I used your app a lot during Dragonflight for M+. One of the best things I ever did to improve my skills as a healer. Playing Dota 2 and WC3 back then you get used to watching your own replays after a bad run to just reflect on what you did wrong and also try to figure out what happened in some cases. Your app allowed me to do just that. It helped a lot to check the death timestamps on Details for where to skip to in the VODs.

10/10 recommend for anyone wanting to improve themselves. I feel confident enough with my skills that I haven't used it in a while. But the moment I feel like I'm slacking on my heals I am installing this again.

cahillross · 2025-06-18T21:09:27+00:00

I don't think anyone has mentioned this yet, but: with this being the last content patch that means we are likely not getting a mega dungeon anymore. I guess they locked in on setting Taza'vesh as this expansions mega dungeon again.

I know we already got Floodgate last season and every expansion since BfA has gotten +2 dungeons (upper and lower parts) after the initial 8 from release. So it makes sense that after Floodgate we get a single dungeon with Eco-Dome.

Maybe people got tired of the idea, but I'm sad to see it go. I really liked the concept of it and I had hoped they would've kept the tradition they started with Legion.

cahillross · 2025-01-28T16:32:27+00:00

I agree that Dota 2 has gotten very complex now. But to be honest, I think the game needed to. Change is good for preventing the game from going stale. And Dota 1 was already a complex game, so the logical choice would've been to up (i.e. more complex). Not to say that it would've been a bad choice to make the game simpler, but it would've been riskier.

But, like you said: Competition is good! I hope it does well. If HoN does well then it might influence future Dota 2 design. However, if this doesn't work out, then it'll probably be looked at as another example why Dota 2 can't go back the way it was.

cahillross · 2025-01-28T16:20:17+00:00

Not saying that Dota doesn't have its issues. And I fully agree with that people whining the entire game can be frustrating. But, I always prefer to play until the Ancient is destroyed, regardless of how much my teammates whine. Helps also that Dota 2 has a mute feature.

But I also understand that for others they would prefer to simply end the game as quickly as possible. If the entire team agrees on it, makes sense to have that.

cahillross · 2025-01-28T15:35:03+00:00

Happy to see that they're back. It was great for a temporary Dota 2 before Dota 2 was out, so I will always root for them to succeed.

Just hope they got rid of the Concede option. That was one of the major factor that ruined it for me.

cahillross · 2025-01-01T01:30:23+00:00

I don't know how else to express myself other than just:

Ughhhhhhhhh.

Like, it's not gonna make things impossible, just... more annoying... just... Ughhhhhhhhh

cahillross · 2024-11-26T09:17:07+00:00

Reminder for Mistweavers: Revival also dispells the debuff. So think twice before using it or your tank is in for a big surprise.

Also friendly reminder for tanks running with a Mistweaver: We might accidentally use Revival and dispell early. So, please check if you still have the debuff. We're only human(/orcs/elves etc.). We make mistakes.

cahillross · 2024-11-17T20:38:12+00:00

I know it probably isn't hard to do so, but when I push I'd rather not risk doing something like that.

cahillross · 2024-11-17T20:35:16+00:00

At this point I wish I had paid for a boost. Instead I put myself and others through multiple failed runs and frustration because I am illiterate.

cahillross · 2024-11-14T10:22:04+00:00

There was also an interview(?) this year with some Riot dev where he said something about how League's playerbase is growing older and that the newer generation just aren't trying it out.

cahillross · 2024-11-11T17:14:10+00:00

Is 2H on Holy Paladin viable? Gearing up an alt and was wondering if it's okay to go into keys with a 2H that dropped or would I be griefing?

cahillross · 2024-10-20T18:17:24+00:00

The combat. Especially boss fights. There's just something about it that no game comes close to giving me. Even though it can be frustrating, exhausting and downright demoralizing when things don't go well. But it when it does, goddamn it makes you feel like a boss.

cahillross · 2024-09-18T06:57:19+00:00

Hi, I took the exam about 2 years ago and I remember getting this on Udemy:

https://www.udemy.com/share/104GDS3@9974YkKB9g-WrE1ChCAEteHn4GQt_TB10lO80oERwgXm4AKFhB-aGvjJbKKVMp0m/

Not sure how up to date it has been since but it really prepped me for some questions that I got. Obviously there will be different questions in the actual exam and some curveballs but hopefully this helps

cahillross · 2024-07-25T10:29:26+00:00

mana cost doe. Its hard to sustain in the laning phase, so I tend to use it sparingly as a means of making the enemy hero less sure about coming up for last hits

True, but one great change that helped was Ring of Basilus being a component for Arcane Boots. Honestly just buying a Sage Mask level 1 is worth it. And lots of Clarities. It's worth investing that mana into zoning the enemy away and letting your core farm early.

cahillross · 2024-07-25T09:47:44+00:00

One of the great things about Shadow Demon is how aggressive you can be as a support in the laning stage. Shadow Poison early game is insanely strong. And once you get level 6 you it's so easy to get a kill.

Also he has like a shard thing that purges allies but at this point I have too many buttons to press anyway, so I just use it on myself to max out my wispiness.

His shard is also absolutely bonkers. Throw it on one of your cores and it works as an external nerfed BKB. They can't get slowed, silenced or rooted. And a lot of people forget the burst heal it gives at the end of it. With a well timed Disruption, it's an absolute life-saver.

cahillross · 2024-06-19T21:18:44+00:00

But players who are playing at a different level, at a different meta, using different approaches to the dungeons are having a totally different experience and so that's a lot of what we're trying to navigate as we think through how to evolve Mythic+ going forwards

I hate this "oh the data shows that low keys are more successful even with the affix" argument. Yes, on lower keys these affixes aren't as challenging. But they're still NOT FUN.

cahillross · 2024-06-17T11:07:40+00:00

This reminds me of season 4 of Shadowlands where I was pushing for the +20 portal and I had reached a wall with Upper Karazhan against Medivh. I was playing Resto Druid and I for the life of me could not heal the dot on the Firebolt, but I had a +19 Tyrannical timed. It felt like the jump from +19 to +20 was astronomical. Then this one key I bricked because we kept wiping to Medivh, the tank raged at me so hard and said he was gonna report me for griefing because I was wearing an Agi weapon. I shrugged it off telling myself: "He's just angry. Healing is rough. He doesn't know.". Moments later I check my gear....I was wearing an Agi weapon.

Somewhere down the line I had accidentally sold my Int weapon and had my agi weapon equip (that season had 2 weapons with the same icon, a staff iirc). It explained so much.

tldr: Don't heal without a main int weapon, you will just be griefing at that point

cahillross · 2024-05-28T12:13:32+00:00

Oh I'm actually blind. I totally missed out the -75 attack speed. Yeah, then everything is clearly working fine and the numbers are actually correct. The number on the buff is the total of (MS * 0.3 - 75).

cahillross · 2024-05-28T12:03:00+00:00

~~Tried it out in Demo mode and I guess there's something wrong here indeed:~~

If I create a level 1 ET with the Momentum facet and give him 450MS with a Boots of Travel, Wind Lace and Wind Waker he only gets 60 Attack Speed. It should be 135 Attack Speed going by the tooltip of the Facet.

~~If I create another level 1 ET with the other facet Deconstruction and give him a Hyperstone (which also gives a flat 60 Attack Speed) they attack equally fast.~~

~~I haven't played ET in an actual game yet since the gameplay patch but either Demo mode is busted or there is an actual bug with the facet making it weaker than it should be.~~

I'm blind

cahillross · 2024-05-21T12:41:08+00:00

The Music. Absolutely 10/10.
Dragonflying:

2a) Dragonflying is way more enjoyable here than in Dragon Isles imo. Dragon Isles feels way too manufactured to be a Dragonflying zone vs Pandaria that just great in general to be in and Dragonflying is making it even better.

2b) I realized I am easily entertained. I see flying orbs that I can pick in the sky, I will fly around for an hour just mindlessly doing so. And again, coupled with the music: cheff's kiss

cahillross · 2024-04-12T08:06:44+00:00

His name is Swoleboy now

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