You mean AoS, I bet.

Yeah, it all steemed from that map. 

It's nice to see that Blizzard is also using other characters from their series as heroes, not limiting it to SCII characters only.

@Vlad, DotA 2 doesn't really need to do anything to one-up HoN. The Blizzard DotA isn't a thread in the slightest either.

The tournament games have been getting better and better. MUFC vs ok.Nirvana.int is worth a mention if anyone wants to watch that replay on the DotA2 youtube channel. The Ai camera is continuing to do a great job spectating this games.

I'm not going to update the main post with any results, as you could go through the whole tournament watching the replays unspoiled with how Valve have set up the Schedule page of the website.  

I play LoL every day so I'm pretty excited for this.

I saw that one....the Nirvana team sucked ass, or at least some of it's members do. The one playing Traxxex should be taken out of anything DoTA related as it's clear he/she never touched a ranged agility harasser hero before, since her skills are pretty much the same that those in DoTA. 

You're thinking of a different game this is the one I was referring to.  Drow Ranger wasn't picked in this match.

Ah yes, my bad. The match I saw was TyLoo vs OK.Nirvana.CN (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziVx7-pGpIc&feature=player_embedded)

Wouldn't you say the original dota is stil the leader? According to icefrog theres about 18 million active players (if i did the calculations right).

Anyways i agree with you. DOTA 2 can easily become number 1 by getting the majority of the dota players to cross over...and at the same time appeal to the audience who plays LOL and HoN. Im assuming though that a large majority of dota players play it because its practically free (most people pirate war3 to play dota) and i find that not many of them are willing to make the transition to pay to play. A free to play model would be best imo.

I think thats one of the main attributing reasons dota became so popular in the first place, it was highly accessible in a LAN set up or online.

The only problem i have with the free to play model in MOBA games is deciding  what exactly to charge for? I hate the way HoN handles the free to play model. I dont mind them charging for hero skins or things like that...but charging for basic game modes for a limited time and heroes is a bit over the top. If DOTA goes the HoN route it might again find itself alienating the original dota players.

Edit:  Almost forgot to say this....if they dont charge for basic things like that then what do they charge for? Its like they doomed either way. I think thats why Gabe said they gona leave figuring that out for later. At the end of the day hes goal is to get as much people playing the game as possible, and the best way to do that is to appeal to the existing dota players.

the tournament has been amazing. the first game was a very good game, even though the end was boring the begiging when tiny tossed lion so he could fissure a guy was amazing. considering i play dota with my friends it wont become a farm fest.

Just have a system similar to LoL.  Their free to play is not annoying by any means.  Every single week, there are 10 champions that are free.  Each game, you earn points that you can use to buy champions.  You can also have skins, however, which will cost a different currency, that you can only get with money.  With that currency, you can also purchase champions if you so wish.

I have spent like $45 on LoL for champions (I bought both of the 20 packs).  All remaining champions, I have bought using my IP points.