India won a bronze in the recently concluded Commonwealth eSports Championship. The medal came from title DOTA 2. In this post, we try to explain readers what is DOTA 2 in simpler terms. 

DOTA 2 is a game where two teams of five players each are tasked with destroying the central structure in their enemy’s base, called the Ancient, while protecting their own.

In the words of Moin Ejaz, “Basically it’s earning money by eliminating the opponents and destroying the main structure.” Moin is India’s DOTA 2 captain for the Commonwealth eSports Championship. 

It is an online battle arena video game first released in 2013 developed and published by Valve.  According to the developers the game is completely free to play and always will be. 

The Dota 2 comes in a map divided into two sides, Radiant and Dire. Radiant is on the left, and it’s a verdant, idyllic paradise. Over the river that runs diagonally from top left to bottom right, players can find the Dire lands on the right side of the map containing bugs and stuff.

The five players on each team are given control of a hero that all have different skill sets. “The heroes all have different powers so a game could easily switch over time”, Moin added in an interview to Commonwealth eSports Federation. 

“Everyone uses their own hero to protect the tower as much as possible and attack the other side. As a team, we always try to make a plan on how to make the best use of our heroes. Just so we can gain money and push the other side in order to win.”

The two teams’ bases are located on opposite ends of the map and connected by three lanes – top, middle, and bottom, each guarded by four tiers of towers. Each side has 9 towers that needs to be defended from the opposing team. Each lane has 3 towers and the Ancient has 3 of those towers in front of it. A tower is ranked by tiers, the furthest ones being tier 1, the middle ones being tier 2, the closest ones to players base being tier 3. 

“It’s a matter of destroying those towers, so you mainly just focus on your own lanes. You really have to plan together. We all try and help each other and sacrifice ourselves and our towers for our teammates.” DOTA 2 is also a title in the upcoming Asian Games 2022.