Dota 2 is no longer at Beta !

Valve has decided to make Dota2 open for all, meaning that there will no longer be a need for Beta Keys etc. But since they are already giving out so many Beta Keys (I have like 50 up to date).

This is a great first step to bringing Dota 2 up to the next level. Dota 2 has been in Beta for almost 2 years. I remembered that when it was first released I was unable to get a key at all. A friend randomly gave one to me in the end.

Lets hope that Valve will quickly release the remaining Heroes (Pit Lord LoA Goblin Techies) and can begin to release the newer Heroes such as Legion Commander, Earth Spirit etc.

Valve now has to set up some standards as well some bugs still have not been addressed yet. (Take a look at Dev forums to see the number of current game changing bugs yet to be fixed. Also, the issue and debate regarding communication Bans have still not been addressed yet. Too many innocent players are getting Communication banned for simply being a beginner.

Proper matchmaking also has to be addressed, I believe the issue regarding the communication ban is that some players that are still new are put to play against players that are more skillful and are at a different level as compared to the new player. This results in conflict between the two players and unjustified communication bans as well. The Matchmaking system has to be reworked a couple of times before it will be finalized I guess.

They have set up the new Solo Matchmaking which is great for many solo-players to prevent them from playing against 5 man stacks/party who might have more synergy as compared to 5 strangers. (You also get alot of 5 carry games though)

Things Valve can look into:

1) Setting your role into the Matchmaking function. Support / Carry / Hard Carry / Mid etc. and try not to clump too many people playing the same role together. This is something we have to look to and address the various loophole to this.

2) A pregame minigame. When finding a Match or waiting for the 2 minutes into the game maybe we can have a Mini-game before the match. Something fun like those WC3 Mod Games. Shopkeeper Quiz is just urgh.

3) Forfeit function, I will write about this one day. I really think this needs to be implemented but with a lot of different conditions in place. I really hate fountain farmers and game-draggers after they get Megas.

4) Improving the low priority and Ban system.

Other than that Valve has been doing a good job. KEEP IT UP. My favourite game so far. Lets help make this community improve and more enjoyable together.