Dota 2 in 2020: All the Highlights

2020 is (finally) over and what better day to wrap it up than with a review of the biggest moments in Dota 2. Here's what happened in the past year!

2020 changed the world as we know it. Dota 2’s competitive scene had to delay or cancel many events including The International. If you were looking for a recap, you're at the right place!

January

• Back in January the pandemic was just slowly creeping in, so we managed to see some LAN events like the Leipzig Major aka DreamLeague Season 13. This was the first and last DPC event in 2020 and Team Secret claimed the title.
• The two-time TI winners OG lost three members at once as Jesse “JerAx” Vainikka retired for good while Anathan “ana” Pham and Sebastien “Ceb” Debs announced they’ll be taking a break from the competitive scene. Fear not as a replacement was already there in the face of Sumail “SumaiL” Syed Hassan.
• Cloud9 announced their return to Dota 2 with a new team and patch 7.24 dropped in.

• Danil “Dendi” Ishutin announced his return to Dota 2 with a brand-new organization and team – B8. The reveal came with an interesting video. Sadly, the team didn’t manage to find any success throughout the year even after some notable roster changes.

February

• Discussions about the game’s competitive schedule were underway as Valve were trying to get everything under control. (un) Fortunately, the pandemic dropped in and blocked international travel and that put an end to all of it.
• Despite that Valve revealed their plans for regional leagues in the next competitive season and the complete removal of minor events. The number of Majors was brought down to 3.
• The roster of Dendi’s B8 was finally revealed a week after the official announcement. In the meantime, Zhang "xiao8" Ning and Chen "Zhou" Yao accused Avengerls of match-fixing.

March

• In March we saw the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 where Team Aster took first place and qualified for the ESL One Los Angeles Major. Little did they know.
• The Minor was followed by DOTA Summit 12 where Fnatic proved they’re the best.
• Valve brought in the Ranked Roles update and players were now able to select a role before starting the search for a match.
• The EPICENTER and Dota Pit events got canceled while ESL One Los Angeles switched to an online format.
• Teams gathered up for the WePlay!’s WeSave! Charity Play

April

• At the end of the month, it was time for the WePlay! Pushka League.
• NiP picked up a brand-new roster while Cloud9 announced they’re leaving the scene and Gustav “s4” Magnusson returned to Alliance.
• The BTS Pro Series kicked off, while Peter “ppd” Dager and Sahil “Universe” Aurora retired from pro play.

Moving on - Retiring from competitive Dota 2Read: https://t.co/7mZ0mpALwk

— Peter Dager (@Peterpandam) April 20, 2020

May

• Valve announced that given the global pandemic and the imposed travel restrictions The International 2020 will be postponed.
• TI was delayed but the Battle Pass was released at the end of May and it brought two personas and three arcanas.
• Newbee got accused of match-fixing and banned from competing by ImbaTV and the CDA Alliance.

June

• BLAST made their entry into the Dota 2 scene with BLAST Bounty Hunt, an event with some wacky rules that brought joy to millions of fans.
• OG.Seed went their separate ways while ESL One Birmingham online came to an end.
• The #Metoo movement made its way into esports and a lot of Dota 2 personalities were affected.

pic.twitter.com/1bOBw4utN5

— Inactive (@TobiWanDOTA) July 2, 2020

July

• Dota 2 became 7 years old in July and Valve marked the occasion with, you guessed it, nothing.
• Toby “Tobiwan” Dawson left Dota 2 and esports as a result of allegations.
• Valve finally released the AM persona and the Dota 2 Summer event - Aghanim’s Labyrinth.
• Ceb returned to an active role in OG after the team struggled to return to their proper form.

August

• The biggest Dota 2 event in August was the OMEGA League where some of the best teams clashed.
• The International left a void in August but fans were still eager to invest more money into the Battle Pass.
• Janne “Gorgc” Stefanovski was released by OG due to a conflict of interest. He was signed with the team as a streamer and content creator.

September

• Alexander “Flow” Sazonov lost his battle with cancer at the age of 25. The Russian offlaner last played for FlyToMoon.
• The OMEGA League came to an end and Team Secret picked up another title.
• Due to the ongoing global pandemic, GeekFam and Reality Rift had to withdraw from the Dota 2 scene and release their rosters.

October

• The superstar Chinese Dota 2 team Elephant.4AM came to life. It wasn’t all smooth sailing as there were problems during the transfer of Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun who was still under contract with Vici Gaming.
• CR4ZY stepped away from the esports scene and their Dota 2 roster was released. EG were technically the only team left in North America that was sponsored but they didn’t really compete in the region.

It's just a chapter. We're not giving up, we're not uninstalling and we're not going to low prio. Thank you all https://t.co/NBW0bW6qIj#DOTA2 pic.twitter.com/Mngk9LIVHz

— Ninjas in Pyjamas (@NIPGaming) November 30, 2020

November

• Small orgs were leaving the scene but now it was time for a big one. NiP released their Dota 2 roster and stepped away from Dota 2.
• Some big roster changes happened as Roman “RAMZES” Kushnarev went inactive for EG and Daryl Koh “iceiceice” Pei Xiang joined the team.
• VP.Prodigy became the main roster of Virtus.pro

December

• Virtus.pro took first place at the Epic League
• The long-awaited patch 7.28 finally arrived with the Mistwoods Update. The latter added the brand-new hero Hoodwink and many new changes with the introduction of Aghanim’s Shards. These shards cost 1400 gold and are only available after minute 20. Getting one will either give you a new spell or alter an already existing one.

It was an interesting year for Dota 2 and 2021 looks more promising than ever. The Dota Pro Circuit is set to return in January so get ready for some more regional leagues and a Major event later on!

• READ MORE: Dota 2: Top 10 Aghanim’s Shard Upgrades

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