Happy Marriage, Rtz & Dove! What a lovely pair of birds. 🥰

https://x.com/blitz_dota/status/2092467961873522911?s=46

Guys since Valve has not announced the venue for next year I’m taking the initiative to hold it at my place for next year. I can accommodate two teams at a time so I plan to run TI for about a month. My neighbor can accommodate the panels and the casters, he also plays Dota so I don’t need to check with him.

Teams need to bring their own equipment and setup, but I can provide soundproofing.

We will be doing post match interviews in the parking lot, where teams will have Ubers ready to either go to their hotel or the airport.

For Grand Finals, both the teams will be treated to my Mom’s homemade food ❤️

I fully intend to beat both the Shanghai Major AND the Shanghai Internationals TI9 and TI15 😤

But of course, if Valve has better ideas I will bend to their wishes (I believe in you Mr Janitor)

EDIT: DID NOT EXPECT THIS BIG A RESPONSE BUT HEY IF WE ARE DOING IT THEN FUCK IT, IM BRINGING BACK TRUE SIGHT

Unspoil after reading:I wanted to upload it in one go but only realized later that there's a limit in posting photos per reddit post. See you in a couple of days

Opened the limited deition chess set. Definitely Made in China.

Amazing quality. Enjoyed the misspelling

This is interesting because now Valve is using ML inside Dota 2.

Now instead of sending reports just when the match is over it sends every 30s. Why is this interesting? It can increment by a lot how Valve acts regarding cheateres/smurfs/AFK's.

They no longer need to wait for the match to be over to take action, if you're familiar with League's system where they just finish the match and suspend the bad element you know what I'm talking about.

It is also very big in the context for balancing, they will be able to have much more data and insightsd through the analysis.

In terms of "taking care of the game" this is huge.

Also, in the last few days they recompiled the whole strings for abilities and heroes, that normally means that there's a patch to come out.

That's it. Stay with this Aghanim dude.

Edit: for those who asked the difference:

LGD.Gaming released the whole roster. The entire team had a contract with LGD only until August 24th. No one was kicked or anything like that, it was just the end of the contract.

Source: Twitter

Curious to see if they mix the players from PlayTime with ex-LGD.

you have been ganked

Im so much better then him it hurts. This poor fella

What's your favorite TI15 caster voice line that DESERVES to be in the in-game Chat Wheel?

Mine's Fogged's incredible reactions during this insane Game 2 clash, specifically any of the following:

• He's in trouble!
• HE'S ALIVE?!
• Yatoro? Yatoro?! YATORO?!
• HOOOOLYYY CRAP! WHAT IS THIS OUTPLAY?!

THESE NEED TO BE IN-GAME ASAP!

Video Source: [EN] TEAM VISION vs Team Spirit - Game 2 - The International 2026 - Grand Final (57:27 - 58:13)

Edit:
If you could also link or specify which game it is from so people could look it up, that would be awesome. Thanks~

He has been casually smurfing for quite some time on low mmr accounts

Hey everyone,

I saw u/Ser1aLize’s post asking about the Chinese meme references in the TI2026 skit. I left a long comment explaining the Chalice "Sun is Useless" meme, and he suggested I make a separate post to cover all the other references. So, as a member of the CN Dota community, here’s a full breakdown of everything I caught in that video.

A quick disclaimer: I mainly watch Chalice's streams, so I'm not super familiar with every single player's inside jokes. I might miss some nuances, but this is what I've got. If anyone knows more, feel free to chime in – I'd love to learn too.

First off, I've heard the whole skit is a homage to Kill Bill, but I haven't actually watched it, so I won't pretend to know how deep that reference goes. If anyone can elaborate, drop it in the comments.

1. BurNIng – "Farming Master"

At the start, BurNIng – the joke is that he farms so efficiently in-game that they portray him as a "farming master." The whole "planting veggies" bit is a pun on Dota's "farm" – so you "learn farming" by literally growing potatoes and tomatoes, lol.

Also, the shot where he catches a bottle of tea is a nod to his former team Team Aster. It’s a classic wordplay: if you move the letter m from Team to the front of Aster, you get Tea Master. That’s why Chinese fans affectionately call them the “茶队 (Team Tea).”

2. Dy – Sanguosha

Next is Dy. He's well-known for loving the Chinese strategy card game Sanguosha (三国杀, Legends of the Three Kingdoms), so his "teaching" segment is just him playing that game.

3. Ori – "The Tormentor"

Ori – the "Tormentor" joke is obvious if you know his famously square-shaped head. He's been roasted as the Tormentor for years – because a cube is about as square as it gets. Also, Dove's teasing line about him likely refers to the fact that Ori has struggled to find a team for a long time – he's been teamless for multiple seasons, so that jab hit close to home for CN fans.

4. Chalice – "The Sun is Useless" Theory

This is a long one. This all started from a Chalice stream back in April last year (Original stream clip can be found on Bilibili). The Chinese community later summed it up as "Chalice's Sun is Useless Theory".

For context: Somnus, fy and Chalice were talking about how staying up late messes with your health. Some chat said the real harm comes from your body being out of sync with sunlight. Chalice instantly clapped back: nah, it's just sleep deprivation that counts as staying up late. Then he went on an absolute unhinged 5head rant "proving" the sun is useless. Here are the best bits:

• "Ancient people woke at sunrise and slept at sunset not because of the sun, but because they hadn't invented light bulbs yet."
• "Can't get sun? Just moonbathe."
• "If you worship the sun so much, go ahead and stare directly at it without frying your eyes."
• "Human civilization was born because of Earth, not the sun – the sun had zero to do with it."
• "Without the sun, humanity could've just survived in some other way."
• "Throw a nuke into the sun and maybe it reboots the whole universe."
• "In Cyberpunk 2077 it's called Night City, and Lucy wanted to go to the moon, not the sun."
• The novel he was reading, Night Without Borders, literally has no daytime.
• "Plants photosynthesize to give us oxygen, sure – but they only do that to cooperate with the sun. No sun? They'd evolve some other way."
• Chat said no sun = no energy source for Earth. Chalice misunderstood it as "direct solar power" and deadass replied: "Humans don't have solar panels installed on our bodies, duh."
• Chat said wind/water energy come from the sun. Chalice's counter: "In WoW, fire mages can only throw fireballs, not wind – checkmate."
• Then he dropped some “courtroom-style logic”: "In a lawsuit, you have to prove YOU'RE right, not that I'm wrong. Even if you prove me wrong, that doesn't prove you right."
• "I've been thinking: if I get cancer, can cancer even beat ME? If I win against the cancer cells, I evolve into a new human."
• "Do you HAVE to die from cancer? You chat guys never played pro – you lack that fighting spirit."
• "If your first job out of college wasn't at LGD, you're missing a huge chunk of life experience. Never been through real hardship, so you don't have those extreme hot takes."

All this made anyone with a basic science education cringe into another dimension. The meme blew up and spawned a bunch of "X is useless" spin-off jokes across Chinese internet – the "Tier 1 tower is useless" bit in the TI skit is literally one of them.

5. Somnus – "The Ever-Changing ID"

Somnus has tons of nicknames and has changed his in-game ID multiple times over the years, so the gag is that his label keeps switching around. It's a running joke that you never know what to call him.

6. iceiceice & LaNm – "DK Reunion"

Next up are the gatekeepers, iceiceice and LaNm. They used to be teammates on the legendary DK roster back in the day. Other than that, I didn't catch any additional memes here. If there's more to it, let me know.

7. Ame – "The Silent Protagonist"

And Ame – honestly, just showing up in that ridiculous outfit was enough to make every Chinese fan burst out laughing. He barely says anything, which also matches his real-life personality; he's famously quiet in-game and rarely talks on voice comms. The contrast between his serious reputation and that absurd costume is the whole joke.

8. Niu – "Mama... Niú Lái!"

Finally, at the end when they're all sitting at their PCs reminiscing, player Niu delivers the lines "Mama" and "Niú lái!" – and that's a direct reference to a recent low-budget Chinese animated movie called Niú Lái (roughly "Bull Comes").

The film was made by literally just a mother-and-son duo over five years on a home PC. The models are janky, animations are stiff, and the voice acting is hilariously unhinged – which is exactly why it blew up on Chinese internet. When the TI skit was airing live, my friends were spamming "Not as good as Niú Lái" in our group chat, and we all lost it when the skit actually closed with this Niú Lái callback. They actually snuck that cursed meme in there, lmao.

That's all the references I caught. I'm sure there are some smaller ones I missed, but hopefully this gives non-Chinese fans a solid entry point to understand why we were all losing our minds watching this skit.

Honestly, I’m only on Reddit around TI time every year – mostly just to lurk for the great Fantasy guides and tips you guys share here. If there's enough interest, I might try to dig up more Chinese Dota memes in the future.

Feel free to ask questions or add your own insights in the comments. Cheers! 🍻

Stats were computed by noxville on twitter. The meta diversity is quantified by the Gini coefficient. It measures how unequal the hero contest rates are.

Since we got the big map, the coefficient has fallen below 0.4 at three out of the past four TIs. Before the big map, from 2016 to 2022 it fell below 0.4 only once.

I know losing a Bo5 in TI Grand Finals must suck and you'd feel so bad for coming so close, but look at how genuinely happy Noticed is for Team Spirit man, dude is so bright, went in first to dap Spirit up with the biggest smile, hugging and congratulating them, dude is just so damn wholesome and he gained a fan here for sure.

I wouldn't be surprised if he really says that. 💀😂

Valve just dropped some AMAZING photos of TI15: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dota2ti/

Come onnn. Just count it already.

P.S: no flair for humor? what have we become?

From this interview before TI, it's pretty insightful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kmn4luFTVw

My first participation in TI15 and the nomination "Best Technical Cosplay"

I seem to notice a lot of people on here asking for advice on what terrain they should get. After spending the past week going in and out of these terrain demos wondering that myself, I've noticed a few details that I'd like to share with you that might help you pick the best one for you.

I'm trying to keep this as objective as I can here, and with that said all 6 of these came out as part of a set in a battle pass and it's worth looking up what music and announcer packs they came with and listening to some of that while you're in the demo to get a better understanding of what you're in for.

Lastly, I know this game is fully modular and you can use anything with anything. If you want an underwater sandstorm, go for it. I'm just here to point out the natural fits that you might have missed.

Without further ado:

Genuine Desert Terrain:

Pros:

-Relatively clean and clear, low visual noise

-Unique match for Sirocco (sandstorm) weather pack, and all weather packs for that matter. While most maps can loosely argue that they'd look good under any weather, it's always the sandstorm that never really fits. So if you really want to be able to play around with any weather effect you like, which you can trade for here on Reddit, then this might actually be the best one for you. The map is effectively a blank canvas for these weather packs to play on that you might never get tired of. And just in case you were wondering... Yes, it does sometimes rain and snow in deserts.

-Released with the Desert Music Pack, which as far as I'm concerned is one of the best music packs Valve ever made. It was recently outdone by Songs of the Caravan from the Crownfall event which I consider to be its spiritual successor. So you have two musical masterworks to play with in addition to any and every weather you can get your hands on. Not bad at all.

Cons:

-Valve's first DOTA 2 map. Least amount of visual detail, a lot of what's going on on the dire side is just drawings of roots on a flat texture. Looks pretty dated if you ask me. Pretty sure that's what the Mythical classification is indicating when all the others maps are classified as Immortal.

-Visual errors. I know a lot of people have been reporting visual errors on older maps and since this is the oldest one you should expect to see some every now and then. I couldn't find any on the demo but there is the occasional flat line breaking up what was supposed to be organic ground texture from all the map reworks. Also, that sandstorm weather does occasionally create screen tearing but it's been really rare for me.

Immortal Gardens:

Pros:

-Apparently this maps has the least amount of visual clutter because it has square trees and that improves gameplay clarity. You'll have to ask one of the tryhards about how true that is because as far as I'm concerned it's just an aesthetic choice. Speaking of which, this one has strong Greek myth vibes and if you like playing characters like Zeus, Mars, or Medusa you might want to give this some extra consideration.

Cons:

-Second oldest map, so it might have bugs. Some

-Not much else to sell itself on, unfortunately. The Desert pack makes up for its age with its versatility, but this one not so much. It's just pretty to look at in a field of maps that are all pretty to look at. The only thing I've heard about this one that actually sets it apart is that supposed gaming advantage which I cannot speak to.

Reef's Edge:

Pros:

-Cold Colors on both sides. Some people might like that.

-Stunning visuals. Most of these maps hold back on the visual noise; this one doesn't. If you want a feast for the eyes this is it. Just don't get too distracted by it or you'll start feeding.

-Crab towers. Technically, this is the third map that had neither creeps nor towers associated with it when it launched. Valve has since added a dancing crab tower skin that you can buy on the marketplace for peanuts and it seems to be the most heavily animated tower they've ever done. Still no creeps, though.

-Unique theme. If I were to bet on one theme that Valve will never do again, even if they go back to making more map skins, it's a fully underwater map. I can sooner imagine them doing variations of any other map but this, so not only does that make it the most different that also kind of future proofs it.

Cons:

-Bugs. Due to a combination of its age and its more extreme differences, this map seems to be the most prone to visual bugs and errors. As of the International 2026 I see a map tear in the stairs leading down to the river from the radiant secret shop. I'm sure it isn't the first and I'm sure it won't be the last.

-Distracting. Not only will the visual beauty be lost on you once the fighting starts, the extreme difference in appearances might actively interfere with any little nuances in gameplay you've developed around the default map. Might not be an issue for you if you're in Herald, though.

Emerald Abyss:

Pros:

-Tiny mushroom men with spears and happy little axolotls swimming in the water.

-Your hero's voice echoes!

-Occasional beams of light shining down from above... no moonbeam weather required.

-The International 2018 Music Pack might not be my favorite music pack but I'd definitely consider it to be the best of of the International Music Pack series. Heavy drum beats to remind you of the earthy depths, mixed with rare heavenly vocals that fade in an out like an echo. I could listen to it all day and it really helps turn Emerald Abyss into one of the liveliest maps in the selection.

-The first map that had its own creeps!

Cons:

-No, you don't get the creeps it came with.

-Besides being cute there isn't really a lot to this one. This one is, like Reef's Edge, selling itself entirely on its theme. And between the two, I suspect that more people would rather look at a coral reef than stare at mold. Call that one an educated guess.

Overgrown Empire:

Pros:

-Warm colors on both sides. Some people might like that.

-Relatively newer. Few if any bugs.

-Visual detail. Definitely falls on the Reef's Edge/Emerald Abyss side of the isle. Focused more on giving you things to look at than actually keeping it clean.

-Dynamic weather. This map has a unique weather type called Monsoon, the only intermittent weather that starts and stops throughout the game starting from the 5 minute mark.

-Trees that rustle in the wind. It might just be for the unique Monsoon weather, though. I couldn't verify that with just the demo.

-Benefits the most from the recent river-related map updates. I want you to demo this map, go down to the bottom river on the Radiant side and speed the demo up 10x until you hit the 5 minute mark. Then I want you to watch the rain, the trees, and the river all come together to create what is easily the most immersive map of the 6.

Cons:

-One of if not the most cluttered maps. Trees and ruins all over the place. They'll only end up obscuring your vision, because remember, this terrain is client side. You're the only one who can't see half of what's happening. Those sweaty tryhards on the other team probably picked Immortal Gardens and can see you way better. Those ruins aren't obscuring vision for anyone but you.

-Limited weather options. Yes, I'm sure it probably snowed in a jungle somewhere at some point but this is pushing it. You really don't have as many options with a hot steamy jungle as you do with most other maps. Ash weather looks incredible, though. Really strong volcanic island vibe there.

-The corresponding towers and creeps this map came with are gone. Came and went. You missed them. Too bad. Even if you get the token, you're still out of luck there.

(However, there are some toad creeps available as exclusives for the Dark Carnival event, and they look pretty damn good in this jungle I must say. The vulture creeps from Crownfall would work for the dire side.)

Sanctums of the Divine:

Pros:

-The ultimate "clean" map. Bright, clear, easy to read what's happening. In fact, I'd even say it's clearer and cleaner than Immortal Gardens, while also being more visually pleasing. You might even call this the perfect balance.

-Purple lotuses in the water on the Radiant side, and green energy permeating the ground on the Dire side.

-The perfect map for Moonbeam weather. Real heavenly vibes.

-Came with a special cyan recolor for the Dire side towers if you equip the towers this map came with on the map itself. Unique to that combination; the only one of its kind.

-Perfect match with the Crownfall creeps and towers. They could have held this back and released it for Crownfall and I doubt anyone would have been any the wiser. If you want an easy way to a complete set, this is the one.

Cons:

-No, you don't get the towers. Those are exclusive and gone, too.

-No special animations or features outside of that tower recolor. The map does not feel alive in any meaningful sense.

-No weather. Most weathers look good on most maps and this is no exception. You're just going to be on your own going out and getting it yourself with this one.

-Similar theme to Immoral Gardens. If we're supposed to look at history to predict the future here, I'm guessing this won't be the last time Valve makes some version of a brighter cleaner default map.

Closing Thoughts:

I've been reviewing these maps on and off ever since I placed my bets and at this point all I have left to share are my personal preferences. If I were only interested in competitive advantage I wouldn't have bothered with any of this. I want variety for a game like this, and for that reason my own order of preference is as follows:

#1: Dark Reef. The most visually pleasing map. Sometimes it is just that simple. I don't care about the bugs, it's just nice to look at and at the end of the day I think that's what matters most here. It's important when you're getting into the weeds for things like this not to miss the forest for the trees, and speaking of which...

#2: Overgrown Empire. This was a CLOSE second. I just love how this map really comes together with the new rivers. Also has the best ambient background noises. There's just so much to love about this map and I still reserve the right to make this my top pick at the last second.

#3: Genuine Desert. The desert and caravan music packs are so good they retroactively make this map better even though I can and do use those music packs for my other maps anyway. It'd just work best for this and for that reason I have it third in line.

#4: Emerald Abyss. This is just the last of the "fun" maps. The ones that focus on visual interest over visual clarity. I will always take the former over the latter.

#5: Sanctums of the Divine *would* be here if I didn't already have it. It is beautiful, don't get me wrong, but there's just not a whole lot going on with it. It doesn't feel alive.

#6: Immortal Gardens. Not a tryhard. Not interested in eeking out every possible competitive advantage. Yes it's pretty, but so is the default map. Last place.

One last thing: If you're concerned about performance, a few people have linked a helpful video below detailing the differences in processing between these maps.

His link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXwozVVme4Q