A yearly tradition, has been broken — there will be no Dota 2 Battle Pass 2023, but an update will still ship close to The International 12.
The developer is instead moving away from the “single focal point around which all content delivery was designed.”
Since The International 3, fans have looked forward to the Dota 2 Battle Pass and its bevy of side games, cavern crawls, and most importantly, exclusive cosmetics. That comes to an end this year, with Valve acknowledging that this year will release “more speculative updates” in lieu of a “momentous content drop” centered on TI12.
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Valve explains why there will be no Dota 2 Battle Pass 2023
Credit: Valve
“Any single piece of content would be more valuable when bundled as part of the Battle Pass, so we bundled more and more,” Valve wrote in its announcement. “This led to a momentous content drop every year, but it also greatly limited our ability to do things that were exciting and valuable for players but didn’t fit into the Battle Pass reward line.”
Valve instead promised that “a wide variety of features and content for the game, delivered in different ways” are in the works, with “more diverse updates for all Dota players to enjoy.” The developer called the New Frontiers 7.33 update a recent example of such an update.
Still, the celebration of TI12 will still continue. A TI-themed update — with cosmetics no longer a focus — will ship in September.
“This is a significant change from the last few years, so to make it clear that we’re shifting focus towards the event and away from the giant reward line of cosmetics, we’re intentionally not calling this update a Battle Pass,” Valve wrote.
The developer said that this update will still contribute to the prize pool, which has helped the TI series set records as some of the largest prize pools in esports. Last year’s TI11 was an exception — the first tournament since TI3 that did not feature a prize pool increase, as well as the lowest prize pool since TI4 nine years ago.
The massive focus on TI has been both a blessing and a curse — while it generates massive viewership, other tournaments, even Dota Pro Circuit Majors, inevitably receive less attention. Hopefully, Valve will be able to smooth out the prize pool differentiation, helping players earn a living through the DPC rather than just hoping for a ticket to TI.
You can read the full blog post about the future of the Dota 2 Battle Pass from Valve here.
