What to expect from Dota 2 in 2022

At the beginning of 2021, Valve has made a loud promise to the entire Dota 2 community to devote more time to the game and its players. In addition, Valve promised players the release of three new heroes, patrol system, as well as dramatically change their attitude with the release of updates and share their plans with the community.

Well, has the company fulfilled its promises? Not to the fullest extent!

It's frustrating to see such a negligent attitude towards players, for a game with such an audience and a long history. But maybe that's where the success lies?

Absolutely 2 new heroes for Dota. And although players were expecting to see other heroes, which were leaked by dataminers. Still, Valve practically fulfilled the promise, although there was talk about more characters. 

The release of the Overwatch system, although positively received by the audience, the quality and usefulness in this system do not even reach its counterpart in CS:GO. What is its problem? The very description of Overwatch in Dota 2 looks rather sparse. Even after a long time, it's still not clear how exactly Valve defines the people who should render verdicts, as well as what exactly they should be reported and banned for. In addition, users have noted that some situations and complaints can not be objectively evaluated without watching the entire match. However, in "Overwatch" there is no such feature. And again, Valve is not doing anything about it.

And the main point that Valve almost from the first day forgot to fulfill - "to share their plans with the community”. Since the first days of 2021, Valve has decided to "give an unforgettable experience" to esports community, because already on January 4 started the first matches of the open qualifiers and Decider Tournament. As for the updates of the game, Valve still puts the players to the fact, not listening to the audience from the word VERY. And almost every patch, players again read a message from the developers, in which they apologize for ignoring and promising to listen more to feedback from eSports teams and fans.

If we take into account 2019 and 2020, Valve really got closer to its audience. It is impossible to quench everyone's desires in the game, and looking at what happened before, these steps really had a positive impact on the game, though not to the full extent. 

Despite all the problems, 2021 ended on a positive note for the game, and it's time to see what we can expect from Dota 2 in 2022.

Dota 2 has been around for more than 10 years. If to consider the official release date, it's 9 years. For such a long time, the game has appeared with quite a few new features and interesting updates. And the game update on a new Source 2 engine was, of course, the ideal solution, as the capabilities of the engine, could easily provide players with a new experience in the form of custom games.

And although the first official events in Dota 2 did not splash with originality, they were warmly received by the audience. From the latest official events from Valve, you can see where they drew inspiration, namely from the same custom games.

But Aghanim's Labyrinth: The Continuum Conundrum players perceived more as hackwork, since a similar event was already available in the previous Battle Pass, and many "new ideas" in the labyrinth were stolen from custom maps. And that's not counting the fact that players don't even get a reward for completing this event.

Valve, as always, did not even respond to criticism, but the community still expects a quality event from the company in 2022. After all, the company was still able to prove that it still can do something by releasing the long-awaited Diretide by everyone.

Like last year, 2022 started for Dota 2 not with the most pleasant news. On January 12, Valve officially announced that it had decided to cancel the first major tournament. Since Valve did not offer any alternative that could make up for the lack of prize money and qualifier points, they decided to run six Regional Finals tournaments. Unexpectedly for everyone, Valve decided to fix this problem together with tournament organizers and teams.

At the moment, there is no new information regarding the holding of the second and third Major, including The International itself.

Steam Deck is a future portable gaming computer developed by Valve. It is expected to be released on February 25, 2022.

The announcement of this device appeared in May 2021. And just a few months later, Valve CEO Gabe Newell confirmed that with the release of the console, players will be able to comfortably play Dota 2.

In addition, this console was the first step towards adding full controller support for Dota 2. And already on December 15, 2021, players were able to test various gamepads, including controllers from PS/XBOX/Switch Pro, etc.

In 2021, players received 2 unique new heroes, one of which was released after the first season of the Dota 2 anime. And although the players warmly received Marci from the anime, this was most likely the first and last attempt to transfer the character from the series. From the files leaked by dataminers, you can see about 19 mentions of new heroes, among which are Primal Beast, Puppet Master and Freya.

As always, there is no information from Valve about who it is going to release. And if you take into account their promises to release several new heroes a year, then there is every chance to see at least one of the list above.

The Covid-19 pandemic has been ruining the life of the esports community for two years in a row. Esport athletes, as well as spectators, have not been able to enjoy spectacular battles to the fullest for a long time. And the unclear pandemic situation could hurt the professional season again in 2022. Valve has already shown that it was completely unprepared to host the first major, and it still has time to fully prepare for the second and third majors and make amends. 

As for Steam Deck and controller support, players will probably already be able to try them out in full at the end of February. But whether there will be further support, and whether Valve will prepare a tutorial for new players, it remains to be seen.

What about future updates and patches? As always, silence.