Video game development company Valve has been working an engine update to their incredibly popular multiplayer online battle arena (moba) game Dota 2, which was first announced as the “Reborn update” on their blog earlier this month. The Reborn update went into effect on September 9th, leaving millions of happy gamers anxious to see the graphical and gameplay updates first hand.
We are rolling out the Reborn update over the next couple of hours. Matchmaking is now only available in Reborn.
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) September 9, 2015
Engadget reported on the update, pointing out that while Dota 2 will be the first game to utilize the new Source 2 engine, it is actually the Counter-Strike franchise that gave Valve their claim to fame.
So it might seem strange that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Valve’s current incarnation of the first person shooter, won’t be the first to take advantage of the Source 2 engine. According to Engadget, the reason for this is that Dota 2 has taken center stage for Valve due to the massive interest in playing it competitively. With more than 40 million players, 11.8 million of which were active in the past thirty days, it’s no surprise that the game does well in eSports.
In addition to the graphical updates, bug fixes, and adjustments to improve performance, Dota Levels were also included in the patch.
Dota Levels is an achievement system put into place where players can level up by earning trophies, which are earned by completing special tasks. According to the Dota 2 website, a player’s level is the “culmination of [a player’s] accomplishments” in the game, or more simply put: bragging rights. The system will allow players to compare accomplishments with one another and keep track of their own progress.
The Dota 2 team has listed all of the updates made in the recent patch on their website.