The Battle Pass release week is the Dota 2 equivalent to a yearly holiday that can bring the entire community together with some new content and objectives to hit. But there are a few reasons why the Battle Pass brings about such a reaction within the community—and a big part of that is Valve’s attention to detail within the content it provides.
There are mixed opinions about how Valve handles things with Dota, whether it be through changes to the actual game through patches and updates or a general lack of communication that’s always seemed apparent. But something that the company has always done well is pandering to the players who have spent years of their life playing its games, which is what The International 2020 Battle Pass perfectly represents.
On the latest episode of the Wombo Combo podcast, former professional player and current streamer and analyst BananaSlamJamma (better known as simply BSJ) put into context why he’s such a fan of this Battle Pass.
“I just think they’ve taken it up a notch this year,” BSJ said. “It seems like a lot of [fixing] the community criticisms and things that people want. Even with the Wraith King Arcana to be the Skeleton King, I was like ‘that’s kind of a short cut,’ but I’m OK with it. It has so much nostalgia value and everything, and I personally love stuff like that.”
The One True King Arcana for Wraith King is a nice throwback to early Dota, but beyond that, Valve has added so much to the game with this Battle Pass. Whether it’s Guilds, the Battle Gauntlet, Bounty Killing, or any of the smaller updates made to existing features, the overall Dota experience is better because of the pass.
And if you look beyond just the content, it’s clear that Valve is in on the community’s memes too. If you look closely at the new Wraith King Arcana, you’ll see something related to one of the bigger jokes in Dota esports.
“It’s been pointed out on Reddit and my viewers told me to look at it, but if you look at the Wraith King’s bone harvesting arcana thing, the Terrorblade is on a cliff,” BSJ said. “It’s a shoutout Arteezy, Cliffteezy, and all that shit. On this whole map, there is only one hero on the cliff and its a Terrorblade and I just think shit like that is what makes Dota and the community what it is. Even the developers are in on the memes.”
The memes are out in full force as the community delves deeper into all of the content and unlocks everything Valve has worked on for the Battle Pass. As more references and throwbacks are discovered within the code and visuals, the community can reminisce on the deep history of Dota.
You can hear more of BSJ’s thoughts on the Battle Pass on his YouTube channel.
