Dota 2 players are crashing ranked matches with a game-breaking bug

Losing is never fun in Dota 2, but some players have begun exploiting a game-breaking bug to avoid losing their MMR.

There is a simple in-game interaction that allows players to crash the servers for their Dota 2 match. The bug appeared on Gorgc’s stream, and it took off in terms of popularity as many players tried to attempt recreating it in their own games.

During a 70-minute game, one of Gorgc’s teammates mentioned they should crash the game to avoid losing MMR. Believing they could still win, Gorgc refused and asked the player to continue playing.

Their efforts wouldn’t be enough, however, as the enemy team had mega creeps and was getting ready for the final push. During the last fight, Invoker bought a Linken’s Sphere and used it on one of his allies.

Right after activating the Linken’s on someone else, Invoker proceeded to sell the item, and the game crashed after an enemy player used a targeted spell on the Linken’s. An anomaly occurred as a spell was used on a hero with Linken’s on them, but the source of that wasn’t found since Invoker sold the item during this process.

The bug has been running rampant, especially in high-tier matches, for the last 10 hours, and it’s still in the game at the time of writing. As soon as players who know about the bug start thinking their match might be a lost cause, they sell their items to exploit the bug, so they don’t lose any MMR.

Valve’s likely to roll out a hotfix in the upcoming hours, and players who are looking to play regardless of the bug will need to be extra careful during late-game pushes since casting a spell on a target with Linken’s can cause your game to crash.