If you played a match of Dota 2 today and panicked midway that the “S” key of your keyboard is going kaput, you can rest easy. It’s not your keeb. It’s Valve with a silly Year of the Snake Easter egg.
Jan 29’s Dota 2 update had the “Charms of the Snake’”treasure dropped to the game, accompanied by a blog post with serpentine humor. Since then, though, if you have tried to use the in-game text chat, you’d see your single “S” keypress, resulting in three S’s showing up on the screen. As did a large cohort of Dota 2 players who gathered in a Reddit thread to ruminate on Valve’s silly prank.
“Sssssomeone at Valve isssssss ssssso clever [sic],” reads the post’s title with its image zoomed in on the chat of two teammates. They are seriously confused about what’s going on with their ‘s’ key before finally coming to terms as being non-consenting subjects of Valve’s zany joke.
While we are all amused by the slinky humor, the update also spawned controversy about the new sets being untradeable, which hasn’t sat well with fans. Traditionally, the “ultra rare” sets have been tradeable and marketable from the get-go, meaning you could sell them off in the Steam community market to recoup some of the cost of opening a few dozen chests. It remains to be seen whether it’s Valve’s permanent modus operandi now going forward with future treasures.
As Crownfall’s last act continues on borrowed time for a week more, the Dota 2 community is gasping for a new patch. Hopefully, Valve finally gives in and delivers a big gameplay update to shake up the meta on Feb 6. Until then, though, the slithery joke is all we have.
Published: Jan 30, 2025 10:31 am