I have played Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends pretty extensively, and both are solid representatives of the emerging Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre. As most people know by now, the birth of the MOBA may be traced back to the modded Warcraft 3 map that became known as Defense of the Ancients.
The original DotA Allstars
Right now, the International DotA 2 Championships are taking place here. Much like the League of Legends tournament at Dreamhack, there is a live stream of the tournament with commentary. I don’t understand why there is a $1 million tournament before the game has even been released for beta…maybe I’m just jealous.
Middle: The frost archer from DotA 2
On this same page, you can also sign up for the upcoming beta test for DotA 2. To do so, you need to create a Steam account if you haven’t already done so. After all, the game is being developed by Valve.
Ashe, the Frost Archer from League of Legends
After watching a few matches of the tournament and viewing the trailer, I see many similarities to the existing MOBA leaders. In the trailer, the archer in the opening sequence looks exactly like Ashe, the Frost Archer from League of Legends. The map that is being played in the tournament looks extremely similar to the 5v5 map in Heroes of Newerth.
