From producing the stellar Netflix animation, Dota: Dragon’s Blood, to creating a user-friendly tutorial for new players and even to secure a site for the upcoming The International(TI) despite scrambling from all the Sweden drama, 2021 was starting to look like Valve’s year.
But all good things must come to an end, and so did Valve’s streak of wins.
Fans’ latest anger is now directed at the new Battle Pass launched last month (June 2021). The Battle Pass acts as a purchasable ticket that grants access to tournaments and event features, the pass allows players to obtain chat lines, taunts, skins, and animations when they reach specific Battle Pass levels. These levels can be grinded by completing challenges and missions, or by simply cashing.
Typically, a highly anticipated event, fans perceived the Battle Pass as a means to obtain limited items and cosmetics while also supporting the TI. But Valve just had to make it super difficult to get the best items, heavily paywalling the best items in the Battle Pass.
Credit: Valve
Bye bye Spectre Arcana
Take the Arcana for Spectre. Participating in an Arcana vote, fans vote for their favourite hero and the most popular hero gains the right to obtain an Arcana. This year, Spectre barely edged out Faceless Void and has obtained a new Phantom Advent skin.
However, unlike previous years, Spectre’s new aesthetic will not be included in the Steam Market. Instead, it will only be available as the level 330 prize in the Nemestice 2021 Battle Pass.
Obtaining 300+ levels is insane, requiring you to play hours of Dota 2 every single day for the next few months. I mean, we love Dota, but that’s just bordering on crazy.
Oh, there is one way of getting around the grind and that’s to pony up. You can get the Arcana skin for Spectre – but only if you pay US$150 for the skin. This exorbitant amount is a far cry from the US $33.49 that fans previously paid for Arcana skins.
Credit: Valve
Money, money, money
Typically, 25% of all transactions from the Battle Pass is funded into TI, however, thanks to the Battle Pass released last year, the TI10 prize pool is already fully funded. What’s more, it is set to feature a prize pool of US $40 million, the largest prize pool in esports history. So, what is Valve going to do with their extra earnings?
At the moment, no one except Valve knows. Look, we get it. Valve is a business and Dota 2 is free to play. Fans love it but a business has to make money. But the blatant gold digging has to stop. Most of the fans are regular people, people who have grown to play and love the game for its complexity, and exciting battles. Is the money really worth alienating the majority of fans?
What do you think about the latest Battle Pass and are you going to buy it? Let us know in the comments below!
