| Dota | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre(s) | |
| Developer(s) | Valve |
| Publisher(s) | Valve |
| Creator(s) | Eul |
| Platform(s) | |
| First release | Defense of the Ancients 2003 |
| Latest release | Dota Underlords February 25, 2020 |
Dota is a series of strategy video games. The series began in 2003 with the release of Defense of the Ancients (DotA), a fan-developed multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) mod for the video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, The Frozen Throne. The original mod features gameplay centered around two teams of up to five players who assume control of individual characters called "heroes", which must coordinate to destroy the enemy's central base structure called an "Ancient", to win the game. Ownership and development of DotA were passed on multiple times since its initial release until Valve hired the mod's lead designer IceFrog and after a legal dispute with Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of Warcraft III, brokered a deal that allowed for Valve to inherit the trademark to the Dota name.
The first standalone installment in the series, Dota 2, was released by Valve in July 2013. A sequel to DotA, the game retains the same gameplay elements as its predecessor, while introducing new support and mechanics, as well as a setting separate from the Warcraft universe. Artifact, a digital collectible card game with mechanics inspired by Dota 2, was released in 2018. Dota Underlords, an auto battler based on the community-created Dota 2 mod Dota Auto Chess, was released in 2020.
The original DotA mod is considered one of the most popular mods of all time, with tens of millions of players and a consistent presence at esports tournaments throughout the 2000s. DotA is considered a catalyst for the MOBA genre, inspiring developers to create other games similar to it. Likewise, Dota 2 is cited as one of the greatest video games of all time, with an esports presence hallmarked by record-breaking prize pools that culminate in the annual championship known as The International. The spinoff games by Valve have been positively received, although Artifact was considered a failure as a large majority of its initial player base was lost within weeks with Valve stopping development on it shortly after its release.