And Now For Something Completely Different

For this week's post, I needed to include a bunch of photos. Since I can't use photos of DotA 2, which would be pretty boring to look at anyway, It's time for another tour around campus. Here we go!

Bam. Shackelford Hall. It's where I hang out 90% of the time that I'm not in class or eating. Speaking of eating:

Behold, the Troy Dining Hall. Known to students for some reason as Saga. The food is hit or miss, but it's free... ish. Moving right along.

Next door is the under-construction Alumni Hall, which trades the old Alumni Hall's prison-like atmosphere for thin walls and expensive TVs. It's going up pretty fast, though.

 This is the Quad. It's where everyone goes but no one hangs out. You'll appreciate the Hector statue in the center of the fonutain in the center of the field. It recently got polished to reveal its true golden bronze color. We all thought it was black for the longest time.

Here's the Admin building. It's where all your parents' money goes.

Opposite from that is the Math and Science buiding. It's where all your parents' money goes after the Admin building is done with it.

And that's Smith Hall, where the English department is set up. I'll be perfectly frank, I don't know where the money for this place comes from. It's always just sort of... been there.

And opposite from that is Bibb Graves Hall, which from what I can recall is a portal into a science fiction dystopia ruled by an unending stock ticker. My memories of the place are pretty fuzzy.

And right behind that is the Trojan Center, where our tour wraps up. nothing much to say about this one, save that it's the most boring, most normal, and least likely to be haunted out of all of them. Drama department notwithstanding.

So, with that in mind, come to Troy! Please! We need more ghost hunters.

The International: The Big Game in eSports

You may be wondering why DotA 2 is such a Big Deal. It's just a game, right? Albeit one with a myriad of complex mechanics and interactions sporting a learning curve that isn't so much a curve as a sheer cliff face. And while most people will only play DotA 2 as "just a game," there are quite a few players who go above and beyond, becoming professionals who make their living on sponsorships and winnings from tournaments. And there is no bigger tournament than the one hosted by Valve Corp themselves: The International.

There is nothing particularly notable about the International's format. What sets it apart from other tournaments of its kind is the massive amount of cash that gets poured into production, broadcasting, and prize money -- from Valve and DotA fans alike!

The International started off in 2011 as a way of advertising the beta launch of DotA 2. It had a prize pool of $1,600,000, which was an absolutely preposterous amount of money at the time, and sixteen of the world's greatest DotA 2 teams vying for first place. The grand prize, a cool million dollars, was taken home by the famous Ukrainian team Na'Vi, of Natus Vincere Gaming, followed up by EHOME in second and Scythe Gaming in third.

The International 2012 also had a prize pool of $1,600,000. Na'Vi only claimed second this time around, falling to a fellow International veteran, China's Invictus Gaming. A short-lived triumph, as while Na'Vi would make the grand final next year, Invictus has never again seen the light of the final four.

The International 2013 needed to be bigger and better than before, and to this end it introduced the Compendium, a sort of downloadable digital program of the tournament. A portion of compendium sales went directly to the series' prize pool, boosting it to over $2,800,000. The Swedish team Alliance claimed ultimate victory and over $1,400,000 in prize money, followed once again by Na'Vi as the runner up.

This year, the International once again sold its Compendium, and once again the contribution from fans was astronomical in scope. With the addition of compendium-exclusive bonuses, sales skyrocketed and the prize pool ballooned to over $10,000,000, over six times the initial amount set in 2011. The grand champion this year was an upset -- the relatively unknown Chinese team Newbee beat out crowd favorites like Cloud 9 and Evil Geniuses to claim over five million dollars in prize money, or about a million per player.

The International is a spectacle for players both new and experienced. If you have any interest in the game, it could very well become the highlight of your summer break. Happy spectating.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, or: Patch 6.82 and You

On September 24, 2014, DotA 2 received its latest patch -- in other words, it was updated for the express purpose of rendering overly powerful heroes and items weaker, and granting a boost to the parts of the game missing their edge. The latest version of DotA 2 as of this writing is v6.82.

To read up on what exactly has changed, you can find the patch notes bundle alongside the Rekindling Soul Update here.

So, what changed?  For starters, two much-maligned heroes were changed up to alleviate their most glaring flaw: namely, that they were no fun to play as or against.

The first, Bloodseeker, was once a famous "pubstomper." That is, he decimated games played by casual, lower-skilled players, but he was almost useless at pro levels of play. To combat this, two of his abilities were thrown into the blender -- his famously double-edged "Blood Rage" and his health-sustaining "Blood Bath" were turned into a single effect he can place on anyone and cause them to deal and take more damage while healing themselves if they ever get a last hit on a creep or enemy hero. In the space left by Blood Bath's absence, he received a totally new ability: "Blood Rite," which after a short delay deals damage to and denies spellcasting from any enemies caught in its massive area of effect.

The second, Phantom Lancer, once had the decidedly tasteless and unflattering fan nickname of "Phantom Cancer," due to his ability late in the game to spawn nigh unstoppable waves of self-replicating illusions that would endlessly push all three lanes at once, providing little relief to the enemy team as they continuously spawned and beat down any creeps and turrets they came across. Now his illusions last for a much shorter time and tend to strike quickly and without warning. This has given the new "acute" Phantom Lancer the equally tasteless fan nickname of "Ebolancer."

Apart from those two big changes are several smaller ones. New paths are traversable through the trees surrounding the lanes and jungle, and Roshan's had a change of address. A new item, the Crimson Guard, can be purchased in the shop. One item, Aghanim's Scepter, which upgrades the ultimate abilities of most of the game's cast, upgrades just a few more now.

Sprinkle a few handfuls of bug fixes and minor changes and tweaks, and you have Path 6.82.