Valve confirms LAN and mod support for DOTA 2

Given that DOTA itself was born of modding, it is good to see that Valve are not forgetting the game's routes in DOTA 2, which has been confirmed to have Mod support. In addition to this, it has been revealed that DOTA 2 will boast a LAN mode, which will surely please eSport fans. In an interview with joinDOTA, Valve's Market Director of Operations Erik Johnson talked about the upcoming invitational tournament as well as two features that will be seen in the much anticipated addition to the moba genre.

The interview sheds a lot of light for the eSports fans out there. Firstly, Johnson covers the upcoming International tournament, confirming that it will be hosted in Seattle with a prize pool of at least $1.6 million, so at minimum matching that of the last Dota 2 tournament. It is likely to be some time around September, with potential connections to the PAX convention, which is to be held in Seattle on August 31st - September 2nd.

When asked about the huge prize pool, Johnson answered that Valve believe that those who commit to playing a game such as Dota (2) at the highest level deserve the paycheck.

Here are some further hilights from the interview:

Last years International was streamed using the ingame feature "DOTA TV", this year are there plans to increase the level of production at the event itself?

Last year's event was mostly about us learning how to run an event, from a software and a production point of view. We all had huge lists of things coming out of the event that we thought we could improve upon this year, and we're all really excited to see how it plays out.

Groups like Garena currently offer a LAN service in SEA for Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends players. Are you planning on offering a similar feature?

Dota 2 will have LAN mode. There are some systems that LAN mode requires that we haven't finished yet, mainly because we've been focused on matchmaking. We know how important this feature is for the community.

One of the most enjoyable parts of Warcraft 3 were their custom maps, will there be a way that people can modify DOTA 2 to make all the mini games of old and something new as well?

We have a long history supporting the mod community around our own games, so we'd like to continue that with Dota 2.

With many current eSport tournaments suffering from internet issues because a lot of games don't support LAN (Starcraft 2 and League of Legends, for example) it is really good news that Dota 2 is enabling LAN to avoid the same issues.

The full interview can be read HERE

Source: joinDOTA.com

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