Dota 2 is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) developed and published by Valve, and it is one of the most popular video games around the world. It is played between two teams with five players each. Each team needs to destroy their opponent’s ‘Ancient’, a large structure located within their base. All of the players get to control a powerful ‘hero’ who has unique abilities and play styles.
The players can collect experience points and items during the game to have an upper hand against the opponents in player vs player combat. The game ends once a team successfully destroys their opponent’s Ancient.
Aside from the thrilling gameplay, one of the reasons why it is among the hottest video games in the industry is the Dota 2 prize pool. Depending on the tournament, the prize pool might range from thousands to even billions of dollars. It is also considered one of the most favoured games in the esports betting industry.
With such a huge pool prize, you get to see how eager the players are to win the match. This makes the game more exciting to bet on. If you are new to the Dota 2 betting community, here are some of the tips you should know:
Know the game
It is highly recommended to know the nooks and crannies of the game to easily outsmart the players. You also need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of a hero and how the player works around it. Each hero has a role to play depending on their attributes, abilities, and items. These roles are:
- Carry – has the most offensive power who has all of the three primary attributes (agility, strength and intelligence)
- Support – responsible for keeping their allies alive and helping them to earn more gold and experience points
- Nuker – are fast and strong heroes who can release magical damage output
- Disabler – have the abilities that are more focused on reliable crowd control
- Jungler – can jungle neutrals at the beginning of the game and can convert neutral creeps, summon minions, or sustain themselves from moderate damage
- Durable – can sustain huge amounts of incoming damage from enemies because of their high health regeneration, armour, and magic resistance level
- Escape – has one or more escape mechanism that helps the team to avoid damage
- Pusher – focuses more on destroying towers and can shut down enemies by forcing them away from farming areas
- Initiator – can safely start a team fight with a strong area of effect damage or disable an ability to affect the positioning of the opponents
Check for the latest patches
Before you place a bet, you should check if there are new patches. These are new heroes and strategies added, especially after the game updates. Most of the time, the new patches suit a particular team’s playing style which results in more chances of winning.
Check team rosters
With the number of teams playing Dota 2, you should check the team rosters first. Your odds of winning the pot money can hugely affect if there are new players or roster changes. So, make sure that you keep updated with the team you want to bet on. You also need to keep in mind that rosters often change after a big tournament.
Know the kind of tournament
Since there are more than 10 million active players, there are several professional teams who are eyeing to take home the bacon. As a matter of fact, the Dota Pro Circuit usually holds 25 large annual tournaments and betting games. With this, most sportsbooks sites offer quick bets such as betting on the first team to get 10 kills or even the hero who gets to kill an opponent first.
Note: The Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) is a competition that rewards teams with points for placements of tournaments sponsored by Valve. The top teams of the ranking are invited to The International. For teams to join Pro Circuit, they have to officially register as a ‘Team’.
There are regional qualifiers for Pro Circuit: open and closed qualifiers. The open qualifiers can start earning points by playing matches against other registered teams. On the other hand, closed qualifiers include six registered regions competing in a Minor Event. The top two or three teams will then play in the Major Event. The teams will also get 20 DPC points for participating.
The continuous popularity of esports resulted in more diverse teams who are eager to win the huge Dota 2 prize pool. There is also a huge possibility for the amount to increase as the years pass by. Watching the players find their way to win and defeat their opponents is also one of the reasons why the betting community has a sudden surge of bettors.
