DotA Dev Joins Valve, Hints at Future Game

Who is the real developer of dota and what is IceFrogs role? Get your answers here

Before Warcraft 3 there was Starcraft. In Starcraft there was a type of custom map called Aeon of Strife (AOS) which had opposing teams trying to help their team win an ongoing battle in 1-3 lanes depending on the map

When Warcraft 3 came out, these kinds of maps were also made here. Some people started using a design where one base would be in bottom left corner and the other would be in the top right corner and 3 lanes would connect the bases. This model was called Defence of the Ancients since it pitted the Ancients of the Night elf against the Scourge. What was special about the Warcraft 3 version was that instead of just units we now had heroes who could advance in levels, get new skills and even items.

Several versions were made of these (dota night falls and dota outland just to name a few) and one of the most successful was made by a guy who called himself Eul (along with other people like Syllable and so forth)

When the expansion, The Frozen Throne, came, a guy who called himself Guinsoo, appeared. He copied the game to the new expansion and copied all the most powerful heroes from all the old versions of dota into his new game - Dota Allstars. Needless to say it was horribly imbalanced and never worth competitive playing but it was fun none the less.

After some time, version 5.84 came out and Guinsoo disappeared. Icefrog decided to take up where Guinsoo left off. He picked up the dota developing and with him came a new era where balance and professionalism was in the high seat and he made dota what it has become today - a thriving game with loads of competitive matches, giant leagues and an utterly amazing user base.
Many people regard Icefrog as the father of dota because they see it as if he took a rough sketch and made it actually playable and balanced; he may not be the original dev but he is the best dev in dota history

Disclaimer: for the sake of the TL;DR people I only included the most central stuff - there is a lot of stuff which has been simplified or left out for the sake of the readability. Also, didn't proofread since im tired and need sleep bad

One of our staff members, at the time, Eul was the original creator of Dota. He designed the map, the gameplay, and all of the original hero's and hosted it on our site (TheWarCenter.net).

Basically, he made it and maintained it until he got bored with it. Then a handful of other people maintained it until, and then after, the xpac for WC3 came out. Once that came out Guinsoo hacked the original map and copied it over to TFT. While he did technically get it over, he didn't know what he was doing design wise and some time after that IceFrog picked it up and rebalanced it. So now he maintains it. Occasionally adding new heros/fixing balance etc.

So to answer one of the other posters, it was Eul who authored the map, not Guinsoo or IceFrog. It was already vastly popular when they got it, they've just kept it running.

Wait, why is the game made by Icefrog a "DotA-clone?" Guess I was too busy waiting for Blizzard's third clone of Diablo.

Blue box 2012: Episode 3, Portal 2, DOTA

So besides HoN and LoL there's going to be a 3rd next-gen DotA clone now?

Holy shit wut.

He'd better do something new, because S2 is pretty damn good competition for "next gen" dota titles.

Jesus, combining the valve drug and the moba drug is terrifying.

This has got to be one of the most unexpected news stories this year, seriously.

Also, is there any confirmation from Valve about it?

Valve MMORTSFPS confirmed?

Oh no... Valve... what is going on here? Please don't turn into this giant studio making 10 games at once. Don't let the Orange Box be your peak!

Oh schnap! This could be awesome.

I've already bought my copy of LoL and I'm sure it will take them a couple years to make something, but exciting news.

I've always wondered why Blizzard didn't employee the DotA folks

I'm not surprised. A number of Valve devs have been playing the hell out of DoTA for the past year or so.

How do you go from updating a popular WC3 mod to "leading a team" at Valve?

Granted, you could call 2 people a team which is more likely the case knowing Valve...

A dream come true for many mod teams. Congrats!

This has me thinking and I can see a top down TF2 map with all the "Heroes" valve chars......