The Frozen Throne, based on the “Aeon of Strife” map for StarCraft. The objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents’ Ancients, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes, and are assisted by allied heroes and AI-controlled fighters called “creeps”. As in role-playing games, players level up their heroes and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.[2] The scenario was developed with the “World Editor” of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and was updated upon the release of its expansion, The Frozen Throne. There have been many variations of the original concept; the most popular being DotA Allstars, which eventually was simplified to DotA with the release of version 6.68.[3] This specific scenario has been maintained by several authors during development, with the current publicly anonymous developer known as “IceFrog” developing the game since 2005.

Since its original release, DotA has become a feature at several worldwide tournaments, including Blizzard Entertainment’s BlizzCon and the Asian World Cyber Games, as well as the Cyberathlete Amateur and CyberEvolution leagues; Gamasutra declared that DotA was perhaps the most popular “free, non-supported game mod in the world”.[4] Valve Software is currently developing a sequel, Dota 2.

Mission Statement

The overall goal for this site is to provide a long term service to the DotA community improve a DotA player’s ability to enjoy the game and become more immersed in the DotA world overall.

I do not currently plan on having any advertisements on the site, so please do not send requests regarding this. Our focus is going to be on the well-being of the game and nourishing the community at large. Ad revenue or maximizing traffic will not be a driving force behind any decisions we make.

PlayDotA.com will actively promote events and news from many different communities that support DotA. While we want to provide users with a quality experience here, our view is that the more we raise exposure to the positive activities that many leagues, fansites, and organizations are doing the better it is for DotA.