Community

The Path of Exile community has developed a wide range of powerful tools to help players maximize their in-game efficiency.

Path of Exile’s New Player Experience: Welcome to Wraeclast

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I started Path of Exile back in March, and since then, I've spent over 2000 hours wandering through Wraeclast in pursuit of loot, levels, and everything else the game has to offer. (I have a life, I promise.) Even...
Operation Hydra Rotating Map Pool

What Happens to CS:GO’s Map Pool after Operation Hydra Ends?

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Operation Hydra will go down in CS:GO history as the longest operation to date. With an end date of November 13th, the operation will have run for just under six months, launching on May 23rd, 2017. This won't be...
Dotabuff Interview Co-Founder

Interview with Dotabuff Co-Founder Sabina “Lawliepop” Hemmi

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It’s hard to find a Dota 2 player who hasn’t used the popular game analysis platform Dotabuff. Dotabuff, and its counterpart Overbuff, pull statistics and information from your games and let users parse through the data. I sat down with Sabina...
This terrible Teemo hat is sold by Riot Games. Unfortunately.

The Worst League of Legends Merchandise on the Internet

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I already hate most fan merch, but how do I separate the truly “bad” from just “stuff I don’t like?” After searching for every type of knick-knack and article of clothing, I discovered that half of all bad League...
The Dota tutorial leaves a lot to be desired, but that doesn't mean Valve can't fix it.

Trial by Fire: How Valve Could Improve Dota 2’s Tutorial

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Dota is a punishing game for newcomers, and the lackluster tutorial doesn't make learning the basics of the game any easier. The current tutorial is an improvement from the pre-7.00 version, which used an outdated version of the map...
Why does Valve keep shipping useless cosmetics like StatTrak Music Kits?

Why Is the StatTrak Music Kit Even a Thing?

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It's the common knowledge of any CS:GO fan by now that Valve has made some less-than-sensible updates to the game. Two good examples of this would be the update that introduced the broken R8 revolver and messed with the recovery time...
Muggernaut Coffee Mug - Dota Merchandise Gifts for Gamers

The Best Dota 2 Merchandise: Gifts for Gamers

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Physical merchandise often seems to be an afterthought when it comes to online multiplayer games. Unlike Mario and Pokemon, which have been heavily merchandised by Nintendo, League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm, CS:GO, and Team Fortress 2 have...
In-house leagues give the best Dota players a more structured pub experience, free from the game-ruining riff-raff.

Dota 2: What Is an In-House League?

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In-House Leagues for Dota aren't anything new. They pop up around this time of year, after The International, when professional Dota grinds to a temporary halt. The best-known in-house leagues are probably the North American Elite League (NEL) and...
Photo taken from the crowd at Worlds 2015.

The Four Golden Rules of Making an Esport

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These days, what game developer doesn't want a piece of the esports pie? It's probably the most lucrative foray that any company can make in the modern video game industry, and for quite a few reasons: dedicated fans, new...
Would adding a Live Overwatch system to CS:GO help catch more cheaters?

Why CS:GO Needs a Live Overwatch System

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In terms of anti-cheat prevention systems, Valve’s VAC System does an okay job for the most part. There's also Overwatch, the crowdsourced demo review process designed to catch cheaters, which, while albeit not as instant as VAC, is somewhat...
Dota 2 Reddit

Dota 2’s Complicated Relationship with Reddit

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Now is as good a time as any to talk about the tangled web of the Dota 2 subreddit and its relationship with the actual game. I'm going to assume you're acquainted with the fascinating social matrix that is Reddit....
CS:GO's five year anniversary celebration was, in the eyes of the community, a major disappointment. Do milestones matter in esports?

CS:GO’s Lackluster 5 Year Anniversary: Do Milestones Matter?

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The 21st of August might be just another day for the majority of people, but CS:GO fans know it as the game's anniversary. When the first anniversary rolled around, Valve turned on "Party Mode" for all official servers, and releasing this...