Patch 7.41b is out now and you can check out the patch notes here.

Over the past few days we've addressed the following issues:

• Fixed Meepo being able to create potions (and other stackable, nonshareable items)
  
• Fixed Meepo clones not benefitting Abyssal Blade or Disperser
  
• Fixed Meepo and Divine Rapier interaction
  
• Fixed Meepo and Radiance interaction
  
• Fixed Meepo deleting his Hand of Midas when using the last charge on a clone
  
• Fixed Megameepo always having full Divided We Stand penalties
  
• Fixed Meepo being able to duplicate Dusts of Appearance by buying a Dust of Appearance on their courier, dropping that dust on the ground, picking that dust up by Meepo, right clicking on the single Dust of Apperance and sending it to the stash, repeating that process 6 times to fill the stash with Dusts of Appearance, buying multiple Dusts of Appearance on the courier, dropping that stack on the ground, picking it up, and then using Dust of Appearance on a Meepo clone.
  
• Fixed Spirit Breaker's Greater Bash not being purgable when Spirit Breaker has Aghanim's Scepter
  
• Fixed Spirit Breaker's Aghanim's Scepter repeatedly bashing units more than intended.
  
• Fixed Tiny's Tree Volley doing more damage than intended when thrown trees are hitting multiple units.
  
• Fixed Nyx Assassin's Mind Flare not always triggering Phylactery/Khanda on a target if the initial target had a Linken's Sphere
  
• Fixed Chaos Knight being able to get the Hulking enchantment from his innate ability
  
• Fixed crash when spreading Enchantress' Little Friends debuff with Venomancer's Noxious Plague
  
• Fixed crash when casting Nyx Assassin's Unburrow
  
• Fixed Desolator adding its particle effect to attacks when it actually won't apply.
  
• Fixed Bristleback's Prickly not using the correct values as Bristleback levels up
  
• Fixed Kunkka's Ghost Ship not applying Admiral's Rum when stolen by Rubick
  
• Fixed Bane's Fiend's Grip not interacting with Linken's Sphere and Lotus Orb correctly when both are on the cast target
  
• Fixed Invoker's Alacrity talent giving more damage and attack speed than intended
  
• Fixed Viper's Corrosive Skin Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade not applying the additional magic resistance correctly
  
• Fixed Shadow Shaman's Urnaconda not being bindable in the settings
  
• Fixed Windranger's Focus Fire not triggering Specialist Array and Hydra's Breath as frequently as they should when moving around.
  
• Fixed Arc Warden's Tempest Double starting with Mjollnir on cooldown if Arc Warden's Mjollnir was on cooldown.
  
• Primal Beast's high priority selection box has been slightly decreased in size
  
• Fixed Marci's Rebound stunning targets in a larger radius than intended when taking the target ally with her
  
• Fixed Elder Titan's Astral Spirit movement speed updating with Elder Titan's own movement speed
  
• Fixed a large visual artifact appearing when exporting a video from a replay if the client is set to the "Fastest" rendering settings and the video export uses the "High Quality Rendering" setting
  

Patch 7.41a is out now and you can check out the patch notes here.

In addition, over the last few days we've addressed the following issues:

• Fixed a number of miscellaneous client and server crashes
  
• Option for displaying Hero Facet Names above health bar has been removed
  
• Spectator options and hotkey settings for Facets have been removed
  
• Fixed incorrect notification message when messaging who got gold for an assist
  
• Fixed high amounts of incoming heal amplification not stacking correctly with high amounts of health restoration
  
• Fixed a spot near the Dire fountain that could be teleported to but not exited from without cutting trees
  
• Fixed Conjurer's Catalyst reacting to damage that is reacting to damage from Conjurer's Catalyst
  
• Fixed Mage Slayer being mitigated by innate physical block on melee heroes
  
• Fixed Shiva's Guard not piercing debuff immunity
  
• Fixed Anti-Mage's scepter bonuses for Mana Break Max Mana Burned sometimes not being applied
  
• Fixed Arc Warden's Tempest Double receiving copies of foraged items
  
• Fixed Bloodseeker's Blood Rite dealing more damage than intended
  
• Fixed Bloodseeker Aghanim's Shard not piercing BKB
  
• Fixed Chaos Knight being able to get the Nimble enchantment
  
• Fixed bad interaction between Granite Golem and Chen's Holy Persuasion causing creeps to have escalating amounts of HP
  
• Fixed Chen's Holy Persuasion not having a reduced cooldown when cast on a persuaded creep
  
• Fixed Chen's Holy Persuasion lowering the Zealot's HP in some scenarios
  
• Fixed Chen unsummoning a Zealot causing it to not respawn until Chen died
  
• Fixed Chen's Zealots sometimes dying when using Holy Persuasion
  
• Fixed Dragon Knight applying Wyrm's Wrath damage twice in Dragon Form
  
• Fixed Elder Dragon Form frost breath not piercing debuff immunity
  
• Fixed Drow Ranger's Marksmanship triggering on Specialist's Array or Hydra's Breath attacks
  
• Fixed Elder Titan's Move Spirit ability not updating its keybinding when set in the settings
  
• Fixed Elder Titan Split Earth being cast in the wrong direction if the move spirit command was issued before the Split Earth went off
  
• Fixed Grimstroke's Dark Portrait Illusions not having 95% magic resistance
  
• Fixed Grimstroke's Ink Trail not always applying
  
• Fixed Grimstroke's Ink Trail visual stopping early when the debuff is still applied
  
• Fixed Jakiro Liquid Fire not benefitting from AoE increases. Jakiro's Liquid Fire Area of Effect can now be visualized when casting
  
• Fixed Lich losing all of his mana when casting Sinister Gaze on a Huskar who has recently been attacked by Silencer's Glaives of Wisdom
  
• Fixed Legion Commander's Duel not ending when winning against an illusion or reincarnating hero
  
• Fixed Legion Commander being able to move during Duel with specific order combinations
  
• Fixed Mars being able to create immobile spears
  
• Fixed active item shared cooldown not being shared across Meepos if he has multiple items with the same shared cooldown in his inventory
  
• Fixed Meepo being able to crash the server with two armlets
  
• Fixed Meepo being able to crash the server with observer/sentry wards
  
• Fixed Meepo being able to use many Hands of Midas
  
• Fixed Meepo clones being able to receive sentry and observer wards
  
• Fixed several exploits with Meepo having multiple copies of the same item
  
• Fixed Monkey King not having his untransform ability after using Mischief
  
• Fixed Morphling Replicate not replicating the innate ability of the target
  
• Fixed Morphling having incorrect hotkeys when replicating
  
• Fixed Muerta losing Supernatural stacks when respawning with Aegis
  
• Fixed Night Stalker not refreshing basic abilities with Aghanim's Scepter when killing Spirit Bear
  
• Fixed Ogre's Fireblast and Unrefined Fireblast not multicasting correctly if there is an existing multicasting Fireblast already occurring
  
• Fixed Omniknight's +75% Hammer of Purity Bonus Base Damage giving +80 AoE bonus to Purification
  
• Fixed Primal Beast getting moved if his Pulverize was reflected by Lotus Orb
  
• Fixed Primal Beast Pulverize not ending correctly if he targets a Soulbound hero, if his secondary target is out of world
  
• Fixed Rubick abilities getting removed when stealing Largo Amphibian Rhapsody and Monkey King's Wukong's Command at the same time
  
• Added a tooltip for Spirit Breaker's scepter specifying it increases Nether Strike's knockback as well
  
• Fixed Tiny's Tree Volley dealing different amounts of damage if he was holding a tree or not after buying Aghanim's Shard
  
• Fixed some values not incrementing correctly when using Eldwurm's Edda in Ability Draft
  
• Fixed an issue with Winter Wyvern Winter's Curse kill sometimes counting as a deny if a previously unaffected enemy entered the effect of the winters curse after it initially started
  
• Fixed Zeus's Lightning Hands not starting in the toggle on state when acquiring acquiring a shard while dead
  

Patch 7.41 is out now and you can check out the patch notes here.

In addition, we've made the following improvements and bug fixes:

• Added an overhead indicator when a consumable item is being used on an ally or given to one within 1200 units (e.g., Tango)
• Added an option in Settings to show your hero's current vision while holding the 'Select Hero' hotkey, amended by Fog of War
• Item recipe components are now consistently ordered from most expensive to least expensive to make Quick Buy more predictable (exceptions include boots, Blink Dagger, and a few others)
• Fixed certain on hit effects not working consistently after there were more than 256 projectiles in flight at the same time
• Fixed certain scenarios under which a player's Observer and Sentry wards were replaced with an error model
• Trying to craft a Neutral Item while your inventory is full and your Neutral Item Slot is occupied with an innate item (e.g. Witch Doctor's Gris Gris) will now fail instead of automatically consuming the item
• Fixed Neutral Crafting hotkeys overriding regular hotkeys if you clicked on the neutral crafting button of a hero you could not control
• Ability Draft:
  • All heroes now have their innate ability when drafted
  • Updated ability pool to match the added/removed abilities for 7.41
  • Fixed Lone Druid's Spirit Bear not spawning after some time
  • Fixed Rearm not granting Keen Conveyance
  • Fixed Techies' Reactive Tazer not working with Largo's Aghanim's Shard
• Deprecated support for GPUs that do not support DirectX 11/SM5. Upcoming graphics features and performance improvements require DX11/SM5, and a future update will remove support for older devices. (99.96% of active players have DX11/SM5-capable devices.)

Every year, dedicated Dota players around the globe join together and train relentlessly with a single goal in mind: to battle through the highest levels of opposition and emerge victorious as the last squad standing. These resolute competitors must find a way to intertwine the strands of talent, dreams, and sacrifice into one immortal design, knowing every challenge, every choice, every risk pulls the pattern tighter, and every mistake they make threatens to tear it all apart.

The final threads of this year's competitive season will cross in China, as the 15th Anniversary of The International welcomes the best Dota teams in the world to face off for the Aegis of Champions on August 20-23 at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai.

The sixteen teams contending for the Aegis will consist of rosters that earn direct invites and those that arise from the Open Qualifiers (June 9-12) and the Regional Qualifiers (June 15-28). Once the action moves to Shanghai, the teams must fight through a Swiss-style Group Stage (August 13-16) to secure one of eight slots at the main event.

Make sure to check back for more information on ticketing as we approach the showdown in Shanghai. For now, there's already a ton of pro Dota heating up the calendar, and it will only get more intense as we weave further into the year. Tune in as teams battle across all regions to prove they deserve a chance to stand amongst the world's finest on Dota's biggest stage.

Over the past few days we've addressed the following issues:

• Fixed a bug where Clinkz's Skeleton Archers were doing more than the intended amount of damage to buildings.
• Fixed a bug where Slark's Depth Shroud was not applying the intended move speed and health regen to allies.
• Fixed a bug where Spectre's Shadow Step had an interaction with attack range extension items, which was leading to a longer than intended duration.
• Fixed a bug where Muerta's Gunslinger bonus damage talent did not scale when applied to illusions, leading to more damage than intended.
• Fixed a bug where Turbo games would sometimes deduct 2 gold on ban phase completion.
• Fixed Largo's Croak of Genius damage proccing other abilities (Batrider's Sticky Napalm, Searing Signet, etc.)
• Fixed a performance issue with network encoding which substantially reduces the number of 'server hitch' frames.
• Restructured how cosmetic items interact with Dota network traffic: Most cosmetic items now take zero network bandwidth after game start, improving both client and server performance.
• Fixed a bug where cosmetic items were being created every time a hero spawned, gradually reducing performance.
• Items equipped in only ability effects slots no longer appear as if equipped on the hero in post-game or MVP screens.

Patch 7.40c is out now and you can check out the patch notes here. As a reminder, the Monster Hunter event ends February 6, 2026, after which you'll no longer be able to earn progress or craft items. Today's update also adds new Universal Material packs for purchase, providing an alternative way to get materials and finish crafting any remaining items before the event ends.In addition, we've addressed the following issues:

• Fixed Blood Grenade bonus health not being updated when stack count changes
• Fixed Helm of the Dominator and Helm of the Overlord granting experience to Lone Druid's Spirit Bear, instead of Lone Druid
• Fixed Helm of the Overlord not granting bounty and experience for dominating creeps
• Fixed Illusion Rune not disjointing projectiles upon activating
• Fixed physical lifesteal working when attacking a unit with an all-damage barrier
• Fixed Quick Buy sometimes not removing queued items when recipes are combined
• Fixed Smoke of Deceit being castable from the stash
• Fixed Anti-Mage with Shard and Magebane's Mirror Facet instantly killing Spectre when using Counterspell while walking on a Spectral Dagger path targeted at another unit.
• Fixed Arc Warden's Tempest Double being able to pick talents
• Fixed Bounty Hunter unable to target Spirit Bear with Friendly Shadow
• Fixed Brewmaster's level 25 talent not applying to brewlings
• Fixed Clinkz's Infernal Shred ignoring more armor than intended
• Fixed Doom not getting Ancient Prowler Shaman's Petrify ability when devouring the neutral
• Fixed Largo's Encore sometimes not refreshing an existing buff on yourself or the target
• Fixed Morphling not losing the bonus damage from unused stones when replicating back from Earth Spirit
• Fixed Morphling perpetually spawning Monkey King's Wukong's Command soldiers when replicating Monkey King with Aghanim's Scepter
• Fixed Medusa being able to get infinite health when purchasing a heart while Lifestealer has infested medusa and then using Shadow Demon's Disseminate with the Promulgate Facet targeting Medusa
• Fixed Spectre Arcana's idle and idle rare animations

Patch 7.40b is out now and you can check out the patch notes here.

In addition, over the last few days we've addressed the following issues:

• Fixed Dota+ Talent Pickrates and Winrates not properly aggregating
• Fixed "Learn Ability" toggle not closing automatically after level 24
• Fixed incorrect hitboxes for multiple Observer and Sentry ward cosmetics
• Fixed Smoke of Deceit not working from the backpack if it started in the backpack
• Fixed Rattlecage damage not being classified as reflection
• Fixed Rattlecage not working if crafted while dead
• Fixed Bloodseeker's Scepter upgrade not having the correct cooldown
• Fixed Bounty Hunter revealing his location if casting Track while invisible in the fog of war
• Fixed Brewmaster's Aghanim's Shard Health Regen always being active below 50% health, even if the strong drink wasn't drunk
• Fixed Skeletons summoned by Clinkz having incorrect attack priority
• Fixed Clockwerk Cogs not bouncing enemies properly with the Expanded Armature Facet
• Fixed Enchantress Rabble Rouser not applying to skeletons summoned by Dark Troll Summoner and Shard Golems
• Fixed Juggernaut's Omnislash and other abilities that require continuous vision over their target not functioning during Mars' Arena of Blood and other abilities that conditionally remove vision sharing between allies
• Fixed Kez Bleed Stack getting removed if the impale was a backstab
• Fixed Kez impale failing causing it trigger incorrectly later
• Fixed Kez being unable to trigger Raven's Veil mark with his first attack after casting if it was at his maximum attack range
• Fixed Kez being able to trigger Marks twice during Raptor Dance with specific settings and items configuration
• Fixed Largo's Catchy Lick not dispelling allies if they are under the effect of Black King Bar
• Fixed Largo's Catchy Lick dispelling High Five
• Fixed Largo's Amphibian Rhapsody HUD not showing for people who have disabled map_enable_portrait_worlds
• Fixed Largo's Froglings blocking neutral camp respawns
• Fixed Lotus Orb not dispelling when copied by Largo's Aghanim's Shard
• Fixed Linken's Sphere not being copied by Largo's Aghanim's Shard
• Fixed Lina's Combustion also combusting Croak of Genius damage
• Fixed Spirit Bear not breaking Phantom Assassin's Blur
• Fixed Oracle's Fate's Edict interactions with Debuff Immunity
• Fixed Oracle being unable to dispel the disarm portion of Fate's Edict on allies
• Fixed Phantom Lancer's shard illusion not benefting from Illusory Armaments
• Fixed Rubick losing abilities when dying or stealing another ability while casting Amphibian Rhapsody with Aghanim's Scepter
• Fixed Shadow Demon Disruption effects not being visible if Shadow Demon himself is in Fog of War
• Fixed Spectre's level 25 talent not applying to all types of illusions
• Fixed Tiny's Avalanche lasting 0.2s longer than intended
• Fixed Troll Warlord's Battle Trance dispelling Ice Blast when Ice Blast's kill threshold is triggered while Troll Warlord is stunned and Troll Warlord has Battle Trance cast queued
• Fixed Ursa roaring when casting Earthshock with Aghanim's Shard
• Fixed Visage Familiar recall ability not working

Dota is an ensemble cast, but keen observers looking through the collection of rogues, wizards, druids, and knights (not to mention two characters named "ranger") may have noticed the absence of that most maligned of hero classes: the bard. At least, up until now.

Introducing Dota's newest hero: Largo, the bard.

Unlike bards with your traditional bard powers (singing about current events and chord changes), Largo is the shamanic head of the bardmonk order. He tailors every song to his exact circumstances, raising his allies' spirits or, if necessary, their foot speed as they run toward battle (or away). As a frog, his prehensile tongue has, shall we say, all kinds of tricks. You can read a little about his past, or you can help explore his future in Dota right now.

Today's update also includes gameplay patch 7.40. (As is tradition, the patch notes are too long to fit in this blog, so we made a whole site to hold them and show some highlights.)

Largo is taking over the main menu in Dota for a bit, but the Monster Hunter event is still ongoing and there's plenty of time left to craft whatever you're working towards. Since it's the holidays, we're putting the Dota 2 x Monster Hunter Expedition Pack on sale and granting everyone who owned it already a special early-purchase voucher material bundle. On top of that, we're giving everyone who logs in over the holidays a free bundle of crafting materials. Happy hunting!

Speaking of holiday festivities, some of the usual shenanigans have made their reappearance, reminding us all of the true spirit of the holidays: pelting your enemies in the face with snowballs.

We hope everybody in the Dota community has a safe and happy holiday, and we'll see you next year.

The International returns to Shanghai, China in August 2026, and we’d like to invite all companies interested in producing and distributing regional language broadcasts of The International 2026 to apply now.

For the Live Event Broadcast Production of this year's show, we’ll be accepting proposals for Russian and Spanish language broadcast partners. The RFP (Request For Proposal) documentation and instructions for submissions can be found here.

For those seeking additional licenses and feeds, please fill out the form below that pertains to the correct request:

• Production companies seeking a commercial license to produce a regional language broadcast of The International 2026 without additional access to the event can apply here.
  
  
• Streaming platforms interested in restreaming the official broadcast feeds to their platform can apply here.

Fans interested in trying their own hands at casting are welcome to create strictly noncommercial casts from DotaTV that follow the Dota 2 Community Streaming License, and do not need to make an official request.

Please reach out to theinternationalrfp@valvesoftware.com with any additional questions.

Thanks in advance to everyone interested in working with us to bring The International 2026 to life.