Valve-made MOBA Dota 2 is releasing a substantial patch on September 23. Dubbed The First Blood Update, it will introduce LAN play, the new Captain’s Draft mode, and a new item management system, in addition to balance changes.
It will also debut the Portal Pack, which includes a GLaDOS announcer voice, personality core ward skins, and a Portal-themed HUD.
Local play is a useful feature for LAN partiers and an important addition to a game that has such a rich background in LANs. Captain’s Draft mode limits the character selection pool to just twenty-four random heroes, then allows each team to pick a captain who will choose heroes for his or her team and ban out undesirable characters. Finally, the backpack is being replaced with the armory, which has improved tools to sort your items and filter searches.