2009 has been a very eventful year everywhere. From politics to environment, it’s all in the news. Change has been the only constant this year. We wonder, is it because of  Change We Can Believe In? For us, change has been massive for Dota as far as I’m concerned. Here’s a recap of what happened throughout the year.

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First, Dota underwent what we could say the most massive overhauls ever between versions in one year. We started off 2009 being at version 6.59, in which we hailed the likes of Undying and Enigma as powerhouses, before the world eventually recognised the atrocity of the RAL. In 6.60 the Tauren Chieftain and Batrider made their debut into Dota, and was for a while feared as the bombs. However buffs introduced to DPS-like heroes started to initiate the makings of a DPSgeddon phenomenon, though some will still disagree and put forth alternative explanations. And now barely 5 days ago, yet 2 more new heroes were introduced in the version of 6.65.

Between 6.59 and  6.65 - and the space of one year - no one could ever guess that Dota could be so different as to even be used on different WC3 versions. Due to the “collided map” issue maps from 6.62 upwards could only be played in 1.24. The last I heard from the grapevine, hacks for 6.64 existed. The everlasting battle between the do-gooders and the hackers, just like the virus-antivirus war, does not see any end in sight.

We could talk endlessly about the pages upon pages of changelogs courtesty of the frog, but the length will not permit it. Let’s move on to other things.

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This year also saw the emergence of League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth which concepts were based on Dota itself. The debate between Dota/HON/LOL still goes on, although in a more low-key manner. But one thing’s for sure, Dota will not ever be the same again because comparisons now exist. If Dota used to be the most awesome WC3 custom map ever, now Dota will have to fight to be the most awesome hero RPG ever. We can say for sure - Dota ain’t going anywhere for a long long time!

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DS itself also saw massive changes, no doubt because of the massive Dotavolution, but also because improvements were constantly being made to accommodate the increasing number of visitors. This blog itself went from a few hundred visits per blog post, to thousands per blog post, even to thousands per day, attesting to the great SEO popularity of the website. Our last post even went so far as to breach the 10 000-view record - a tribute to the thousands of members who browse here for whatever reason, be it advice, strategy or tips. In addition the blog also saw more writers, so that you do not have to keep listening to the s**t we peddle every time. :p Personally for us, everytime we write a blog post we spend hours of drafting, editing and fine-tuning to ensure that what we wrote could appeal and be relevant to you as much as it did.

We also had various new activities such as the Bard and Godzilla (lol) Challenges, Dotactics (we gave out real prizes!), Guides of the Month (plus the GOTM badge contest), Signature of the Week, etc. Not too long ago we had this new, very awesome layout that made it so much easier to navigate between subforums. WRT timelines, in May 2009 we celebrated 3 years of going strong (and even stronger) and welcomed new staff, VIPs, and our new mod Greater Bash.

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In short 2009 was the most happening year ever for DS. So many things happened in so short a time, and we were all kept busy by all these massiveness of change. The journey to perfection is far from over, but at least the DS blog can look forward to 2010 and say yes, change we believed in and happened.

As the clock is now ticking towards 12 am, Jan 1, 2010 in New Zealand time (GMT + 12), we at DS wish you the most ownage, pwning and happening New Year. Keep up the double kills, killing sprees, dominations, the triple kills, mega kills, ultra kills, monster kills, rampages, godlikeness, holy s**ts. Above all thank you to the man behind the name Icefrog for doing a very tough and difficult job of finding the “perfect balance” and may your creation last for a very very long time because we all will need it.

Happy New Year! Bonne Annee! 新年快乐！Prost Neujahr! 新年おめでとうございます！Feliz año nuevo! 새해 복 많이 받으세요!  Selamat Tahun Baru!  С НОВЫМ ГОДОМ! Manigong bagong taon! สวัสดีปีใหม่! नये साल की हार्दिक शुभकामनायें! Heri za Mwaka Mpya!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 5:03 am and is filed under Announcements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.