Dota 2 LAN support First Blood update announced

Valve has announced that Dota 2 will be getting LAN support via the upcoming First Blood Update, which drops on 23 September.

The update will allow 10 Dota 2 players to engage in some close-quarter combat through a local area network, with players able to search lobbies to find an appropriate game to join.

This update couldn’t have come at a better time, with the NAG LAN @ rAge 2013 around the corner, the participants will surely be pleased to know they won’t have to connect to the Internet in order to get their Dota 2 fix.

Local play:

Local servers allows players on the same physical network to connect to a locally hosted game
By selecting “Create Local Lobby”, the leader of the lobby will become the host for a match by running a local server
Players can see Local lobbies available on their physical network by going to “FIND A LOBBY” and selecting the “LOCAL LOBBIES” tab
Local Lobbies follow the same rules as Private Lobbies.
Upon completion of the Local game, the replay will be stored on the lobby leader’s computer in replays/<match-id>.dem

The update also adds the Captain’s Draft, which allows players to “gather a team, choose a captain, and face off against your opponents in a test of wits to assemble a squad from a randomized pool of twenty-four heroes. Each team takes turns banning two of the available heroes from the match while picking and counter-picking to compose their lineup before charging into battle.”

In addition to an improved armoury and user-interface, there are some additions to the economy of the game, most notably: