Hidden deep within the occult text supporting a recent Steam update, lies a dread prophecy of the dark elders – “Soon, Dota 2 will be delivered using it.” That eerie rumbling is the very earth trembling in fear. Or perhaps the quickening of a hundred thousand nerds’ hearts.

But how soon is soon? Speculation has it that Valve is prepping some kind of big to-do over at Gamescom in Germany next month, and now similar speculation suggests that the company might just unveil and launch the game at the same time. Valve’s just crazy like that.

The game is a sequel (or, perhaps more properly, an actual real game) to the somewhat inexplicably popular Defense of the Ancients mod for Warcraft III. It’s mostly just clicking stuff and calling other people “noobs”, but whatever makes your fun.

It’s not yet known whether the game will be free to play – as the original was – but it remains a possibility, since Valve recently moved Team Fortress 2 over into that category.

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