1) Seeing the map like this (New Bloom 2014)
Maps come and go, but New Bloom 2014 was the last time an abundance of item drops, new game modes and map changes made an ingame festival feel “real”… unless you count Diretide.
2) When IceFrog patched a team out of the metagame for 2 years
What do you do when you’re IceFrog and a team wins an International based on just one strategy and a whole lot of Kappas? You create 6.79.
3) Speed Gaming winning MLG Columbus 2013
Speed Gaming’s well documented journey with Arteezy in 2013 is perhaps the truest underdog story in Dota 2 till date; it’s something we all believed in but never thought was possible. Columbus made it happen.
4) “James is an ass, and we won’t be working with him again.”
James ‘2GD’ Harding was supposed to be the savior of the otherwise shoddily executed Shanghai Major, but after mysteriously disappearing on the second day, it turns out he pissed the wrong people off and got a meme-worthy dismissal from Lord GabeN himself, who descended unto us mortals in a reddit thread.
5) “Sylar to fall… Liquid are doing it!”
The quote that trembles our hearts to this day. It’s a famous moment, if not oft remembered for playing 1000 times on various Twitch streams during BTS’s commercials.
6) When Aui_2000’s Bounty Hunter stole Excalibur’s items from his fountain on Singstrim
7) Spamming Volvo for Diretide. No, the real Volvo
@TobiWanDOTA we certainly haven’t missed that the people want Diretide, but is @DOTA2 listening?
— Volvo Cars (@volvocarsglobal) November 2, 2013
8) Alex Garlfield giving the throw order, but EG.Mason ignoring it
Picture the scenario: Alliance and EG, two teams owned by Alex Garfield, are in the same group for TI4 group stages. EG has already qualified. Alliance needs to win this one last game against EG to reach tie-breakers, which will give them hope of qualifying for the main event. Does Mason throw the game for the good of Good Game Agency?
The real meme was born during TI6 earlier this year, though.
9) When you could spam ‘4’ in Twitch chat during a Na’Vi game
Watching a Navi game has just never felt the same since.
10) Actually getting a drop that wasn’t a non-tradeable 2 cent Common
First they came for our drop chances, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not looking to make money from a free game.
Then they came for the tradeability of drops, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trader who spammed “Sir” on Dota2Lounge.
Then they came for the BZZ Pugna Drops, and I did not speak out—
Because I already had 20 of them in my inventory.
Then they came for my leveled drops—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Bonus: Skeleton King. Yeah, just… Skeleton King
The One True King shall always be irreplaceable in our hearts.