Dota 2 "New Bloom Festival" Update Announced - Day 1

Omnomnick

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With Chinese New Year fast approaching, Valve have announced the "New Bloom Festival" Spring update for Dota 2, which was previously referred to as the "Year of the Horse Update". The Day 1 announcement page, available here, previews a number of significant changes coming to the game in the next few days.

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The most important change appears to take the form of an all new seasonal gamemode, referred to as "The Coming of the Year Beast". While details are relatively scarce, the mode sounds similar to a defensive gamemode, as players are pitted with defending against a mysterious and powerful monster, known as the "Year Beast".

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The mode will apparently feature "purpose-built armaments" designed to damage the beast alongside "conventional tools", and we imagine this is simply previewing new gamemode-exclusive items and weapons which can be purchased from the Shopkeeper in-game. This feature has featured prominently in past events, including the Greeviling event in 2012, with Greevil Treats and Ice Skates, and the Wraith-Night event in 2013, with new boot types and modified equipment. Also similar to the Wraith-Night event are the gamemode's rewards, which appear to take the form of ingots and "Jade Tokens" which can be used to trade towards special keyless, event-specific "Bloom Bounty" chests containing rare loot.​
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The update page provides interesting insight into some of the rare, Chinese New Year themed items which will be offered to those who open the Bloom Bounty chests, which include new couriers, wards, and rare recipes. Additionally, a new "Armory Offering" feature appears to allow users to exchange unwanted or "bad luck" items into an eight piece recipe which, if deemed "sufficient and plentiful", will reward the player with rare armor and materials, including special ingots which can be used to battle the Year Beast.

Finally, the main Dota 2 map will once again be updated with a seasonal theme, this time focusing on Spring. The map appears to feature Chinese architecture, blossoming trees and horse imagery as well as fireworks which fire off before a game round begins. Be sure to check back tomorrow for more details regarding the New Bloom Festival update when Valve announces it.

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Quite excited to see the new map above everything really, they have always been very well polished in other events.

Dota 2 has been doing well with Nexon's help in East Asia but I'd be interested to see how the player numbers change with an event focused on the huge Chinese player base. Historically events do naturally push the player counts up for a couple weeks, but I'm sure Valve are looking to grab a load of new players for keeps...
 
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