Deadlock isn't a death sentence for Dota 2 - it's "a gateway," according to caster and ESL product manager 'Avo+'

The Dota 2 ESL One Birmingham 2026 tournament reaches its grand conclusion today, and it's been an impressive showcase full of memorable stories and dramatic comebacks. The big news is the chaos created by Valve's decision to drop a gargantuan, game-changing Dota 2 patch on everyone's heads right before playoffs. Speaking to ESL product manager Álvaro 'Avo+' Sánchez Velasco ahead of the finals, I ask him about the impact of those changes, who his pick is to win, and whether he's worried about the looming shadow of Deadlock and its potential impact on the Dota 2 scene.

Patch 7.41's arrival isn't the first time Valve has deployed a massive Dota 2 update right before a major tournament, and I doubt it'll be the last. The developer seems to have a penchant for shaking up the MOBA and seeing which teams can adapt the fastest, creating plenty of excitement for fans but no end of stress for the players and production team. "I don't think many people slept in our TV team or our in-game team," Velasco remarks, with crucial checks to ensure in-game tools work, broadcast graphics are correct, and that no game-breaking bugs will threaten the integrity of the competition.

"That part is obviously no fun, but it's also nice to all come together under the idea of, 'Well, this happened.' You feel kind of excited about it, you work all night - it's kind of what you do in esports, right? And then you get to watch some really exciting new matches and see what the players figured out." The production team often jokes "that we actually know more than the pros, because we've been working all night on this thing," but he notes they have a rule to not speak to any players the day after a patch to avoid any potential competitive advantages.

As an audience member and a player, Velasco says he's very excited about patch 7.41, and "loves the design philosophy" of the update. He praises Valve's willingness to experiment and then change or remove entire features like Facets. "It's not because they don't know how to balance, it's because they want to be able to test to see why it's broken. They have a lot of belief in player independence.

"To me, the removal of Facets wasn't like, 'We're taking it completely away.' Because they kept the Innates, the upgraded the Innates, they made them somewhat related to Facets to showcase what people are actually picking, and to me that's very cool." While he enjoyed the variety Facets brought to the game, he acknowledges, "Sometimes having too much variety, especially in the pro scene, means the best things get abused." From a pure design philosophy standpoint, he calls 7.41 "One of the best patches I've seen in a while," but laughs, "When I get to play, I can tell you how fun it is."

The ESL production team has been working hard "to make sure that viewers feel like they can keep up." Dota 2 is a complicated game, after all, and it's important to cater to newcomers and those who haven't studied the patch notes in detail, especially in the bigger tournaments. While division-two tournaments and qualifiers assume a dedicated audience with a bit more knowledge, Velasco says that in big shows like ESL One, the casters and panel are asked "to be a bit more casual," with the host often acting as the everyman and asking the basic questions.

Deadlock is Valve's new baby, and the MOBA overlap has naturally caused questions about whether its full-scale arrival will spell doom for Dota 2. "I think the community at large, especially the most vocal parts, can be a bit scared sometimes," Velasco remarks. Both games can eat up a lot of people's limited time, after all. "From my personal perspective, I'm quite excited about it. It's a fun game, I play it." He notes that, while he doesn't typically play shooters, he enjoys watching the likes of Rainbow Six Siege and Counter-Strike 2.

"It's clear Deadlock has something special, the strategy elements are fantastic. To me, it's actually the opposite [of a threat to Dota 2]. It serves as a bridge for a lot of people that come from the shooter community." He points to the combination of tactical depth and mechanical simplicity that games like CS2 offer: "There's something incredibly satisfying about getting the right shot or figuring out a very specific trick where you line up your crosshairs in a specific direction [for a knife or grenade].

"That part is something I feel Deadlock can hit for these players in a way that Dota couldn't. When you show people Dota nowadays, if you haven't grown up with RTS games, like I did, it's kind of hard to play, the base controls are not intuitive." Velasco "grew up playing Warcraft 3 and Age of Empires," while I found a similar route in through C&C and later StarCraft, but those who don't have that background often find the Dota 2 control scheme confusing at first.

"Deadlock can serve as a gateway, in my opinion, to the best parts of Dota, which is the strategic depth, the complexity, this very interesting design philosophy that I believe is also part of the core values of Deadlock," Velasco asserts. "I only see it as a positive. I think it's more people being introduced to our game, almost like a newcomer stream." He adds, "I've seen a lot of people come into our community purely from Deadlock that either stopped playing or are just interested in our game, and that's pretty wonderful to see."

While the games' mechanical difference can make that transition harder, Velasco notes that "There's a lower barrier to entry on watching esports." He admits, "I'll be honest, I don't like shooters because I'm bad. Deadlock, I bumble through because of my Dota knowledge." While that keeps him from playing many shooters, "I still watch CS, and I think it's a fantastic esport - in my opinion one of the best viewing experiences you can ever get in esports."

Velasco says a lot of Dota 2 viewers will also watch games like CS and Overwatch. "When I consider that, I think, 'Well isn't Deadlock getting even closer to that, where you can just watch both esports, especially if you have orgs that come across both ecosystems?' They're both Valve games, it's kind of easy to do." Diving into Deadlock certainly relit my dormant Dota 2 flame, and on the esports side in particular, Velasco believes it's "purely a gateway" to people watching some amount of both games, even if they favor one.

Dota 2's player count has gone up and down over the years, but it's remained fairly stable. On the tournament side, Velasco is feeling optimistic. "I feel like it's quite sustainable, at least in terms of the audience and viewership perspective, we haven't seen any backwards trends there. There's ups and downs like any esport, but this last TI was one of our most-watched since TI10, right? You're still seeing people really interested in and devoted to the game."

Velasco says he actually prefers the modern era, where we've moved past the rising trends and $40 million prize pools. "The hammer has dropped, per se, and viewers have not stopped watching, and that feels much safer, especially as someone that works in the ecosystem."

He notes that the recent uptick in Dota 2 players "has made people very hopeful, but from my perspective, it just matters if there are enough people. I don't think we need to perpetually hit new highs every single time. I think we are happy to have the audience we have that's constantly returning, to be one of the established esports in the scene, as opposed to always having to hit new records every year to ensure that people know we're still big."

With Valve ripping the prize-pool bandaid off of The International, does that help other tournaments feel equivalent in importance? "Not really," Velasco laughs. "The legacy of TI is insane, you can't beat that. I can't really explain it. It's an emotional response. When I hear the orchestra start, I well up. I well up for our events, because a team did a great job. I well up at TI just because. I can't stop crying.

"There's something really special to it that I don't think we will beat - I don't think we have to. It's not our goal to surpass TI." He notes that, since Valve called time on the Dota Pro Circuit, there has been a concerted effort by the third-party tournament organizers "to try to reach that level again. And I think I'm starting to see the first inklings of this with a couple of established franchises that started two or three years ago, not just us, becoming the brand name, the house name. Like, 'Oh, I know this event, I know what to expect.'"

That leaves one important question: who's going to win? You may already have the answer by the time you read this, but when I spoke to Velasco there were still three teams in the running: Tundra Esports, Team Yandex, and Xtreme Gaming. He has a soft spot for XG and Wang 'Ame' Chunyu. "I would love for Chinese Dota to resurge - the Ame storyline, that team, you can't write a better story than the uncrowned king." He acknowledges "a little bit of pride" around Yandex "because they come from our division, they qualified that way."

"From a purely analytical perspective, Tundra is looking like the best team right now." Velasco believes Neta '33' Shapira "might be the best player of all time at this point," and says it's great watching the audience respond to UK hometown hero Matthew 'Ari' Walker. "When that guy appears on camera, the whole crowd cheers, it's amazing. We do shots of the players, we will show him for a second, and they roar."

Velasco says the team has been "blessed" with the ESL One Birmingham lineup. "We got pretty lucky - we write storylines before the tournament: 'What happens if a team goes far, how do we hype them up, how do we make them cool?' It's the first time that we've been able to write full stories for all 16 teams. Anyone who makes it this far is impressive. My personal bias is purely a nostalgic Chinese Dota thing, but I think the hometown favorite might take it."

Unfortunately, at the time of writing, XG has just been knocked out, but there are just hours left until we find out whether Tundra or Yandex will be victorious. "I'm really excited for the grand final ceremony," Velasco concludes. "I hope you guys enjoy this - we worked really hard this year for the grand finals, we've got a lot of surprises, so it's going to be a very exciting time."