DOTA 2 Tournament Live!

This year, Gamescom isn't just Europe's biggest gaming event. It's also playing host to the official unveiling of Valve's DOTA 2 and its first-ever tournament. For those of you who don't know, DOTA (or Defense of the Ancients) originally spawned as a Warcraft III mod that was based on an original Starcraft map, and since that time, it has developed an enormous following. The game puts players in control of a single hero that fights alongside automatically generated allies. This hero has special skills and attacks (that vary depending on the hero selected), which can be upgraded over the course of a match. These skills, combined with some strategy, aid in achieving the ultimate goal of invading an opponent's base and destroying key structures.

DOTA 2 is a stand-alone game from Valve (Blizzard is working on its own version of DOTA) and, therefore, doesn't have any ties to the Warcraft universe, but its characters and attacks are still based on those featured in the original game. You can find the tournament schedule here and watch the action unfold below.