With the International 2019 for DOTA 2 scheduled for August 20-25, players now have access to purchase the Battle Pass, granting them unique items, boosts, and as always, letting them know that they are helping to beef up the prize pool that the best players in the world will be competing over later in the year.
Players wishing to purchase the pass have a few options available to them. The Standard Battle Pass goes for $9.99, the Level 50 version sells for $29.35, and the Level 100 is purchasable for $44.99. Levels can also be purchased for those seeking a further boost.
With the pass comes the Wrath of the Mo'Rokai, a custom mode that is not available as of yet, but should be coming out soon. Valve has already released a number of teasers about what exactly is going to happen. So far, we know that the Mo'Rokai are a pair of mythical creatures, and that players will collect resources to get them back to full strength. As usual, this is likely going to happen by defeating enemies and destroying objectives around the map. Perhaps the point will be a race to power up a Mo'Rokai before the opposing team, to receive the benefit of a large NPC similar to "Garden of Terror" in Heroes of the Storm.
The Jungle Expedition will be the path taken to unlock a series of cosmetic rewards through playing matches. Consumables that are being added are the Snake Balloon, the Trusty Shovel, the Silly Monkey, and others that should aid you along the way. There are in addition a number of returning features from before: Players will have the ability to double down on MMR rewards or losses, in-game tipping, trivia, predictions, Immortal item recycling, and a number of other points become revealed as one progresses in Battle Pass levels.
There have also been a few quality of life changes to note. The Party Finder tool will allow you to add players you have enjoyed playing with after a match. In addition, players will be able to import friends from their Steam accounts. There is also a much-requested Avoid Player feature that allows players to blacklist those who are toxic, preventing you from matching again in future games. Finally, there is an MVP vote that will appear at the end of matches, highlighting chosen players in the post-game screen. The pass looks to be as good as ever this year.