While over the last two years we’ve seen the Battle Royale genre take the world by storm, over the last six months a mod within Dota 2 named Dota Auto Chess has been gaining attention from some of the world’s biggest streamers. Fun, addictive, a ranking system, and constant updates to address issues, Dota Auto Chess saw excellent growth which saw parties like Twitch and MoonduckTV offer tournaments letting some of the biggest streamers go head to head with each other.

With so much attention, Valve got together with the Drodo team (creators) to discuss the future of Dota Auto Chess and see if they could collaborate. While the consensus seemed to be that the conversation went well, Drodo ultimately partnered with a Chinese company to create a standalone version known as “Auto Chess” which is available on mobile now.

Still, leaving on good terms it seemed, Valve started working hard on a standalone version of the game. On May 21 Valve trademarked Dota Underlords leaving the world of Reddit playing “Guess what that is?”. Split between an addition to the Dota 2 Battle Pass or their own Auto Chess; it was fair to say that we wouldn’t hear much more about it for months with a possible unveil at The International 2019.

Jump forward just a few weeks later, Riot, the creators of League of Legends announced on June 12 that they had also caught the Dota Auto Chess bug and are preparing to release an Auto Chess mode. Teamfight Tactics as it has been labeled is set to release on June 25 alongside patch 9.13. Just three days later out of nowhere, Valve released a public beta to Dota Underlords for anyone with a Dota 2 Battle Pass.

With two of the biggest studios in the world jumping into the space, Auto Chess is about to become even more mainstream. As we’ll no doubt see the Dota Auto Chess mod take a back seat thanks in large part to the quality of life improvements offered in the versions created by Valve and Riot, who comes out on top is certainly going to be an interesting watch.

One would tend to favor Valve in this case for a few reasons; first, they’re first! In the highly competitive world of gaming, we know that’s important. Second, the learning curve from Dota Auto Chess to Dota Underlords is near seamless. With similar heroes and skills, you can jump straight into Dota Underlords with a good understanding of what’s going on.

Finally, and what is probably the most important piece, Dota Underlords for Mobile is just around the corner. Being a standalone game by Valve instead of a mod or game mode means the separation of Dota 2 and Dota Underlords is clear.

The organic growth of Auto Chess is what makes the game extremely appealing, combined with the fact that Valve has chosen to simply improve what is very much a proven formula means that anyone who has played Dota Auto Chess in the last six months, is able to understand what is going on near instantly with Dota Underlords.

If you want to be ahead of the curve and get on what could be the hottest genre of 2019, don’t hesitate to contact us here at tenfold.global. Jumping in early allows you to be ahead of the pack and stand out in what could be an extremely busy space in the next year.