Heartwarming / Dota 2

• The entire Diretide 2013 fiasco finally ends with a blog post by the Dota 2 team, called "Not My Best Work!" The Dota 2 team apologizes for not adding Diretide, but also gives good reason for why they couldn't. For reasons such as Diretide not being as easy to turn on as the community thought and underestimating how much they might want it, the most important one was that they actually had a major update in the works for Dota 2 which was currently in final testing. Along with this hint (possibly Legion Commander?), they've also announced Diretide will be in the next update along with some new changes. Even though they got blasted by the community for it, the Dota 2 team ends on this note:
  "Paying attention to what is happening in the community around Dota 2 is one of the most important aspects of what we do at Valve. And while we are clearly not mistake-proof, hopefully it is useful for us to walk everyone through our process for recognizing and then fixing our mistakes."
• Giving a consumable healing item or an Urn of Shadows heal to an allied hero will cause them to give you a heartfelt "thank you" or "thanks" (except Troll Warlord). Yes, even the irredeemably evil ones.
• Upon getting the Aegis of Immortality, the Alchemist's Ogre friend is concerned about whether the immortality works for both of them, to which the Alchemist replies,"It better!"
• When Lina and Crystal Maiden meet as allies, you'd think they'd express hatred to each other and make it clear that it's a Teeth-Clenched Teamwork. But no, they make it clear that they're still sisters and will put aside their differences for the common cause, making it look like Friendly Rivalry:
  Lina: We're sisters, so let's make the best of it.
  CM: See if you can keep up, sis!
• Perhaps as a basis of their pairing, Slark surprisingly has a rather sweet response when meeting an ally Naga Siren, and mind you, Naga herself is someone who's a banished Failure Knight thanks to one certain failure... it's like a much needed hug:
  Slark: Don't listen to the critics, Naga, I love your voice.
  • Made doubly heartwarming when you consider that Slark is a murderous cutthroat who trusts no one but himself and almost assuredly suffers from Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, yet apparently still has a soft side.
  • Indeed, Slark has a cosmetic item that's implied to have been gifted to him by Naga Siren because he wanted to hear her song one more time. The lore behind the item says it all.
  He only wanted to hear her song one more time. The dagger was gifted to him, and he keeps it with him to silence those who wish to silence her song.
• Wraith-Night in general. Skeleton King finds that his body is falling apart, and needs to create himself a new, more permanent body by collecting souls... and a handful of his fellow heroes (from both sides, no less) agree to help him. Granted, he tries to kill them when the ritual is complete, but given that this is Dota 2, that's pretty much par for the course.
• Valve made a free-to-watch documentary film called Free to Play that covers the life of 3 competitive DOTA 2 players; Dendi, Fear and HYHY as they line themselves up for the first DOTA 2 International tournament at Seattle back in 2014. It's rare to see a video game company taking this method of care for its games and the culture surrounding it.
• Someone named xofks12 was contacted by Nexon, which supported the Korean Server of Dota 2, as an artist and as a result, draws comics explaining some backstories of the Dota 2 Heroes, titled Hero's Time. Unfortunately, as Nexon pulled support from Dota 2, xofks12's contract was not renewed and not all heroes received their Time. However, for some heroes that were released... they got sweet and heartwarming deals:
  • Naga Siren's Time, which is an extension to that aforementioned relations with Slark and it's just as sweet when Naga paid back his kindness by saving him from his hunters.
  • Drow Ranger's Time, the final comic, which explores Drow's mind that would make her a top contender of a Woobie, but thankfully in the end, there is a kindred soul who won't let her be alone... it's Windranger. The comic ends with her giving Drow a tender hug.
• Surprisingly, for a self-proclaimed 'worse than Demons' being, Terrorblade is capable of showing concern about someone who's obviously not in the right mind. Maybe he just wants him to shut up and stop annoying him, but it's something, he wasn't even trying to coerce said person with power.
  Timbersaw, please shut up about the trees. Seriously, you need help.
• Everything about the Dota 2 community's support for prominent Dota 2 caster/analyst Jorien "Sheever" van der Heijden in her battle with cancer. This video was released during TI8 and deserves a watch.
• Rubick got a new Arcana, and many people thought he'd have a new voice. However, instead of getting new voicelines, Valve decided to keep Barry Dennen's voice and edited it to sound more like how he sounded during recording, as a way to honor the man.
• Snapfire is a old mercenary gone Heel–Face Turn into a caring grandma, offering cookies, a ear to vent & advices for her teammates, from asking Lina & Rylai to bury the hatchet before its too late & ask Anti-Mage if he needs someone to talk with, up to assuring Treant Protector that she dosent share Timbersaw's (her grandson) opinion about trees and nature while trying to rehabilitate Timbersaw herself by try to make him admit that he has a problem.
• When Team Liquid realized that game 4 was all but lost in the Grand Finals of TI9, shown in the TI9 iteration of True Sight, despite the sadness of being crushed by OG, they appreciated the fact that they made a great run (going from the very start of the Lower Bracket all the way), and even made some good humor around it after the loss. They comforted each other over it, especially for w33ha, who fell short again. This cemented the roster as True Companions.