At this year’s International Dota 2 Championships, Valve once again took the opportunity to introduce a pair of new heroes to its free-to-play juggernaut. Sylph has been rumored for some time, as references to the character appeared in Dota 2’s codebase in May of the this year. However, the trailer on display opened with a different, unknown hero debut, featuring a dapper, armadillo-inspired swashbuckler apparently also on the way to the game. Both heroes are expected to launch with the Dueling

The group of companies poised to make the most profit off of stand-alone streaming services’ divide and conquer mentality are the tech giants. Given that more stand-alone streaming services means more annoyance and cost for subscribers, companies like YouTube, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and even Snapchat have much to gain from Netflix and Disney’s loss. Others will have to find aggregation video services to use.That’s where YouTube, Amazon and Facebook come in. It’s why they’ve collected other stre

Coming 367 days after No Man’s Sky launched, Atlas Rises sounds like the game’s biggest expansion yet. “This update marks the one year anniversary of No Man’s Sky, and a lot has changed,” said Hello Games. Grid View A new alien race arrives in the universe of No Man’s Sky with the Atlas Rises update. The Atlas Rises update also brings more variety to No Man’s Sky, just as the Foundation and Path Finder updates did. Yes, Hello Games has finally activated the massive black monoliths that can be fo

The game pitted him against a mid high-level Dota 2 bot project, created by artificial intelligence research company OpenAI. The match was a standard 1v1 Shadow Fiend game: two kills, no neutrals, item restrictions and such. The first game ended with the OpenAI bot far, far ahead in last-hits: Dendi with 14 hits/2 denies and the AI bot with 34/15. (Players were invited to challenge it at a nearby LAN event for a chance at Shadow Fiend arcanas.) The parameters were pretty strict, and they seem to

Valve has confirmed two new heroes to be included in Dota 2, as presented in a new trailer shown during The International 7. The heroes will be introduced in “The Dueling Fates” update. One of the two heroes, a Puss-in-Boots like figure, is shown jumping around and slicing into enemies with a proud attitude. Later in the video a pixie-like character, enters, and the two talk about the questionable safety of the forest. Valve has not put out any more information about the new heroes or upcoming c

Jack Etienne of Cloud9 has joined the Overwatch League, claiming the city of London, England. Despite this global format, the people behind the Overwatch League want to build a connection between viewers and players. Around the worldA key part of the Overwatch League continually brought up in marketing, press releases, and interviews is the city-based format. The expansion into Europe breaks new ground for the Overwatch League, and Nanzer is hoping that momentum continues. “The Overwatch League

The last Destiny raid is almost a year old. World of Warcraft launched in 2004 with two ludicrously hard raids: Onyxia’s Lair and Molten Core. Unlike World of Warcraft’s average raid, every boss in Destiny is nearly identical, only the arenas change. World of Warcraft offers Looking For Raid (LFR), a nerfed version of the raid that allows for matchmaking and easy completion. Raids in World of Warcraft have Mythic difficulties, a setting that pushes the toughness factor far higher than that of No

Our mixing board was possessed by bony spirits and we lost the whole dang news section! In this episode, we share our sweatiest stories and reminisce on our first exposure to games. Also for some reason, Ashley talks about her dream of eating snacks with Nobuo Uematsu and then somehow mayonnaise gets involved. The Polygon Show will be available for you to listen to every Friday on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher. Email us at polygonshow@polygon.com and we might read it on the next episode.

League of Legends’ next champion release, Ornn, has been teased with a song in his honor on the Universe website. Ornn, a Freljordian vanguard, was previously teased in the latest champion roadmap. A song in another language also begins to play, so make sure your volume is turned up. Lead producer of champions Ryan “Reav3” Mireles, who is helping produce Ornn, confirmed that this mixed language is Ancient Freljordian on the boards. The tone of the song, as well as the powerful lyrics certainly m

Driven by our insatiable need to watch anything Game of Thrones the moment it’s available, we downloaded it. There is a sense of magic to the episode; everything in it acts as reminder about why we love Game of Thrones in the first place. Other staff members have also seen the episode — mainly those who operate as part of our Game of Thrones team — and all of them had similar reactions. No one’s going to stop you from seeking out the episode and watching it if you want to. Game of Thrones airs S

At the front of the race is Chinese team LGD.Forever Young in Group B, which emerged from the group stage nearly undefeated at 14-2. Related The International 7 Group Stage schedule and resultsIn Group A’s top spot was Europe’s Team Liquid, which emerged with 13-3 and not a single full set dropped, losing singles to America’s Evil Geniuses, LGD and Filipino squad TNC Pro Team. TNC Pro Team became a top dark horse of the stage. Meanwhile, the teams that laid closest to an Upper-Lower Bracket tieb

NBA 2K17 is a great video game with excellent graphics, but these pictures will make you think otherwise. The next installment in the series, NBA 2K18, is making its predecessor’s graphics look baaaad. Just look at Gordon Hayward year over year:Gordon Hayward in NBA 2K17 (left) vs. NBA 2K18 (right) pic.twitter.com/jVxhLo1I4k — Steve Noah (@Steve_OS) August 4, 2017The difference in muscle tone and the sweat running down his arm are the first things to catch the eye. Hayward’s facial hair is more

Allegra and Thomas are back again for another installment of PolyPals Jr. This time around, we played Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the original Xbox. Why did we start with the second game in the series, you ask? While we had pretty fond memories of this game, playing it on a backwards-compatible Xbox 360 is — how do we put this — not good. Watch as we toss gnomes at scarecrows, lock a naked imp in a cage and throw stink pellets in the faces of unsuspecting wizards in this episode

Diablo 3: The Rise of the Necromancer resurrects the Necromancer class and includes many new skills, runes and items. Polygon’s guides will help you master the Necromancer and Diablo 3 Season 11, which begins July 20. Getting started with the NecromancerLearning the Necromancer: 10 tips to help you master the Necromancer. Necromancer items and set bonusesAll legendary items: Rare drops worth equipping. Necromancer skillsNecromancer builds

San Diego Comic-Con is here and, for fans of everything and anything television, this year seems to have been crafted with you in mind. NetflixStranger Things: With the show’s second season just around the corner, expect to hear a few more details about what the residents of Hawkins are going to get up to. Unlike Stranger Things, expect Netflix to bring a new trailer for The Defenders. ET on Saturday, July 22ABCMarvel’s Inhumans: Out of all the shows appearing at San Diego Comic-Con, none have a

Maybe there’s a Fairly Odd Parents spinoff coming out in the future, maybe there’s a Danny Phantom one. “I gotta say that I really love Cosmo [from Fairly OddParents], and I really love Danny,” Hartman said. I love Timmy [Turner, also from Fairly Odd Parents] too, but the difference between Timmy and Danny is Timmy’s 10, so he’s worried about ice cream. “I just love Cosmo because you can do anything with him and he’s still funny,” Hartman said. Danny Phantom, Timmy Turner and, yes, even Cosmo me

“a little bit of anime, a little bit in the Danny Phantom range”It only makes sense, then, that the bouncy, exuberant, Tigger-like cartoonist would find a way to give back to the community that has been following him consistently on YouTube. “I’m working on a series right now that will only be available on YouTube,” Hartman said. “It’s going to be a little bit of anime, a little bit in the Danny Phantom range. It won’t be Danny Phantom, of course, but it will be a show like that. Even with his a

San Diego Comic-Con has returned and, with it, a bunch of movies to look forward to. It goes without saying that the two biggest movies at Comic-Con this year are Avengers: Infinity War and Justice League. The Warner Bros. panel is 2:30 p.m PT/5:30 p.m. The studios, especially Marvel and Warner Bros., are sure to bring out a couple of surprises and announce some new films. San Diego Comic-Con runs from Wednesday, July 19 through Sunday, July 23.

In each episode of Quality Control, a Polygon editor talks to a critic after they review a new game, movie or piece of gear and allows them to add a little bit of extra context and insight. Why did they feel the way they did? What do they wish they had been able to discuss in more depth in their review? This week, Polygon’s Chelsea Stark joins editor-at-large Justin McElroy to discuss her review of Splatoon 2, which you can read right here. Email: qualitycontrol at polygon dot comMusic: “Goodwil

If the latest teaser for Netflix’s Marvel universe is anything to go by, the company doesn’t want you to forget about its newest anti-hero, the Punisher. The network released a new video highlighting its small-screen Marvel universe, which was published on the official Luke Cage Twitter account, that puts a spotlight on Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Daredevil and Cage. Actor Jon Bernthal appears, wielding a gun, face dirty and sporting the iconic Punisher symbol on his chest. Although The Punisher i