Valve released a Dota 2 patch that added the ability to activate an automatic 15-minute delay for DotaTV in the tournament match lobby. Thanks to this feature, streamers no longer have to set it up themselves. The developers also fixed a bug with overlapping notifications on the store window. The store window change was really necessary!
List of major changes:
- A feature added to the lobby of tournament matches that adds a 15-minute delay for DotaTV;
- Fixed a bug where artefact purchase notifications overlapped the shop window.
On September 15th, a new Valve rule came into force for independent streamers who want to broadcast official Dota 2 matches. Content authors need to comply with the organizer’s requirements. For example, a tournament operator has the right to oblige a third-party streamer to add an advertisement for a championship sponsor to the broadcast or set a delay in live broadcast.
The changes have been the talk of much controversy as a lot of streamers are unhappy. Some of the famous streamers in Gorgc and Admiral Bulldog have straight-up slandered the approach. While pro-players like FNG remain neutral calling the changes required but with better communication from Valve. These changes seemed to have caused a dip in the viewer base of Dota 2 on Twitch. Because a lot of players would switch back and forth between official matches and their favourite streamer.
Through this small update, there is a chance some of the streamers actually start watching the official matches again. Now they don’t have to set the delay themselves but again the advertisement overlay on their stream is trouble. ESL One Germany seems to be struggling to keep up their viewership this round, the best matches attracting only 40k concurrent viewers. Let us see what happens.
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