If there’s one thing that separates pro Dota 2 pros from fans, it’s the enjoyment of mid-tournament patches. For fans, it’s an instant injection of excitement into the event. For players, it’s sleepless nights, strategies ruined and potential losses looming.
Once a rare case, something that Valve vowed to stop doing, the patch drop in the middle of an event has now become an almost comically common event, seemingly mainly focused at ESL FACEIT Group’s DreamLeague and ESL One events.
But are Mid-tournament patches really that bad? How common can they actually be (far more than you’d expect)? And how badly do they really affect players and teams?
How common are mid-tournament patches in Dota 2?
Before we dive into how these patches affect teams, let’s look at the recent patches we’d consider mid-tournament, as well as a few edge cases, where a patch was so close to the event as to practically affect it. In descending order (most recent first) here’s the recent tournaments that happened on or just after a major patch.
- 7.41, March 24, 2026, ESL One Birmingham 2026 (Two days before end of group stage)
- 7.40, December 15, 2025, DreamLeague Season 27 (Ahead of the final day)
- 7.36, May 22, 2024, DreamLeague Season 23 (Following the group stage)
- 7.35, December 14, 2023, ESL One Kuala Lumpur (On the day off between group stage and playoffs)
- 7.33 & 7.33b, April 20 and April 26, 2023, ESL One Berlin Major (Six days before and on the first day of the group stage)
- 7.32, August 23, 2022, ESL One Malaysia (On the first day of group stage)
While 7.33 did occur before the event, the update, known as the New Frontiers update, was so big that it definitely affected the tournament. And had a pretty significant ‘b’ patch on the first day of the event as well, so it’s pretty easy to include it.
What’s most interesting about these patches is that they all came after a direct commitment from Valve to avoid any more mid-tournament patches. That announcement came after the 7.14 update which was released during the EPICENTER XL event.
Following this, Valve announced via Twitter that “for upcoming majors where the Thursday patch would land during the tournament, we will instead be releasing the patch at the end of the event.”
Valve’s latest update for Dota 2, which was released in the middle of the Epicenter XL tournament caused significant chaos for players who had to adapt to the gameplay changes in a short amount of time.
After this, we went around four years before Valve started dropping patches during events again. What started during the Covid-era, in 2021, where many tournaments were not directly tied to the pro circuit, and were online only, has continued, and been a constant spectre over more recent events.
While the reasoning is officially unknown (Valve has not made a statement on patches or updates during tournaments since 2018, and arguably since the dissolution of the Valve-backed Dota Pro Circuit in 2024, has no reason to), the simple reason for the patches dropping during events is that there’s simply no point across most years where there’s not some important competitive Dota event going on.
In 2026 alone, there is a major event every single month, with four months occupied by the Esports World Cup, The International, and their respective qualifier. To put it bluntly, if Valve wants to release updates at all, it can’t not drop them during events.
There’s also the fact that Valve seemingly attempts to limit its event-affecting patch drops to one tournament organizer, ESL. While this is amusing, and could be seen as some kind of grudge, it’s likely that the fact most DreamLeague and ESL One events run for much longer than the average event could have something to do with it.
But enough on the why. How exactly do these patches affect tournaments and players?
How do these mid-tournament patches actually affect teams?
Let’s not sugarcoat it: These patches ruin a lot of tournament plans for teams and players. From drafts and comfort heroes nerfed into the ground, to the hours needed to stay up and pour over patch notes, the mid season patch can drop.
Speaking to players at ESL One Birmingham 2026, there was a general sense that they had a plan and it was thrown out the window. Virtus.pro’s Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek and Tal “Fly” Aizik both believed their team could have advanced out of the group stage if the patch had dropped later. “I wish they would have waited just one day” lamented Fly. OG’s John “Natsumi-” Vargas also said the patch affected their performance “We weren’t in good shape, we couldn’t adapt.”
Among the more successful teams that tournament, including Team Yandex, and eventually winners Tundra Esports, however, the feeling was more positive. Yandex’s Martin “Saksa” Sazdov said he pretty much liked the chaos:
“It’s interesting for me. I like a bit of chaos. So I think having a patch like this, for me, it’s fine. It just means that teams are willing to adapt.”
Similarly, Neta “33” Shapira had a similar attitude. He didn’t mind a mid-tournament patch: “There’s not that much you can do because there’s tournaments all the time nowadays.”
“A little bit of randomness in some of them, it’s okay. It makes it more interesting.”
So it seems that among finalists in these events, the patch isn’t really that big of a deal. But let’s look at things practically: Do these patches actually create the ‘chaos’ fans love or do they just reinforce the status quo. Let’s go through the list of tournaments again. This time looking at some of the predicted and eventual winners of those events. We’ll use contemporary tournament previews and commentary as a basis:
- ESL One Birmingham 2026: Despite a patch, the finals featured both pre-tournament favorites Team Yandex and Tundra Esports, with the latter taking home the win
- DreamLeague Season 27: Dropping just before the finals, eventual winners Team Yandex didn’t seem phased by the result. Yandex were rated highly coming into the tournament having upset TI-winners Falcons at BLAST Slam V.
- DreamLeague Season 23: Gaimin Gladiators and Team Falcons were the clear favorites of any tournament during this time, and both met in the finals
- ESL One Kuala Lumpur: Perhaps the only tournament in the list where a patch affected the outcome. Chinese team Azure Ray, underdogs and far from top-tier defeated Gaimin in the finals.
- ESL One Berlin Major: This event happened during Gaimin’s undefeated streak and they didn’t miss a beat. They were ranked number one prior to the event.
- ESL One Malaysia: Of OG’s pair of incredible performances in 2022, Malaysia was arguably the less impressive.
So of six mid-tournament patches, we’d argue just one, at ESL One Kuala Lumpur actually affected the outcome in a major way. Instead of prompting chaos, mid tournament patches seem to solidify just which team is the best in the world at that time. And for the teams that aren’t as impressive struggle when faced with the need for quick strategization.
There’s probably some deeper reason for this. Maybe the confidence of being on a top team means obstacles like a mid-event patch aren’t going to faze you. On the other hand, teams in the middle of the pack are disproportionately affected. A team like Aurora Gaming, for instance, performed incredibly well at ESL One Birmingham 2026… until the patch.
But ultimately, whatever the reason, the fact is that mid-tournament patches, for as much chaos as they allegedly cause, often only reinforce a great team’s greatness. In fact, it seemingly does punish teams that rely heavily on patch familiarity for their edge. Going forward, Valve can perhaps feel a little less guilty about these updates, because it seems to me that they’re not really changing much in the tournaments.