Defense of the Ancients

Defense of the Ancients is a Warcraft III custom map in which two teams control heroes and fight to destroy the opposing base. Its community-developed versions helped define the multiplayer online battle arena genre.

Multiplayer online battle arena: A team-based strategy game genre built around controlling characters and destroying an opposing team’s base. Defense of the Ancients became the genre’s defining early example.
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos: A 2002 real-time strategy game by Blizzard Entertainment that introduced the Warcraft III world and editor. Its custom-map tools and units made Defense of the Ancients possible.
Dota 2: A multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Valve and released in 2013. It continued the Allstars lineage as a standalone game with IceFrog’s involvement.
Warcraft III custom map: A player-made scenario created with Warcraft III’s World Editor and played within the game. DotA remained a custom map rather than an official Warcraft III campaign.
Lane (video games): A fixed route across a multiplayer map that connects opposing bases and channels unit movement. Three lanes structure the map’s battles and pressure toward enemy defenses.
Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne: A 2003 expansion to Warcraft III that added units, campaigns, and map-making features. The expansion’s editor and gameplay content supported later DotA development.
League of Legends: A multiplayer online battle arena game developed by Riot Games and released in 2009. It became a separate commercial interpretation of the genre popularized by DotA.
Defense of the Ancients Allstars: A widely played branch of Defense of the Ancients that combined heroes and features from earlier versions. Allstars became the best-known edition and the foundation of the familiar DotA scene.
Creep (video games): A computer-controlled unit that follows a route and fights enemy units or structures. Recurring creep waves create income, experience, and pressure along each lane.
Aeon of Strife: A StarCraft custom map in which heroes advance along lanes toward an opposing base. It supplied a major design precedent for Warcraft III’s lane-based map.

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