Heard they were giving player of the year awards for CS2 and Donk was a shoe in to win it.
Have to check the full list to see who won which categories later.
Thanks for reminding me about the awards and can't wait for the new year to start so we can have matches again.

They are actually doing a top 20 list that will conclude it's voting on January 11th according to this chart:



Xantares is on there as 15th place so he is a notable player and performed well during the 2024 season.

I have noticed this trend too. And it makes me sad to see how Dota 2 is becoming a game that no one wants to develop and think about how to make it better. All the layouts have become disgusting. Previously, players were pleased with the distribution of sets of heroes for free, and now the prizes are some kind of loading screens of poor quality. And all the plots are not interesting. And all my teenage friends play CS2, they do not find Dota interesting at all. Valve is not working on attracting a younger audience.

There is a Frost and Fire tournament going on for Europe right now in CS2. They are currently playing for closed qualifying places in the upcoming event.

Some news out of the Faze clan team is they are to release long-time Estonian player Ropz:
https://www.hltv.org/news/40646/faze-release-ropz-tc

It sucks for Faze to lose their best player, but at least they're close to finding a replacement which could be EliGe based on this news post.

https://www.hltv.org/news/40636/sources-faze-in-advanced-discussions-with-elige

I thought Eternal Fire was already doing well with their current roster and didn't have to change anything. Anyway, i'll be looking forward to how they'll capitalize on their explosive trio.

After looking up the details it appears to be an online tournament for tier-two teams. It's still a decent tournament for the participating teams because getting a high placement here could bump them up in the valve rankings and potentially earn a direct invite in some of the A-S tier tournaments.

Then again there's still the top seed so whoever the organizers invited for the quarter-finals will probably win it all.

Just checked the schedule of the next event and we are quite a ways from it starting.
These closed qualifiers that passwordnow has just mentioned seem to be the only thing going on in the dota2 scene.

There had been some movement in the OG active roster as of late.
Last month Bozhidar "Bzm" Bogdanov transitioned to Tundra Esports. Bzm moved to the inactive roster of OG after TI13. Here is his farewell post on x the end of December:
https://x.com/OGesports/status/1873670876953977218

Sebastien "Ceb" Debs made a return to the team of OG. It is not certain if he will be replacing xNova who is active on the roster.
Here is their current team lineup for the upcoming year:
OG lineup
Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon
Leon "nine" Kirilin
Sebastien "Ceb" Debs (stand-in)
Matthew "Ari" Walker
Yap "xNova" Jian Wei

Oh are having lots of problems lately. Their manager left the team and already has a pro team under the name of OG Bonkers and there are also rumors that BMW will no longer sponsor this team in this year and the only one who could literally save OG is no other than NoTail it self...the real CEO of OG. However,  his intentions with Dota 2 has been cold in the last year and I doubt he has the power to keep this team as a Tier 1-2 rank but I'm sure he will try anything he can in order to either keep BWM as sponsor or replace them with something similar which is pretty difficult.

Just started watching the closed qualifer between Aurora Gaming and Talon Esport. On the other dota2 official  ESL channel there is Boom Esports vs The MongolZ currently beginning underway right about now.
Noticed you say this is the 23 season while all the youtube channels I am watching are saying this is season 25.
And the announcer for this Boom game said the very same.
Thought it was it a type-o the other day. No worries passwordnow, all good bro!

^^
Believe that Boom Esports won their match 2-0 because it was quick when I was switching between games earlier.
All the sudden it was over and they were already broadcasting getting ready for the NaVi game.
Had a bet on them but cashed out after they lost map 1. Not sure if they lost the game after dropping first.

Just watching Fantasy Gaming against Heroic. Think this is a SA closed qualifier because their internet connection keeps dropping right in the middle of the game where they have ISP issues in this part of the world where blackouts often last hours.