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Valve’s upcoming “what is this game why isn’t it Half-Life 3” free-to-play title Dota 2 now has a spectator client available for all Steam users, the company has announced.
This allows everyone to gorge on live Dota 2 games, recent matches and whizzy tournaments, which is especially nifty because Valve’s $1 million tournament The International kicks off on August 31 alongside PAX Prime. Good lord, it’s like they planned this whole thing!
Valve is intending to use the this spectator client as a nifty trojan horse, sneaking in all the other features as it slowly transmogrifies into the full game. “This will become your full client once we expand server capacity enabling Matchmaking, Chat, Persona, etc,” says Valve.
Dota 2’s impressive Spectator mode is one of the areas where Valve is looking to wrestle market share away from League of Legends. The game is currently in beta, with an intended 2012 release date.
