The Source 1 feature might finally make it to Source 2. Game crashes at pro games will not require a complete restart to the game.
Valve is reportedly working on a system that allows players to rebuild a Dota 2 game at the point where it crashed. Team Secret’s Director of Operations, Matthew "Cyborgmatt" Bailey found files pertaining to the Replay Takeover System after the latest update.
Valve are working on a system that allows spectators to save a snapshot of the current match (teams, heroes, items, buildings, shop stocks & entities) into a JSON file. This is most likely for a save/load game function to handle crashes during pro games.
What is a Replay Takeover System?
During the WePlay Animajor, the second game between Team Secret and Nigma crashed. There was no way for WePlay to resume the match from a specific point before the crash. The teams had to restart the entire game.
The match was restarted with the same draft and starting items. In this particular instance, neither team had a significant lead at the time of the crash, so there was no adverse impact of the restart. But there is a scenario where a crash could possibly lead to an unfair advantage to the team that was losing in the previous game.
The Replay Takeover System, in theory, would allow teams and tournament organizers to restart the match from specific saved points in the game. For eg., if a game crashes at the 35:00 minute mark, the system would allow for a restart at previously saved time-point ( maybe at 30:00?).
The Replay Takeover System was a feature in Dota 2’s Source 1 days. However, after Valve shifted the MOBA to Source 2, this feature was absent.
Will we see the Replay Takeover system at TI10?
Most likely, NO. The Replay Takeover system is still a Work in Progress, according to Ben ‘Noxville’ Steenhuisen and Cyborgmatt. With TI10 just a few weeks away at this point, it is highly unlikely we will see this feature implemented at such short notice. The file is very much in its early stages, so it might be some time before we see it go live.
The Replay Takeover system will be a valuable addition to Dota 2. For now, it seems the feature will only be available to private lobbies, which includes tournament matches.
Dota 2’s TI10 kicks off on October 7 and will take place at the Arena Naţională in Romania. The tournament has a $40,018,195 prize pool, the largest in esports history.
Recently, Valve released information about TI10 ticket sales. The update also added the TI10 compendium brought about significant changes to the replay system.
Stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Dota 2 news and updates.