Fantasy Dota 2 is the best way for an esports bettor to connect with their favorite players.

In a Dota 2 fantasy draft, players pick from a pool of players attending a Dota esports event. Drafters can choose players from across teams but are usually limited to a $50,000 salary cap. During the tournament, players earn fantasy points by performing well in their matches. Kills, assists, and match victories all contribute to a player’s fantasy points. Professional players can also earn points by completing specific objectives like dewarding enemy Observers, racking up a Killstreak, or defeating Roshan.

At the end of the event, the player whose team accumulated the most Dota 2 fantasy points is declared the winner. While the first place drafter often gets a special reward, most Dota 2 fantasy leagues give prizes to several players above a certain threshold.

Fantasy Dota 2

Fantasy esports are quickly gaining popularity among gaming fans for multiple reasons. Several big esports, including Dota 2, are returning to in-person play after the COVID-19 pandemic. Dota 2 returned to LAN with The Singapore Major, a $500,000 tournament featuring teams from each region. These events are ideal for fantasy Dota because they feature top players from all over the world. If you love watching Europe’s playmaker supports but idolize Southeast Asia’s aggressive midlaners, you can ‘recruit’ them into an all-star roster.

Hey, that actually just sounds like Evil Geniuses’ multi-national roster, which you may draft as your fantasy roster at the WePlay AniMajor event too!

How to play fantasy Dota 2

Thanks to overwhelming interest in fantasy Dota 2 from fans, the good folks at Draftkings finally featured fantasy Dota 2. With the announcement comes two unique modes: the Dota 2 Classic and Dota 2 Showdown, which we will get into further details soon.

Alternatively, there is another way to draft your fantasy Dota 2 team. Dota’s biggest yearly event, The International, is crowdfunded by a Battle Pass that can be purchased in the Dota client. The Battle Pass includes a fantasy competition that lets you draft a superteam free of any salary cap. Dota fans gain player options by opening trading card packs. Special premium versions provide boosts to specific stats depending on the player’s position. Players can only earn fantasy players by opening card packs obtained by purchasing or achieving additional levels in the Battle Pass. Unfortunately, the only rewards are more levels in the Battle Pass, and the drafting process is strictly limited to The International. All of the cards just become digital souvenirs afterward.

However, the International 10 is still months away, and you probably couldn’t hold your excitement for fantasy Dota 2 if you already read thus far. Hence, Draftkings’ fantasy Dota 2 is plausibly second to none, when it comes to enticing rewards and experience.

fantasy dota 2 draftkings

Read our Dota 2 The International Fantasy picks and predictions.

Fantasy Dota 2 Classic mode

To kick things off, there are much similarity in both modes, such as how scoring works. For each player you have chosen, their in-game statistics will affect their overall points at the end of the match. In-game stats include kills and assists, but are not limited to point reduction too, such as death toll. Even minuscule stats like last hits and denies can contribute to the scores, which in the case of farming carry players, can mean big scores.

The mode also rewards a whopping 15 points for shorter games, more specifically <25 minutes match. Which brings us to objectives in the game also contribute points, like towers and barracks destroyed, which could effectively secure 15 points if the winning team are systematic at winning the match. Essentially, what you are looking for in your ideal fantasy team is players from teams that have high win rates. For instance, players from Invictus Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Team Secret and really any Esports powerhouses out there.

Now then, the defining difference that Classic mode has against Showdown mode is the lineup requirements. In Classic mode, you may have up to 7 spots, which sounds like delightful news if you want to select the entire Evil Geniuses lineup. Unfortunately, there is a 4-players from a single team restriction for good reasons. Nevertheless, you could still select four players from a reliable team, and replace say the hard support player. Since the support role don’t typically score impressive stats.

Diving into further details on the 7 spots limit, it must be 1 captain, 3 cores, 2 supports and 1 team. Do note that the captain scores x1.5 times more points, so ideally you would want a strong carry player. However, there’s a catch, selecting valuable players as your captain cost more salary, remember you only got a $50,000 salary cap. Therefore, you might want to reconsider picking say Artour “Arteezy” Babaev which may literally break your bank.

Fantasy Dota 2 Showdown mode

As mentioned, the Showdown mode is objectively similar to the Classic. However, the difference lies in lineup requirements. Showdown mode only has a 4 spots limit, and you must have at least 2 different teams. So much for picking an all-around EG lineup that we previously recommended.

In hindsight, it’s less complicated and easier to manage, but still has interesting features to it. For instance, there are two captain positions, which means you are gaining double the x1.5 bonus scores. The other two positions are flex positions, so it can be any of the mentioned roles, excluding captain.

Other Dota 2 betting methods

While Dota 2 esports DFS sounds like a thrilling Esports betting experience, there are plenty of other ways to wager on Dota matches. Several Esports bookmakers offer odds for single match betting, including several prominent traditional sports betting sites. Traditional Dota 2 betting is still the simplest way to make quick bucks betting on professional Dota, but analytical fans have another skilled-based option to splurge.

Esports betting trailblazers Unikrn offers a unique service where you can bet on your own Dota 2 matches. Unikrn UMode provides a variety of markets on your matches. UMode delivers various exciting markets that range from simply winning the game to achieving a certain killstreak before the Ancient falls. UMode is a great way to place casual bets in anticipation of future fantasy Dota 2 options.

Once again, thanks to Draftkings esports options are constantly being refreshed, fantasy Dota 2 can be solid entertainment. They even got a treaty bonus for first-timers, which goes by Draftkings promotion package.

Moreover, they also offer DFS for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League, League of Legends, and Call of Duty.