They pretty much had to make it f2p to have a chance against LoL, the currently dominant game in the genre.
Dota 2 vs LoL should be pretty interesting. I'd argue that LoL has an extremely strong first mover advantage. Dota was technically first, but it wasn't a standalone game, and was completely inaccessible for new players, so I don't really count it.
What i'm curious to see is if a company with as much reputation/money as valve can overcome that. If I was a gambling man i'd guess that LoL is going to stay #1, both because they have the first mover advantage, and because this is Riot's only product, so they have way more at stake than Valve, and are going to work harder to make sure they have the best product.
Dota 2 vs LoL should be pretty interesting. I'd argue that LoL has an extremely strong first mover advantage. Dota was technically first, but it wasn't a standalone game, and was completely inaccessible for new players, so I don't really count it.
What i'm curious to see is if a company with as much reputation/money as valve can overcome that. If I was a gambling man i'd guess that LoL is going to stay #1, both because they have the first mover advantage, and because this is Riot's only product, so they have way more at stake than Valve, and are going to work harder to make sure they have the best product.