Dota 2 gives back to custom game creators with new premium pass

The Dota 2 Custom Game Pass is a totally optional scheme hopefully resulting in some compensation for the hard work of community creators.

Dota 2, like many of its stablemates, has attracted a hardworking community of creative types who build and support new kinds of play generated from Valve's tools.

These creators do a lot to help keep the scene lively and interesting (heck, Dota itself began as a custom Warcraft 3 map) but they mostly do it for zero compensation. Valve hopes to change this by introducing Custom Game Passs.

Drop a few bucks on one of these dealios and you'll be rewarded with features not available to the hoi polloi - and the creator gets a kickback on the deal. Valve will be closely curating the custom games included in the scheme, and they won't be going behind full paywalls any time soon. Visit the Dota 2 blog for more information.