Dota 2 Spectator Client Available For Every Steam Account

[Sliver]

In preparation for The International 2, the second annual Valve sponsored Dota 2 tournament, Valve is allowing each and every Steam user to download the Dota 2 spectating client to view the tournament in-game. Valve insists that this is the best way to watch any Dota 2 tournament, due to a number of various features not otherwise possible.

You will be able to watch any Live or Recent matches plus all of the upcoming The International right inside the client. Every spectator feature is enabled, including Player Perspective, Commentators and Directed view.

This spectator client will transition into the regular Dota 2 client, with all of the features, when the game is fully released at a later time.

The International 2 takes place August 31st through September 2nd in Seattle Washington, and if your computer can't quite run Dota 2 it will still be viewable via live streams. For more information check out the Dota 2 Blog.

 

[Vegeta897]

Now this is a cool idea that I'd like to see more often in games.
Probably an even better way of getting people to buy games than a demo would be.

 

[Cuthbert]

I'm a total noob when it comes to tech stuff but wouldn't gazillions of people spectating cause lag issues for players playing the game being viewed? I'm pretty sure I saw some Starcraft players asking some spectators out when they had lag problems. Don't hurt me.

 

[Russian Mafia]

I'm a total noob when it comes to tech stuff but wouldn't gazillions of people spectating cause lag issues for players playing the game being viewed? I'm pretty sure I saw some Starcraft players asking some spectators out when they had lag problems. Don't hurt me.

You can already spectate games while in Dota 2, and it doesn't affect the players, even with 100 or so spectators, hell you can spectate a game while looking for a match of your own, something that would be cool to have in TF2's MvM.