Though many of us have played hundreds and hundreds of hours of Dota 2, it still isn't officially out. It's technically in closed beta, see, though we all surely have enough spare invites by now to invite everyone we've ever known. That should finally change this summer, as Valve has said it'll launch its free-to-play Lords Management game before its big tournament The International 3 begins on August 7.

That's what Valve's Erik Johnson told PC Gamer, and later confirmed with ValveTime.

Valve had once said Dota 2 would only officially launch once it had ported over all 112 of the original Warcraft 3 mod's playable characters. With seven weeks left before TI3 kicks off, Valve still has 11 heroes to go. Given the slow and steady pace Valve at which is adding heroes, it would seem that plan has changed.

PCG's Chris Thursten believes, based on chats he had at Valve, that Dota 2 will launch with or after its next two heroes--which he thinks will be Abaddon, now less copyright-infringing, then Legion Commander, now a lady and hopefully a bit less racist.