Dota 2 and Valorant sit at opposite ends of esports. Dota 2 is Valve's five-a-side battle arena game, where a game can swing late on. Valorant is Riot Games' five-a-side tactical shooter, scored in rounds like CS2 but with agents whose abilities change how every round plays.
Dota 2: what to know
- The International (TI) is Valve's world championship, first held in 2011 and now run once a year. Recent editions have taken place between August and October; the 2026 event was in Shanghai.
- The rest of the calendar is run by independent tournament organisers. Series are usually best-of-three with best-of-five finals, and some group stages, including the one at The International in 2023, have used best-of-two series that can end 1-1.
- Radiant and Dire. Every game is played from one of two sides of the map, and side win rates can shift from patch to patch.
- Patches. Big gameplay updates can change the strongest heroes and strategies overnight, so results from before a patch count for less.
Dota 2 markets
| Market | What you are betting on |
|---|---|
| First blood | Which team gets the first kill of a game |
| First Roshan | Which team kills Roshan, a powerful neutral monster, first |
| First to 10 kills | Which team reaches 10 kills first |
| Total kills | Over or under a line of combined kills in one game |
| Game duration | Whether a game runs over or under a set number of minutes |
Valorant: what to know
- The Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) is Riot's pro circuit: regional competition, two Masters events a year and Champions, the world championship, at the end of the season. Partnered international leagues for the Americas, EMEA and the Pacific started in 2023, with China added in 2024, and Riot has announced a return to open qualifiers from 2027.
- Scoring. Each map is first to 13 rounds. At 12-12, overtime continues until one team is two rounds ahead.
- Pistol rounds are rounds 1 and 13, the first round of each half.
- The map pool has seven maps and rotates regularly, sometimes during the season, so check which maps are in play before an event.
Valorant markets
| Market | What you are betting on |
|---|---|
| Map winner | Which team wins a given map |
| Map handicap | Winning the series by a margin of maps, such as -1.5 |
| Total rounds | Over or under a line of rounds on one map |
| Pistol round | Which team wins round 1 or round 13 |
| Correct score | The exact series score, such as 2-0 |
A team's composition, the five agents it picks, can suit one map and struggle on another, so map-by-map records tell you more than overall form. The round-based markets work as they do in CS2, and esports betting markets explained has worked examples. Betting is for adults aged 18 and over.
FAQs
How is betting on Valorant different from CS2?
The markets look alike because both games are scored in rounds, first to 13 on each map. The differences are overtime, where Valorant plays on until a team leads by two, the agents and their abilities, and a map pool that rotates more often. Map-by-map records matter in both.
What is The International in Dota 2?
The International, or TI, is the Dota 2 world championship, run by Valve and first held in 2011. It now takes place once a year, and recent editions have run between August and October. Teams reach it through direct invitations or qualifiers, and it is the most prestigious event on the Dota 2 calendar.
What is first Roshan in Dota 2 betting?
First Roshan is a bet on which team kills Roshan, a powerful neutral monster, first in a game. Killing Roshan gives a team the Aegis of the Immortal, which brings a hero back to life once, so the first Roshan often decides the next big fight.