The history and lore of Dota 2 are rarely spoken about, with the focus of the game squarely set in its competitive multiplayer format players know and love. Veterans of the franchise will remember its bygone days as a Warcraft mod, Defence of the Ancients, which saw heroes take to the map with designs and art from Blizzard’s original Warcraft title.
As a tribute to this bygone era, a Dota 2 fan designed a Storm Spirit set which was inspired by the hero’s original model.
In the original game, most heroes had full names. From the earth-shaking fissures of Raigor Stonehoof to Kardel Sharpeye’s moniker as the Sniper, these full names gave plenty more personality to the heroes of Dota we love today.
These alternate tags were used more often for some heroes, but most didn’t carry over to Dota 2 due to copyright issues. But upon taking a glance at this Storm Spirit set, long-time Dota 2 fans surely mumbled the hero’s mighty name: “Raijin Thunderkeg”.
The Reddit thread showcasing the cosmetics set was filled with support, with community members even suggesting the design could be an Arcana—reserved for only the pinnacle of cosmetic item sets in Dota.
Every year, in the lead-up to The International, Valve holds a community vote and creates a cache or treasure filled with fan-made skins. This gives creators a chance to add their designs to Dota 2, and it looks like the Beast of Thunder set for Storm Spirit already has some votes to back it up.
In last year’s cache, there was a huge demand for anime-style skins, which also turned into a debate point within the community.
Related: Is this really what we want in Dota? Diretide 2022 Collector’s Cache is all anyone can talk about
Despite concerns, there were still top-quality skins that were voted into the game by the community, and this one for Storm Spirit could also appear in the votes if there happen to be no copyright issues.
