A single gesture of goodwill from Valve in the form of a Swag Bag was enough to bring thousands of new and returning active players to Dota 2. The game’s servers were even caught off guard, with the player count surging to new highs, and Valve had to limit the players that could claim their rewards to reduce the load on the servers. It looks like the demand’s getting under control, however, as more players have been able to claim their Swag Bags.
When the Swag Bag was first released on Oct. 26, Dota 2’s Game Coordinator also went down, meaning active players weren’t able to queue up for a game. Valve’s solution to the problem allowed players to continue playing Dota, but it required others to wait to claim their free Arcana and battle pass.
Thousands of players were still trying to claim their The International Swag Bag every day, only to stumble upon an error message telling them they couldn’t unlock their rewards yet. Now that the hype levels are under control, more players have been able to claim their gifts from Valve just in time to enjoy the Diretide event.
In addition to playing Dota, the battle pass is the second best source to unlock more Candy, which can be traded for valuable cosmetics in the Candyworks Shop. Candies in the battle pass are awarded for reaching certain tiers. Players can also choose to purchase levels to speed up their process and complete weekly challenges.
The Candyworks shop contains lots of valuable items like Arcanas, but players will need to use quite a few reroll tokens to get to them as they have a lower drop rate compared to the less valuable items in the shop.
