All eyes were on the lookout for Dota 2‘s Patch 7.36c which, apart from balance updates, was supposed to include the release of Act Three of Crownfall. But, instead of the new act, players were greeted last week with a new date for the content update—June 39.
The Dota 2 menu was updated with Patch 7.36c on June 25, with the new date for Crownfall’s The Frosts of Icewrack changed from “late June?” to a date that… doesn’t exactly exist. Check your calendars if you need, but last I saw, there isn’t a June 31, let alone an extra nine days. It’s clear players won’t be playing Act Three this month.
It’s far from the first time we’ve seen a delay in a Dota 2 release—Valve Time is a thing, after all. It’s also not the first time Valve has made a meme of the delay either, as reminded by one fan in a thread on the Dota 2 subreddit this week. In 2016, delays to the launch of the Battle Cup meant Valve missed its planned June launch entirely, so when it finally arrived in mid-July, Valve cheekily dated its blog post as June 45.
If that’s the case, June 39 equals July 9; a conspicuous date as spotted by another fan. July 9 is the anniversary of Dota 2‘s launch out of beta in 2013. It’s possible Valve may have delayed the update on purpose to coincide with the anniversary. Others even believe it to be the release for the teased hero Ringmaster, which we first heard about almost a year ago.
Regardless of the delay, players now have a week to catch up on completing their Crownfall Deserts of Druud overworld map before The Frosts of Icewrack lands—unless another case of Valve Time hits and we’re made to wait even longer.