Bottle Crow Reborn

Who likes game shows? Well… Nick does, obviously. The newest incarnation of his appreciation of them somewhat resembles Calvinball more than Jeopardy, though. Artifact explains that Dota has just been BlazBlue this whole time. EE has a new diet, and I’m not talking about him eating dirt as a position 6. Plus, an Artifact card controversy. We’re on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher! You...

You put the crow in the bottle, and you shake it all up. Dota Plus has been UPGRADED! With amazing features like… things that were in the Battle Pass! Hurray! Now for just Money a month, Valve won’t take away features that cost them nothing to maintain and make the game a more pleasant experience! Happy birthday to Alohadance, and a return to German recipes to see if we can get some so...

…Two years later when the Lord’s Pitch was finally re-opened they all returned to the Ancients for their delayed final year. Grimstroke missed having an outlet for his creativity so he began to create less permanent body art using magical inks and an anti-erase spell. His friends loved it, they could indulge in sensuous and provocative tattoos that caught the eye but vanished with a simple s...

The International is behind us… and god, there’s so much to talk about! Like EternalEnvy ordering McDonalds! And EternalEnvy tweeting about dad fashion! And EternalEnvy having- wait. I feel like we’re forgetting something. Oh right, a new hero! Uhhh, hmm. Well, I’m sure we’ll find time to say SOMETHING about that amidst our fast food musings. We’re on iTunes, Google P...

A quick hit for you this time! With The International 2018 in full swing, we’re taking a mid-tournament break to record an update straight from the frontlines. With upsets left and right, who’s going to come out on top? …You know, we didn’t even talk about that. We’re too busy being mad that Weatherman Purge isn’t back, and crying at the Sheever video. Ah well....

We’ve cracked the code. OpenAI isn’t going to rule us. They’re going to usher in a new age of narrative and storytelling in esports. And then I’m assuming Dota will be bought by Vince MacMahon. …Maybe them ruling us would be the better outcome. Valve is bad at math, we were right about Slacks, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and the Properties of Lunch on this week’...

On this episode of Bottle Crow, we’re game for some trivia if you are. Then it’s off to more Robot Talk as OpenAI runs wild, and we posit our theories on the impossible forms our machine overlords will inevitably take. Plus: buttermilk roast chicken and chicken noodle soup in Jacky’s Chow! Let us put the fear of your robot god into you, then cleanse it with some nice soup. Seems...

Fly like a crow, into the future. Through the vastness of space, live from Kerbifornia and Milyland (respectively), Six and Nick are here with another weekly dose of kerbalnaut wisdom, bottled up and sent straight to you. Sweep past your periapsis and look towards your apo, cause we’re burning prograde towards the latest in Kerbal Space Program news. DLC drama, Kerbal of the Week, Jackerblin...

One hundred episodes! I am not quite sure how we made it. Certainly, this episode won’t shed light on that matter. Pro drama, the Community Hero and Item Project, the steady march of our oddly limited robot overlords. Plus, some pie crust tips from Jacky’s Chow. We’re on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher! You can subscribe on those, and leave a review if you like! That would really hel...

When the end seems near, and you close your eyes, only death around you, we’ll be there with that Shallow Grave. Stand up, y’all. Dota ain’t dead, and neither are we. The Dota Pro Circuit is showing signs of life as it announces some crucial changes for next season, recalibration is upon us and is only a little bit (read- incredibly) late, and even Steam is rising from its grave...

Teams are exploding. Pros are taking a break. The intensity of the Dota season this year is leaving everyone reeling, and we still have a few months until The International brings it all to a finale. At least we’re (theoretically) getting the last of the biweekly patches, and things will start to settle down on the meta front? Meanwhile, in China, the Dota community uses memes to fight tyran...

I think I’ve made every possible variant of a Navi’s Back/Navi’s Not Back joke at this point. Honestly, I’m at my wit’s end. I need someone to guide me back to a quality joke. A… Navigator. …Hmm, nope. That was not the joke. I truly am lost. The ESL screws up another tournament, faulty Roshan statues flood the market, Valve lashes out at visual novels, and...

“So how long do you plan to let this patch last?” “Two weeks!” “Have you made any major nerfs or buffs that would affect the meta?” “Two weeks!” “…Excuse me?” “…Twooooo weeeeeeks. TWO WEEEEKS. twooOOOo weeeeekkks” How can anyone be expected to solve a new meta within two weeks? That’s Nick’s question on...

On this quiet week, Nick and Six talk school vs. chasing your dreams, Epicenter, and rising stars FlyToMoon, before getting into the content you REALLY crave. A ten item Taco Bell quiz? That we really probably should have approached Taco Bell and asked them if they’d pay us, instead of us doing it on our own for free? That’s that GOOD shit. Corrections: yes, chalupas are a real food it...

From Australian lawsuits to unicorn figures, the courier’s got it all for you this week. You ever think about it like that? Like the RSS feed is the courier, bringing you your latest episode of Bottle Crow? Then you slam the bottle, and put it back on the courier, and send it home, and then remember bottle crowing isn’t in Dota anymore and that was a total waste of time. The patch sche...

We didn’t need a Team Builder to form a great podcasting duo: we figured it out, on our own. And sometimes we have to be a little flexible about roles. Sometimes Nick has to do the “peace out” because I forget. Sometimes, I’m the one who memes! Because in this Dota podcast, much like in the Dota game, we’re all about the freedom to play and innovate. Anything can work...

A scattering of pro drama is dominated by our grand topic for the episode: is the Dota Pro Circuit actually a terrible system? Six and Nick are divided, and like most bad things in life, it all boils down to capitalism. Our best wishes to w33 on his new team, and a quick talk with “Sebby” about the fool’s errand that is chastising Reddit. Part of being a pro is shrugging off &#82...

Nick is a very good friend of mine. He’s a reliable cohost. He’s agreeable, he puts in the work to make this show run, he’s always friendly and understanding. I really value him, and our relationship. And sometimes I want to kill him. This episode introduces a new segment that absolutely will NOT reoccur, “Meme of the Week.” We talk NoobFromUA’s copyright strike...

7.12 is the least of our worries this week: we’re diving full into the surreal. Patch notes pair nicely with a dive into the baffling world of Emma Saying, and a short interview with Allen, a friend and non-Dota player. Jacky’s Chow is gonna teach what to do with a pound of ground beef, and explain some food safety while we’re at it! The Na’Vi CEO vows to fix things in boot...

Congrats to Virtus Pro for being the first team to clench their International 2018 invite! My sympathies to Most Dota Players for being unable to get tickets to said International, because they sold out in mere seconds! Dota Plus is changing the way we play, but perhaps catastrophic hardware failure is changing it even more. Reso needs a rez, five anchors unsecured, the newest Hero Concept. And, J...

The old Bottle Crow RSS feed that we lost access to has been delisted. At last, Bottle Crow Reborn is again your ONLY Dota 2 podcast named after a technique that has since been patched out of the game. And we’re celebrating with a jam-packed episode! Dota Plus, Artifact, the future of VR (I know, but hear us out), our new cooking corner, and The Only Way To Get Banned. I wonder if we should...

Do you like QUIZZES? Do you like DOTA? Well, we have two Dota quizzes for you this week! Play along with Nick as Six plays quizmaster! We’ve also got the latest from Iceberg eSports (rip rip rip rip), Jacky Mao’s Kitchen Nightmares, Patch Is Here Once Again, we’re salty about the Sunder cooldown. Plus, Valvebro isn’t back, stop it, that’s obviously OBVIOUSLY a fake. L...

This week, Six and Nick are going all in on ESL. (Katoviiiice.) We take a deep dive into the history and structure of the esports behemoth, in an attempt to learn where its corporate clumsiness stems from. Then it’s on to observations about Artifact, applause for Envy, and a very happy birthday to Fear. And, uh… Car Talk? Listen, Nick was pretty sick. Be nice. We’re on iTunes, Google P...

It’s a sad time for Dota fans. Not only is one of Dota’s favorite sons, Merlini, retiring from pro Dota, but LD is stepping back as welll… and then to add insult to injury, doofuses like Slacks and the Bottles Crow, Nick and Six, aren’t stopping while they’re ahead. We wish a warm farewell to Ben Wu, one of the greats, and look to the future… it sure as shit ain...

This week’s news might spell the death of the patch note special? We can’t do those every two weeks, we seriously can’t. But if the average quality of our standard episodes goes up because of it, it’s well worth it. Inbetween talk of beef stew and microwave bacon, we find time to dish dirt on Navi and VP’s player swap, the Fate of Sonneiko, our biweekly patch future,...