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Characters / The Dota 2 Reporter

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This page details many of the Dota 2 heroes as they are depicted in The Dota 2 Reporter.

This page is currently under construction, any contributions would be appreciated.

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Recurring Characters

    Nigel 
The titular reporter, Nigel has participated in the game as an in-game hero, a shopkeeper, a courier, and eventually one of the players in his adventures to learn the mechanics of DOTA 2.
  • Butt-Monkey: Of the physical variety mostly, having been hooked by Pudge, smacked by Nature's Prophet, and Counter-Helixed by Axe. However, any of his own deliberate attempts at humor tend to blow up in his face as well.
  • Courier: In Seasons 1 and 2.
  • Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Nature's Prophet kills him in Episode 27. However, since he's the Radiant team's courier for that game, he respawns in Episode 29.
  • Demoted to Extra: While the earliest episodes focused heavily on him learning the most basic of mechanics, he got gradually less screen time as a courier, and even less as a spectator. He hasn't even appeared at all in a few episodes. However he starts getting more screen time after Taking control of Phoenix after its original player abandons the game.
  • Fragile Speedster: As a flying Courier, he's weak and easy to kill, while being a key part of his team's logistics. At the same time, he can fly over unpathable terrain and can temporarily reach the max movespeed in the game. This allows him to fly off past the Dire team in Season 1, distracting them for a crucial few moments and buying time for the Radiant to respawn.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Attempts this in the Season 1 Finale, when he takes off on his jetpack to distract the Dire team from destroying their barracks. Given that he appears again at the end of the episode, he most likely evaded them, but the thought was still there.
  • The Kirk: To Enigma's McCoy and Rubick's Spock.
  • The Lancer: To Enigma in season 3, when Rubick is on the enemy team and had to replace a player.
  • Morality Pet: To Enigma.
  • Mr. Exposition: He has a habit of narrating what certain heroes are doing as it happens on-screen.
  • Nice Guy: Very much so. He's been shown countless times to have much more patience and empathy with failing players than most of the other heroes playing do, which is impressive considering the reputation DOTA 2's playerbase has gathered.
  • Once an Episode: "Hello and welcome to a new DOTA 2 Report." To the point where Enigma wonders where the hell Nigel is when he doesn't say it at the start of an episode.
  • Phrase Catcher: "You're just gonna have to accept this and move on."
  • Unlucky Everydude: He has it rough hanging out with entities such as Enigma and Rubick.

    Rubick 
  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: The first sign that he's not all there in the head. It vanishes as his wackiness is dialed back.
  • The Ace: As shown in Episode 10 when he takes on Bane, Faceless Void, and Dark Seer by himself and wins.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: In Season 3, he's on the Radiant team while Enigma is on the Dire.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: With the exception of season 3, he is usually second in command of Enigma, despite being much more competent than him.
  • Flanderization: Inverted. In earlier episodes, he was a wacky but competent player. Later on, his competence is played up while his wackiness is dialed way back.
  • Face Doodling: Subjects Faceless Void to this after stealing his Chronosphere.
  • Friendly Enemy: With Enigma in Season 3.
  • Graceful Loser: He never seems to have a problem with losing, as the end of Seasons 2 and 3 show.
  • Idiot Ball: Grabs it in the latter half of Season 3, where he heads off into a lane on his own to farm, presumably without wards, which allows Tidehunter, Crystal Maiden, and Phoenix to easily kill him, which then snowballs into the rest of the Dire team killing most of the Radiant team and pushing down their barracks.
  • The Leader: Of Season 3, being on the opposing side to Enigma and Nigel while more-or-less acting as the leader of the Radiant team.
  • Mad Hatter:
    Enigma: Rubick, you're a crazy f-BEEP, aren't you?
    Rubick: Yup!
  • Nice Guy: Though he's not immune to losing his temper if a game goes too badly, as Episode 28 shows.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The insane red to Enigma's reserved and sarcastic blue, at first. However, the roles were flipped later with Rubick becoming the nice and professional blue to Enigma's fiery and jerk-ish red.
  • Trrrilling Rrrs: "I am the Grrrrrandest Magus!"
  • Visual Gag: He's seen picking up a Rubix Cube in his very first appearance.
  • Vocal Evolution: He seems to have changed voice actors at some point.

    Enigma 

    Pudge 
  • Butt-Monkey: Enigma never gives him a break. Even Rubick got mad at him in their debut appearance.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: In Season 2, one of Invoker's sunstrikes blows him up, leaving only his burning legs behind. He respawns later though.
  • Delayed Reaction: "Missing Middle!"
  • Demoted to Extra: In Season 3, where he's relegated to being a cameo as Radiant team's courier.
  • The Dog Bites Back: His entire appearance in Season 2 can be summed up as this against Enigma. He even manages to win the match in the end.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: He's on the Dire team in Season 2, making him an enemy to Enigma and Rubick.
  • The Leader: Of enemy tema in Season 2, being the mid laner as well as the enemy with the most personal ties to the Radiant team.
  • The Load: Literally rots himself to death, misses hooks on stationary targets, doesn't react to being attacked, and doesn't warn his team that Huskar is missing until after he's already ganked bottom and killed everyone but Rubick.
  • Oh, Crap!: After noticing that 4 enemies are pushing his mid tower down.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Has literally no reaction to getting a flaming spear lodged in his chest via Huskar.

    Roshan 

  • Adaptational Badass: In Season 1, When a team including a fully armed anti-mage seemed incapable of hurting him, in actual game the team would have defeated him..
  • Butt-Monkey: Literally exists just to be killed by the heroes over and over again.
  • Villain Decay: In the first season, a team of late-game heroes seemed unable to beat him. In seasons 2 and 3, he can be killed in the mid-game.

Season 1

    Anti-Mage 
  • The Ace: Even after several seasons have passed, Anti-Mage is still one of the most competent heroes shown in-story.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: A fan of this, he tries to come up with one when faced with Faceless Void, but promptly gives up when he can't think of a synonym for "soon" that starts with the letter "R".
    Anti-Mage: No matter, your rapid ruin will arrive really... promptly!
  • Batman Gambit: Pulls one in Episode 17 by using his Manta Style and having one of his clones run from the enemy team while he and the other clone attack the tower. The Dire attack the clone, believing that the one fleeing is the real Anti-Mage.
  • Brilliant, but Lazy: Despite being a mostly competent player, his main flaw seems to be his borderline obsession with just staying in his lane and farming all day.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin
    Nigel: So... why are you called the "Anti-Mage"?
    Anti-Mage: I don't like magic. At all...
  • Freudian Excuse: Parodied. Apparently he doesn't like magic because a magician punched him in the face when he was a child.
  • Literal-Minded: When asked how the gold his team just earned for him tastes, he actually starts licking it.
  • Mr. Exposition: Spends the first episode explaining to Nigel the game's objective and what they should do in a round's early stages.
  • Put on a Bus: Leaves when Season 1's match ends. His only reappearance after that is in the Christmas Special.

    Dazzle 

    Windrunner 
Note: Her time on the show was before her name was changed to Windranger in the actual game.

    Bane 

    Faceless Void 
  • Cane Fu: Not really. He never does any real damage to enemies until after he trades it in for his signature mace.
  • Disabled Means Helpless: He Time Walks into a tree multiple times.
  • Evil Cripple: Post-Episode 8.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: Spends one episode on Enigma's team before spending the rest of the season as part of the Dire.
  • The Leader: Of enemy team in Season 1, being the hero with the most spoken lines.
  • Put on a Bus: Never reappears after Season 1 ends.
  • Took a Level in Badass: He learned how to use echo-location to find his enemies. After the revelation, he demonstrates his newfound power by using Chronosphere to kill the entire Radiant team sans Anti-Mage.

    Huskar 
  • Butt-Monkey: He spends 3 episodes stuck on a cliff thanks to Rubick.
  • Characterization Marches On: Initially, he is shown to be speaking where he request Pudge to have the spear back. Subsequent appearances have him being silent, only speaking through grunts and laughs.
  • Hyperspace Arsenal: This series pokes fun at this trope by having Huskar ask Pudge for his spear back after he's already thrown it at him.
  • Put on a Bus: Never reappears after Season 1 ends.

    Dark Seer 

    Lifestealer 
  • I Did What I Had to Do: His opinion on massacring innocent mud golems Nigel lured into a jungle camp.
    "You did the right thing. You'll learn someday, they're Mud Golems. I hope one day you'll understand this needed to be done."
  • One-Scene Wonder: He only appeared in Episode 3 as part of Nigel's lesson on the jungling aspects of the game. The above quote is literally his only line in the whole series.

    Tusk 
  • Bullying a Dragon: Basically everyone in the Wolfsden Tavern got punched through the ceiling for daring to challenge Tusk.
  • Curbstomp Battle: Dishes one out to pretty much everyone in the episode, including Enigma at the end.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Like Lifestealer above, he disappeared after appearing once in Episode 4 to be interviewed by Nigel.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: It's so incomprehensible that he needs subtitles for most of what he says. Apparently it's supposed to be Swedish.

Season 2

    Gyrocopter 
  • Companion Cube: His Manta Style illusions.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: He isn't all there in the head.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: In Season 2, he's an ally of Enigma and Rubick. In Season 4, he joins the Dire instead.
  • Large Ham: "It's Call Down time!"
  • Nice Guy: He's lacking in the sanity department, but he never raises a fuss when he doesn't get his way and is generally polite.
  • Put on a Bus: As per the usual, he's absent from Season 3.
    • The Bus Came Back: Doesn't stop him from coming back for Season 4, both the fake and the real one.

    Invoker 
  • Ascended Extra: Appeared in one of the earlier episodes using his Sunstrike as part of a 4-man global damage combo before joining the cast as a proper character in Season 2.
  • Hazy-Feel Turn: In his first appearance he was an enemy that used Sunstrike to wipe out the Radiant team in a global combo. In his second appearance, he joins the game as their mid laner for the season.
  • It's All About Me: Threatens to feed the enemy team if he doesn't get what he wants, and goes middle despite Bristleback going there first.
  • Jerkass: Supposed to be a stereotypical raging MOBA player, and it shows.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Despite being a jerk, he is right that he has priority as a Mid Laner over a Bristleback and a Gyrocopter.
  • Large Ham: Feels the need to shout to the world every orb combination he creates. His gank at top takes this even further.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Refuses to learn anything from losing the game, and promptly gets hooked by Pudge as a result.
  • Ludicrous Gibs: Happens to everyone he kills with Sunstrike.
  • Manchild: Threatens to throw the game if he doesn't get what he wants, blames his team when something goes wrong, refuses to learn anything from the game, abandons the match immediately after seeing Enigma...
  • Rage Quit: Appears in Season 4 only to immediately abandon after seeing Enigma again.

    Nature's Prophet 
  • Ascended Extra: Appeared in one of the earlier episodes using his Wrath of Nature as part of a 4-man global damage combo before joining the cast as a proper character in Season 2.
  • Cool Shades: Wore these in his first appearance as a homage to Cyborgmatt.
  • Hero Killer: Kills Nigel in episode 27. Mitigated by the fact that he respawns later.
  • Graceful Loser: See Pet the Dog.
  • Jerkass: Heavily implied to be a muted player, only quoting lines from the chat wheel. His gameplay reflects this, essentially being a massive troll to the Radiant team.
  • Karma Houdini: Despite being a massive dick, he wins the game anyway.
  • Pet the Dog: When Bristleback kills him with the Divine Rapier in the final episode of Season 2, he says "Well Played!" before succumbing to his wound.
  • Troll

Season 3

    Tidehunter 
  • Adaptational Heroism: Tidehunter in the DOTA 2 canon is a hideous sea monster that ravaged Kunkka's fleet. In the DOTA 2 Reporter, he's one of the nicest characters to show up.
  • Big Guy: Shares this role with Terrorblade. Terrorblade is the physical powerhouse of the team, while Tidehunter relies on personal durability and an overwhelmingly powerful ultimate.
  • Kind Hearted Simpleton: He isn't exactly one the brightest players to show up, but he is shown to be among the nicestshown in the series. It helps that Enigma seemed to undergo Character Development and never berates him for his mistakes.
  • Nice Guy: In contrast to what he's like in-canon, this Tidehunter only shows real anger when Axe kills Crystal Maiden.
  • Put on a Bus: Double Subverted. True to the DOTA 2 Reporter tradition, he leaves when the match is over. But shows up the following season as a member of the enemy team... and wins the game instantly when the entire Radiant team abandons. Tidehunter is then absent from the next game that follows.
  • Simple, yet Awesome: Despite largely being an idiot, Tidehunter is still quite useful to the Dire team, primarily because of his ultimate, Ravage. Given he's on a team with Enigma and Phoenix, this gives them the ability to consistently overwhelm the Radiant with their chain of area disables. The rest of his kit is likewise simple enough that even he can make use of them, most notably his point and click Gush.
  • Too Dumb to Live: He walks into the enemy fountain to get his Blink Dagger from his stash (even though the courier that just died was carrying it) and doesn't pay attention to the fountain laser zapping him to death.
  • Unskilled, but Strong: In skill Tidehunter is almost as bad as Pudge in the first season, but his ultimate is so powerful and easy to use that he manages to be useful anyway, as all he really needs to do is be somewhere near the fight and hit the button.

    Terrorblade 
  • Adaptational Heroism: Similar case as Tidehunter, Terrorblade in Dota 2 canon is a Card-Carrying Villain who even his fellow demons thought was too much to the point they sent him to Foulfell, or Double Hell as fans might call it. Here, he's friendly and don't look down on his teammates, even if he has a big ego.
  • Big Guy: Shares this role with Tidehunter. He's the physical powerhouse of the team, while Tidehunter relies on personal durability and an overwhelmingly powerful ultimate.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: Egotistical, but not in a bad way, unlike Invoker or Timbersaw. He just likes to talk himself up, but doesn't really talk his team down.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: He's literally named Terrorblade, but he's a pretty cool guy.
  • Foil:
    • To Timbersaw. Both are greedy players who repeatedly obsess over farm, often taking it from their own team, and have quite the ego. But where Terrorblade is both a Item Caddy that genuinely can scale extremely well with farm, and despite is egotism, doesn't insult his team as much as he simply preens to himself, Timbersaw is a relative Crutch Character, who doesn't scale nearly as well with his stolen farm, and is more than happy to blame anyone else for his own mistakes.
    • Also to Juggernaut. While both are Nice Guy carries of their respective teams, Terrorblade is generally self-absorbed with his own farm and constantly goes without his team, while Juggernaut is a team player who often listens to Rubick for advice.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Thanks to his constant farming, he evolves quickly into this by the end game.
  • Nice Guy: Downplayed. He's quite friendly to his team and genuinely enjoys the game. He also has a huge ego, but he's in no way condescending or dismissive of others, he's just that confident in his abilities. He even seems to have befriended Enigma and Rubick, popping into one of their matches to casually chat with them while they're reading the patch notes, before exiting and telling them to enjoy their game.
  • One-Man Army: Spends alot of the game farming, but once he starts participating in fights, the guy is an unstoppable juggernaut that wipes the floor with most of the Radiant team with ease. He even grabs the first Rampage of the series. The only person that ever kills him is Juggernaut, who is Radiant's own carry, who usually requires using his Omnislash to do so.
    • Gameplay and Story Integration: Terrorblade is a pretty accurate portrayal of a carry that's allowed to farm with little disruption. He never once dies during his farming phase, with all attempts to kill him failing, and when the Radiant aren't trying to kill him, they're busy attacking other members of the Dire, giving him plenty of space to flash farm. The end result is a hard carry so massively farmed that only Radiant's own carry, Juggernaut, could ever hope to kill him.
  • Out-of-Character Moment: Despite being established as one of the more efficient players in terms of farming, he nonetheless appeared to be missing his last hits at one point and was caught off guard by the Radiant team's ambush. This is because it was only an illusion, much to Timbersaw's chagrin. The real Terrorblade was out in the jungle, way too focused playing with his new items.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Ecstatic upon getting his first last hit, and boasts of winning the DOTA 2 Internationals after getting an Ultra Kill, but he's a likable case, as he doesn't look down upon others, unlike say, Invoker or Timbersaw.

    Phoenix 
Nigel: Just have to skim my abilities real quick, I'm not totally familiar with them... Chapter One...
  • The Load: He's a complete liability, dying repeatedly without accomplishing anything. Nigel, who had never played the game before, did better than him.
  • Took a Level in Badass: After Nigel takes control, he becomes a lot more useful.
  • The Voiceless: Doesn't talk, only letting out squawks and chirps. This changes when Nigel takes over.
  • Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about him without giving away that his original player abandons the game and Nigel takes over playing him.

    Timbersaw 
  • Curbstomp Battle: Terrorblade consistently kicks his ass, at one point simply picking him up out of his mech and tossing him away.
  • Foil: To Terrorblade. Both are greedy players who repeatedly obsess over farm, often taking it from their own team, and have quite the ego. But where Terrorblade is both a Item Caddy that genuinely can scale extremely well with farm, and despite is egotism, doesn't insult his team as much as he simply preens to himself, Timbersaw is a relative Crutch Character, who doesn't scale nearly as well with his stolen farm, and is more than happy to blame anyone else for his own mistakes.
  • It's All About Me: More subdued than Invoker, but Timbersaw seems to view his mere presence as an asset. At one point he wanders into the jungle purely to leech experience off of the rest of the team.
    Timbersaw: ''(Waits until the very last second to attack the tower) Good thing I'm here!
  • Jerkass: He's pretty much Invoker 2.0. Extremely vain, leeches gold and experience off of the rest of his team, generally useless yet still blames his team for their failures, refuses to wait for a disconnected player, and when his team is about to lose, he pauses the game right before the ancient explodes just so that he can berate Kunkka some more, and after that, even buys back into the game just so he can feed the Dire couriers. And unlike Invoker, he doesn't even have anything nice to say when his team does something right.
    Kunkka: Did you guys see!? Did you? That ghost ship nailed them!
    Timbersaw: Yeah, took you long enough to land one, shitlord.
  • The Napoleon: Small in stature, huge in ego.
  • Oh, Crap!: Gets an epic one when Enigma destroys the tree he's trying to use Timber Chain on, preventing his escape.
  • Smug Snake: Quite the egotist, despite dying more than anyone on his team, and failing multiple times to kill Terrorblade.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's still afraid of trees. At one point a tree sprouts in front of him and he uses his Bloodstone in a panic.

    Kunkka 
  • Difficult, but Awesome: In direct contrast to Tidehunter, Kunkka's relative lack of experience is much more noticable, thanks to how hard his skills are to land.
  • The Dog Bites Back: Eventually snaps due to Timbersaw's constant attacks on him, and starts retaliating.
  • Glass Cannon: Kunkka can kill a wave of Super Creeps in one hit, but dies very easily.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: In a desperate attempt to get megacreeps, he become this.

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