Valve’s DOTA 2 blog has word that their plans for a year-long beta “was dumb”. Here’s the brief from IceFrog:

We’re going to take the current version of Dota 2, which has The International set of heroes, and get it out there as fast as we can. We’ve still got some work to do in a couple of areas, so we’ll be keeping it invite-only for a (hopefully short) period of time. But there’ll be no restrictions on what players can do with it – they can release screenshots, make movies, shoutcast matches, write guides, publicly make fun of our HUD, or anything else their hearts desire.

Interesting! Looks like we could be in for a dose of DOTA 2 much sooner than anticipated. But will it overcome my general MOBA-reticence? Hmm. Sceptical.