Rat Dota: the split-push style behind Alliance's TI3 win

Alliance, champions of The International 2013

The International 2013 took place in August 2013 at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. The champion was Sweden's Alliance, with Loda, s4, AdmiralBulldog, EGM and Akke; StopGame published the news of the win on August 12, 2013.

In the grand final, Alliance beat Natus Vincere 3–2 and took home $1,436,970 out of a prize pool of about $2.87 million.

Na'Vi had won the first International themselves in 2011. Hotspawn ranks the TI3 final among the best grand finals in the tournament's history.

Split-pushing instead of teamfights

Hotspawn describes Alliance's style as “focused on split-pushing, forcing enemy rotations, and winning games by destroying buildings and avoiding fights.”

Heroes were spread across different lanes, the opponent had to burn time rotating, and buildings quietly fell in the meantime. Na'Vi, meanwhile, were considered stronger in teamfights.

Hence the label: “rats” are players who don't take fights and quietly take buildings instead. The word often carries a “sneaky, but it works” flavor. According to Hotspawn, it was the TI3 final that put the term “Rat Dota” into the community's vocabulary.

Game five and the “Million Dollar Dream Coil”

Hotspawn describes TI3 as the first event with the Compendium and a crowdfunded prize pool; Alliance came into the final undefeated. According to Sportskeeda, the series was tied 2–2 after four games. In game five, Alliance started slowly and Na'Vi took early control.

Alliance then switched to split-pushing two lanes at once. When Na'Vi teleported back to defend their base, s4 on Puck caught them in a Dream Coil and canceled three teleports while Alliance took down two sets of barracks. Later a second Dream Coil canceled two more teleports, including Dendi's. Half of Na'Vi was already dead, and the team couldn't stop the push on the throne by Chaos Knight and Nature's Prophet. The moment went down in history as the “Million Dollar Dream Coil.”

The nickname comes with a disputed detail: Sportskeeda mentions two different Dream Coils in the final, and fans still argue over which one was the real “million-dollar” one.

“Once you go rat, you never go back”

Today “rat,” “ratting” and “rat Dota” mean quietly pushing buildings while dodging fights. The go-to phrase is “Once you go rat, you never go back,” cited by both Respawn and cyber.sports.ru.

The community often links the style to AdmiralBulldog on Nature's Prophet, a hero who teleports around the map and is well suited to split-pushing. Bulldog's TI3 clip “The Bait,” about baiting at Roshan, is also remembered. However, coverage of the tournament doesn't directly tie rat Dota to Nature's Prophet specifically.

The five Alliance players on the TI3 stage

The catalog card shows a photo of the five Alliance players in matching jackets, standing in a row on The International 2013 stage next to the Dota 2 logo.

It's a team photo, not a gameplay moment.

Captions about rats and split-pushing

Examples made up for illustration: “While you were fighting mid, I took two towers top. Once you go rat, you never go back.”

“Teammates: where were you the whole teamfight? Me: ratting rax” or “Lost the fifth fight in a row, but somehow the throne is falling.”