Dota 2 adds quests, progression trees and hats with the Winter 2016 Battle Pass

This week Dota 2 developer Valve introduced its latest in-game event and event program with the Winter 2016 Battle Pass. Replacing last year's Dota Asia Championship Compendium, the Winter Battle Pass does include a Compendium — an interactive, in-game program with tournament and player information — for the upcoming Shanghai Major, but it also introduces a new, limited-time series of in-game progression and quests for players to fulfill.

The Winter Battle Pass introduces a new Path system to Dota 2, with challenge trees specific to the game's different roles. Supports can follow the Path of the Patron, which involves challenges pertaining to warding, healing, disabling enemies and so on. Solo players can fulfill the Path of the Wanderer, which emphasizes last hits and denies and other mid player related responsibilities. Meanwhile, carry players can choose the Path of the Executioner, with objective and kill-related challenges to fulfill. Each path offers a specific hero set for completion, and if the community can complete enough challenges in each path, new styles will be unlocked for those sets.

A new betting system has also been implemented, allowing players to wager up to 1,000 tokens a week on their matches in order to win points that level up their Battle Pass, which yields additional rewards. Players can also tip each other with tokens at the end of a match — including opponents. You can decide whether this means rewarding good sportsmanship or virtually throwing money at defeated enemies.

The Winter 2016 Battle Pass also brings new treasures to Dota 2 for purchase, as well as special seasonal weather and item effects. The event will continue through Dota 2's "Winter season," which appears to conclude with the Shanghai Major in March. The Battle Pass sells for $7.99.