DOTA 2 Removes BETA Key restrictions

Source - Gosugamers

UPDATE:

You can only play the tutorial for now, it's still in the "spectator mode"

"Valve has abolished the beta key system and Dota 2 can now be accessed without a beta key. Chinese gamers on a separate client still do not have the priviledge unfortunately.

As we approach the official release of Dota 2, we found out that Valve has activated Dota 2 on Steam and the game is now open for all to play without a beta key. Newcomers to Steam or the game is now able to access Dota 2 and engage themselves in a game after going through the interactive tutorial system.

Upon hearing the news, we made a new accounts from all parts of the world and we can confirm that people anywhere (except China) have free access to the game now. Chinese gamers can receive free access to Perfect World server if they clocked in more than 800 hours of Dota 2 on the normal Steam servers.

One change we noticed was the addition of the game trailer before the main menu fully loads. We did further testing to see if the trailer pops up in older accounts and the result is negative. Perhaps it is only for new accounts and may not appear again after we go through the tutorial. Further testing required.

According to Gamespot, the game will be officially released this summer and most possibly before The International 3. While a lot of people are happy for Valve, many expressed concern for the release of the game at its current state. Many are also disappointed at Valve's decision to not implement LAN functions before the official release although it may still come in the upcoming weeks."

What are your thoughts?

It's good that we get to play internationally, but some people who attempts to connect a room in another region might lead to severe lagging.

For example: I'm in Russia and I connect to SEA region. My ping might rocket sky high and most likely screw up the game for others.

I was hoping Valve can resolve this issue before the official release of DotA 2.

Anyway, about the BETA key removal...
It doesn't seem to affect much. Since DotA 2 have been handing out free BETA keys like no tomorrow (my mail have a ton of them), much players would have already acquired one.

This is wrong information, as joinDOTA stated hours ago.

http://www.joindota.com/en/news/10157-update-dota-2-claims-of-open-beta-false

yeah, was reading through gosugamers and this popped up