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The Things I wish They would Say; “Are you okay?” (Things They Say, pt. 2 of 4)

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The Things I wish They would Say; “You’re always so happy.” (Things They Say, pt. 1 of 4)

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I've finished! Thirty days later and I've managed to make a badge for the past three winners of The International as well as all the heroes played in the deciding match each year. Today marks the first day of the 2014 International Main Event (watch it here!) and the final post in the #30DaysofDotA2 series (sans badge). I hope you enjoyed seeing what I came up with, I know I did. In looking back over the last 30 days, I wanted to take a moment to touch on my original goals for this project and see what I've accomplished (besides just making 30 badges). A large part of this whole project was to work more in Adobe Illustrator. Of the Adobe design trinity, it's my least worked in program so I wanted to spend more time with it and get comfortable working in a vector environment. With that as my primary goal I've accomplished a bit more than I thought might. I've learned a few new tricks, gotten better at working with anchor points and bezier curves, and toyed with more features than originally planned. I've gotten so used to working in Illustrator in fact that it feels odd when I step back into Photoshop or InDesign (the horror!). Realizing that, perhaps my next design challenge will include working in all three programs. Other goals for my project included making a personal design challenge that would keep working even after graduation, testing out the waters known as #badgehunting, making something that reflected a personal interest of mine, and, of course, getting psyched for #TI4! Challenging myself was definitely worth it. I've kept myself from going stagnant and becoming unpracticed. I've made sure my creative juices keep flowing and also taught myself a few things about how I work, what I can expect from myself, and things I can improve on. Having to make a badge a day was sometimes quite hard and I had to force a design. Some of my designs didn't turn out too well, but because of how I scheduled things (and the premise of the project), I couldn't go back and make them better. Perhaps I will someday, but for now this project will remain a collection of what I can accomplished when pushed every day to make a simple design. As far as testing out #badgehunting, I didn't really do any hunting. You could say I was playing the role of the hunted since I was making badges and looking back, a few of the poorer designs would have benefited from me hunting down badges. #30DaysofDotA2 is totally a reflection of something I enjoy. Since I play the game on and off as well, I found myself a bit more attracted to some heroes' designs over others and it really added to the challenge. I've learned more about the game through hero and team research and doing this all while the playoffs were going on made me all the more excited to share my work. In closing, #30DaysofDotA2 was a great learning experience for me. I gained factual, technical, personal and fan knowledge that will both impact and aid me in the future. Thanks for tagging along with the ride with me. If you really liked a specific design, I'd love to know! Drop me a line on either Tumblr or my Website.

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Day 30 - Alliance

The Alliance, or [A], entered the Dota 2 scene in April 2013 by picking up Swedish team No Tidehunter (consisting of s4, AdmiralBulldog, Akke, EGM, and Loda). Only a few months later they took home The International title and denying it to NaVi.

Their team comp then was the same it is today: s4, Akke, EGM, AdmiralBulldog, and Loda fought their final match of TI3 playing as Wisp, Nature's Prophet, Puck, Crystal Maiden and Chaos Knight.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 1 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 29 - Chaos Knight

The veteran of countless battles on a thousand worlds, Chaos Knight hails from a far upstream plane where the fundamental laws of the universe have found sentient expression. Of all the ancient Fundamentals, he is the oldest and most tireless, endlessly searching out a being he knows only as “The Light.” Long ago the Light ventured out from the progenitor realm, in defiance of the first covenant. Now Chaos Knight shifts from plane to plane, always on the hunt to extinguish the Light wherever he finds it. A thousand times he has snuffed out the source, and always he slides into another plane to continue his search anew.

Upon his steed Armageddon he rides, wading into battle with maniacal frenzy, drawing strength from the disorder of the universe. A physical manifestation of chaos itself, in times of need he calls upon other versions of himself from other planes, and together these dark horsemen ride into battle, as unstoppable as any force of nature. Only when the last Light of the world is scoured from existence will the search be ended. Where rides the Chaos Knight, death soon follows.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 2 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 28 - Rylai, the Crystal Maiden

Born in a temperate realm, raised with her fiery older sister Lina, Rylai the Crystal Maiden soon found that her innate elemental affinity to ice created trouble for all those around her. Wellsprings and mountain rivers froze in moments if she stopped to rest nearby; ripening crops were bitten by frost, and fruiting orchards turned to mazes of ice and came crashing down, spoiled. When their exasperated parents packed Lina off to the equator, Rylai found herself banished to the cold northern realm of Icewrack, where she was taken in by an Ice Wizard who had carved himself a hermitage at the crown of the Blueheart Glacier. After long study, the wizard pronounced her ready for solitary practice and left her to take his place, descending into the glacier to hibernate for a thousand years. Her mastery of the Frozen Arts has only deepened since that time, and now her skills are unmatched.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 3 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 27 - Puck, the Faerie Dragon

While Puck seems at first glance a mischievous, childish character, this quality masks an alien personality. The juvenile form of a Faerie Dragon, a creature that lives for eons, Puck spends countless millennia in its childish form. So while it is technically true that Puck is juvenile, it will continue to be so when the cities of the present age have sloughed away into dust. Its motives are therefore inscrutable, and what appears to be play may in fact indicate a darker purpose or just its endless fondness for mischief.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 4 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 26 - Nature's Prophet

When Verodicia, Goddess of the Woods, had finished filling in the green places, having planted the coiled-up spirit in the seed, having lured the twining waters from deep within the rock, having sworn the sun its full attention to the growing things, she realized that her own time had reached its end, and like one of the leaves whose fate she had imprinted in the seed, she would fall without seeing the fruiting of her dream. It pained her to leave the world bereft, for the sprouts had not yet broken through the soil--and they would be tender and vulnerable to every sort of harm. She found in her seed pouch one last seed that she had missed in the sowing. She spoke a single word into the seed and swallowed it as she fell. Her vast body decomposed throughout the long winter, becoming the humus that would feed the seedlings in the spring. And on the morning of the vernal equinox, before the rest of the forest had begun to wake, that last seed ripened and burst in an instant. From it stepped Nature's Prophet, in full leaf, strong and wise, possessing Verodicia's power to foresee where he would be needed most in defense of the green places--and any who might be fortunate enough to call him an ally.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 5 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 25 - Io, the Guardian Wisp

Io is everywhere, and in all things. Denounced by enemies as the great unmaker, worshiped by scholars as the twinkling of a divine eye, Io occupies all planes at once, the merest fraction of its being crossing into physical existence at any one moment.

Like the great twin riders Dark and Light, and yet another ancient traveler whose true history is lost to the ages, Io the Wisp is a Fundamental of the universe—a force older than time, a wanderer from realms far beyond mortal understanding. Io is nothing less than the sum of all attractive and repulsive forces within matter, a sentient manifestation of the charge that bind particles together. It is only in the controlled warping of these forces that Io’s presence can be experienced on the physical plane. A benevolent, cooperative force, Io bonds its strength to others so that the power of allies might be enhanced. Its motives inscrutable, its strength unimaginable, Io moves through the physical plane, the perfect expression of the mysteries of the universe.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 6 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 24 - Razzil Darkbrew, the Alchemist

The sacred science of Chemistry was a Darkbrew family tradition, but no Darkbrew had ever shown the kind of creativity, ambition, and recklessness of young Razzil. However, when adulthood came calling he pushed aside the family trade to try his hand at manufacturing gold through Alchemy. In an act of audacity befitting his reputation, Razzil announced he would transmute an entire mountain into gold. Following two decades of research and spending and preparation, he failed spectacularly, quickly finding himself imprisoned for the widespread destruction his experiment wrought. Yet Razzil was never one to take a setback lightly, and sought escape to continue his research. When his new cellmate turned out to be a fierce ogre, he found just the opportunity he needed. After convincing the ogre not to eat him, Razzil set about carefully concocting a tincture for it to drink, made from the moulds and mosses growing in the prison stone work. In a week’s time, it seemed ready. When the ogre drank the potion, it flew into an unstoppable berserker rage, destroying the cell bars and exploding through walls and guards alike. They soon found themselves lost somewhere in the forest surrounding the city with a trail of wreckage in their wake and no signs of pursuit. In the tonic’s afterglow, the ogre seemed serene, happy, and even eager. Resolving to work together, the pair set off to collect the materials needed to attempt Razzil’s Alchemic transmutation once more.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 7 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 23 - Enigma

Nothing is known of Enigma’s background. There are only stories and legends, most of them apocryphal, passed down through the ages. In truth, Enigma is a mystery for whom the only true biography is description: he is a universal force, a consumer of worlds. He is a being of the void, at times corporeal, other times ethereal. A beast between the planes.

There are stories that say he was once a great alchemist who tried to unlock the secrets of the universe and was cursed for his arrogance. Other legends tell that he is an ancient being of strange gravity, the abyss personified—a twisted voice from out the original darkness, before the first light in the universe. And there are older legends that say he is the first collapsed star, a black hole grown complicated and sentient—his motivations unknowable, his power inexorable, a force of destruction unleashed upon existence itself.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 8 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 22 - Batrider

There is no such thing as harmony among the creatures of the Yama Raskav Jungle. By bite, or claw, or pincer, or hoof, even the slightest sign of weakness means a swift death. They say the Rider was just a lad cutting chaff in his family's field when he was taken, swept up by a massive morde-bat looking for take-out. But this boy had a better idea, and wriggled his way from his captor's grip, onto the beast's back, and hacked it down with his tools. Emerging from the bloody wreckage and intoxicated by the thrill of flight, the boy realized he'd found his calling. The boy grew, and every summer he'd return to his family's field, often setting out into the bush seeking to reclaim that first thrill of facing death in the form of jaws or a fatal fall. The years went on, but his fire only grew stronger. He studied the overgrowth, plunging deeper with each expedition, until finally he found his way to the caves at the heart of hostility. They say the Rider, on the eve of a scorching summer night, had nothing but a rope, a bottle of liquid courage and a burning determination to feel the skies once more, when he plunged inside....

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 9 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 21 - Rubick, the Grand Magus

Any mage can cast a spell or two, and a few may even study long enough to become a wizard, but only the most talented are allowed to be recognized as a Magus. Yet as with any sorcerer’s circle, a sense of community has never guaranteed competitive courtesy.

Already a renowned duelist and scholar of the grander world of sorcery, it had never occurred to Rubick that he might perhaps be Magus material until he was in the midst of his seventh assassination attempt. As he casually tossed the twelfth of a string of would-be killers from a high balcony, it dawned on him how utterly unimaginative the attempts on his life had become. Where once the interruption of a fingersnap or firehand might have put a cheerful spring in his step, it had all become so very predictable. He craved greater competition. Therefore, donning his combat mask, he did what any wizard seeking to ascend the ranks would do: he announced his intention to kill a Magus.

Rubick quickly discovered that to threaten one Magus is to threaten them all, and they fell upon him in force. Each antagonist's spell was an unstoppable torrent of energy, and every attack a calculated killing blow. But very soon something occurred that Rubick's foes found unexpected: their arts appeared to turn against them. Inside the magic maelstrom, Rubick chuckled, subtly reading and replicating the powers of one in order to cast it against another, sowing chaos among those who had allied against him. Accusations of betrayal began to fly, and soon the sorcerers turned one upon another without suspecting who was behind their undoing.

When the battle finally drew to a close, all were singed and frozen, soaked and cut and pierced. More than one lay dead by an ally’s craft. Rubick stood apart, sore but delighted in the week’s festivities. None had the strength to argue when he presented his petition of assumption to the Hidden Council, and the Insubstantial Eleven agreed as one to grant him the title of Grand Magus.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 10 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 20 - iG; Invictus Gaming

Established in early August of 2011, Invictus Gaming, or iG for short, was a relatively young organization. The players behind it, however, are some of the most established names in the Chinese DotA scene, having played in some of the best and top teams in China. In the 2012 International iG beat the returning champions Na'Vi in a best 3 out of 5 matches.

Their team comp for the 2012 International was Faith, Zhou, ChuaN, YYF, and Ferrari_430. The final match they played Dark Seer, Naga Siren, Templar Assassin, Tidehunter, and Keeper of the Light.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 11 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 19 - Lanaya, the Templar Assassin

Lanaya, the Templar Assassin, came to her calling by a path of curious inquiry. Possessed of a scientific bent, she spent her early years engaged in meticulous study of nature's laws--peering into grimoires of magic and alchemy, recreating experiments from charred fragments of the Violet Archives, and memorizing observations of the Keen recordkeepers. Already quiet and secretive by nature, the difficulty of acquiring these objects further reinforced her skills of stealth. Had she been less retiring, she might have become notorious among the guilds as a thief-scholar. Instead her investigations led her into far more obscure corners. As she devoted her furtive talents to unlocking the secrets of the universe, she instead unlocked a secret door that exists in nature itself: the entryway to the most Hidden Temple. The intelligences that waited beyond that portal, proved to be expecting her, and whatever mysteries they revealed in the moment of their discovery was nothing compared to the answers they held out to Lanaya should she continue in their service. She swore to protect the mysteries, but more to the point, in service to the Hidden Temple she satisfies her endless craving for understanding. In the eyes of each foe she expunges, a bit more of the mystery is revealed.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 12 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 18 - Ezalor, the Keeper of the Light

On a steel horse he rides, this spark of endless suns, this Keeper of the Light. Ezalor long ago escaped the Fundamental plane, separating from the other ancient forces to which he was bound within the great Primordial harmony. He is a power grown sentient in the dawn of the universe, and now rides forth in all planes at once, one step ahead of pursuing chaos, bearing his gift with him at the end of a radiant staff. His majestic truth lies hidden beneath the outward appearance of a slightly doddering old man who barely stays in the saddle. However, when faced with the challenge of chaos, or the forces of darkness, his primordial light bursts forth, and his full power is revealed, transforming him once again into a force to be reckoned with.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 13 days until The International, 2014.

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Day 17 - Ish'Kafel, the Dark Seer

Fast when he needs to be, and a cunning strategist, Ish'Kafel the Dark Seer requires no edged weapons to vanquish his enemies, relying instead on the strength of his powerful mind. His talent lies in his ability to maneuver the fight to his advantage. Hailing from a place he calls 'The Land behind the wall,' Dark Seer remains an outsider here—a warrior from a realm beyond the veil of this reality.

Once a great general among his people, and a valiant defender of the god-king Damathryx, Dark Seer’s army was wiped out by a much larger force in the final days of the Great Boundaries War. Facing certain defeat, he made one last desperate act: he led the enemy forces into the maze between the walls. At the last moment, just before capture, he crossed over—then sealed the walls forever in an explosive release of dark energy. When the dust settled, he saw that he had saved his people but found himself blinking at the sun of a different world, with no way to return. Now he is committed to proving his worth as a military strategist, and vows to show that he’s the greatest tactician this strange new world has ever seen.

Badge design by Rebecca Sharkey 14 days until The International, 2014.