DOTA 2 to be released by Valve!

I haven't been this excited in a long time. I was eating my lunch in the break room at work while checking my twitter to find that IGN, Gameinformer, and basically everyone worth mentioning, had posted new information on Valves new upcoming release.

So, here's the full story.
Dota (Defense of the Ancients) is a custom Warcraft 3 map based off an old Starcraft map called "Aeon of Strife". Dota was first created by a mapmaker under the alias Eul it was then re-worked after the WC3 expansion by Steve Feak (his version becoming the dominantly played version)

Steve added and renamed it Defense of the Ancients - All-stars. Still acronymed Dota
Feak wanted to create Dota as a stand alone game, and under certain circumstances, began work with Riot Games creating "League of Legends"

Dota was slightly re-worked again in version 6.1 by Icefrog.
Icefrog added new heroes, features, and fixes. His work on the map made him a name in the WC3 community. his work also achieved him an opportunity to work with none other than Valve. To create a stand alone game, Conveniently name Dota 2.

Sweet, sooooooo whats Dota 2 going to be like.

I'll keep this short and sweet.
Virtually untouched gameplay form the legendary original
DotA-Allstars' roster of 100+ heroes is being brought over in its entirety.
Items, skills, and upgrade paths are unchanged. Some hero skills work slightly
Valve's Source engine, ooooo shiny!
Integrated voice chat!
AI bots will take over for disconnected players
"The bulk of innovation in Dota 2, however, is ancillary to the gameplay itself. Valve is upgrading Steamworks (the company's backend technologies for matchmaking and other gameplay and community-related things) to allow them to create in-game rewards for participating in the Dota 2 community. The idea is to have everything a player does in or out of game tie back into their online identity. Like the improvements to Source, the Steamworks upgrades will be available to third-party developers who choose to use Valve's tools when Dota 2 launches in 2011." (source)
skill-based matchmaking for both individuals and teams
interactive guides will allow players to do more than just read a guide