Dota 2 balance-breaking bug discovered [Update: it's fixed!]

Update: As predicted, Valve deployed a patch ASAP. The bug is now fixed. Sorry, Dire. You're back to stacking your own Ancients now.

Stacking is supposed to be a trick that support characters who aren't me can do. They pull the Ancients out of their jungle camp just as their spawn timer ticks over. The game, thinking there are no Ancients in the camp, spawns new ones. The original Ancients return to their position, and now there are two stacks available for gold-hungry heroes.

Currently, Dire-side Ancients are spawning automatically—without the need for player intervention. A gif posted to the Dota 2 subreddit shows this in action. This, naturally, is a major issue for the game's balance. It's a huge advantage to the Dire; and specifically to the heroes that can easily eat a big stack of Ancients. Things can quickly get out of hand:

It's a big enough bug that joinDota League has announced that all its matches are suspended until things are fixed. Given the seriousness, that will likely happen soon. Until it does, definitely avoid playing ranked.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.