Dota 2's Boston Major closed with a surprising note. After OG hoisted the Eaglesong trophy, a surprising trailer rolled, announcing the imminent release of the 7.00 patch to the Dota 2 test client.

To say this was a shock would be an understatement. While Valve initially stated that the event would be followed by the release of a presumed 6.89 patch, jumping directly into 7.00 (which comes nearly 12 years after the release of 6.00) was a twist few saw coming.

And that the update would drop less than 24 hours after the event ended? Well, that certainly didn't make things more predictable.

What wasn't a surprise, though, is that the version sees significant overhauls to the whole of Dota 2, from the UI to the HUD to the metagame. The full patch notes can be found on the official Dota 2 blog, but here are some of the highlights:

• New addition to the level-up system, the "Talent Tree." Players have the option between different stat boosts at levels 10, 15, 20 and 25 (for example, at level 10, Terrorblade has the choice between +6 Health Regen OR +15 Attack Speed).
• Heavy changes to stats that scale over time (experience, gold bounties, respawn timer, etc.).
• Changes to map including new Roshan location, new ancient neutrals locations, new jungle-based "shrine" buildings that offer various effects, new rune locations and more.
• Extensive changes to the UI and in-game HUD.
• New inventory slots for support items (specifically, wards).
• Major changes to a multitude of characters ranging from small to complete reworks. Reworked characters include Lycanthrope, Necrophos, Techies and Treant Protector.
• Monkey King, the all-new character announced at TI6, was detailed. Included in his release is an arcana, announcer pack and lore.
• New models for Slardar, Viper and Enigma.

Of course, the Dota 2 community was quick to respond...once the patch notes finally became viewable. That took a long time, though.

The countdown hit zero, and rather than automatically redirecting fans to the patch notes, the Dota 2 website crashed for a length of time, inspiring a number of hilarious responses and forcing fans into finding wacky ways to find out what was included in the 7.00 update (warning, some NSFW language below). Naturally, current Team Freedom player (and member of the TI3 Team Liquid) Michael "ixmike88" Ghannam delivered some of his trademark blunt criticism on the spotty rollout:

ixmike88 @ixmike88

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ GIVE PATCHNOTES

ixmike88 @ixmike88

ud think with all the countdown bait shit valve does theyd figure out how to auto load the content when the countdowns over

He wasn't alone in his frustration, either:

Redeye @PaulChaloner

Waiting for patch notes to appear.

ESL Dota2 @ESLDota2

Reddit Dota 2 @redditdota2

.@AdmiralBulldog 7.00 countdown reaction #dota2

Nahaz @NahazDota

3, 2, 1... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When the patch notes did become available and players began digesting it, there was a unique mix of excitement and dread. Some were excited about how various changes would freshen up Dota 2 and add some unique new aspects to the game:

Ludwig Wåhlberg @zai_2002

.@_ExspirA_ I'm honest, the logic and philosophy behind (most) changes makes sense and I'm excited about changes to early game movement

Cr1t- @Cr1tdota

wow its incredible patch :O

Jerry Lundkvist @FollowEGM

best patch ever so hyped to play ;-D

Some, however, were taken aback by how much they would need to learn in this new version of the game:

Resolut1on @Resolut1on_

Damn we will have lot of work to get used to this new game

compLexity Gaming @compLexity

canceL: "The backpack is REAL?!?"

Simon Haag @Handsken1

Defense of the Legends

Miracle- @Liquid_Miracle

i guess its time to switch to overwatch its not to late Gege

The analysts, unsurprisingly, were quick to begin evaluating how these changes would impact how games progress:

Jacob Toft-Andersen @TheMaelk

Valve so hellbent on never counting to three that when releasing the new Dota they refused to change the name.

Nahaz @NahazDota

@TobiWanDOTA @DOTA2 one of the best net outcomes of all of this would be lopsided pun matches becoming much shorter

Ben Wu @MerliniDota

Flying home late tomorrow, so ~36+ hours or so until my 7.00 patch analysis. A lot to take in!

Toby Dawson @TobiWanDOTA

If you think you understand @DOTA2 7.00 think again....this is going to take a good couple of months before we see the full patch effects

Dota 2 7.00 is currently available to download on Steam as part of the Dota 2 test client. According to the official blog post, the update will hit December 12.

There's a lot to talk about, so feel free to discuss in the comments.