Riot Co-founder Says Pendragon Wrongly Blamed for Dota Site Shutdown

Riot Games co-founder Marc Merrill has said Steve 'Pendragon' Mescon was wrongly blamed by the Dota community for shutting down the fan hub DotA-Allstars.com.

Merrill made the claims on the Lemonade Stand podcast, addressing a long-circulated story that he and fellow co-founder Brandon Beck had taken the site down and replaced it with a League of Legends advertisement.

"First of all, that's not exactly at all what happened," Merrill replied.

He said that when a false story is repeated and never corrected, "the legend grows in the telling."

Merrill recounted that Pendragon built the site as a teenager and volunteered dozens of hours a week to run it.

He said Pendragon worked with IceFrog, who took over development of the Dota Allstars mod from its creator Steve 'Guinsoo' Feak, to guide the community between roughly 2004 and 2007.

After Riot hired Guinsoo in late 2006, the company reached out to Pendragon, but Merrill said Pendragon was uncomfortable with Riot making a Dota-inspired game and turned down an offer to join.

Merrill claimed Pendragon later learned IceFrog was working at S2 Games on Heroes of Newerth.

He said IceFrog offered to buy DotA-Allstars.com for $25,000, telling Pendragon the money was from his grandmother and not confirming his studio involvement.

"I don't know. You don't know. We don't know," Merrill said of the full picture.

According to Merrill, Pendragon felt "betrayed" once he confirmed IceFrog's involvement and refused to sell the site.

Merrill said IceFrog then built his own website and cast Pendragon as the villain, after which Pendragon agreed to join Riot.

The dispute split the community, and Merrill said Pendragon received "lots of hate and lots of death threats" for years.

Rather than defend himself publicly, Pendragon decided it was better for Dota if he took the site down and moved on.

Merrill said Pendragon told him at the time to "let them have their hero."

"I was like, dude, it's full-on Dark Knight," Merrill said.

He added that he wrote a letter in Pendragon's defence around 2010 that he hoped to publish, and has "never corrected the record, despite the fact that it burns me up inside."

Looking back, Merrill said the outcome worked for both sides.

"In the long run, it worked out for everybody, right? Both games were successful," he said.

"That's why I'm actually saying this now 20 years later or whatever because I think Pendragon's an awesome person."

Merrill presented the shutdown as Pendragon stepping aside for the good of Dota, while a past letter pointed to his lack of time, fading interest and a drop in traffic.

Neither account includes IceFrog's side of the story, and Merrill said he would not go into every detail of their discussions.