DotA was one of the first major titles of its genre and the first MOBA for which sponsored tournaments were held. Defense of the Ancients ( DotA) was created in 2003 by the Warcraft III modding community for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion, The Frozen Throne, with a map based on AoS. The first widely accepted game in the genre was Aeon of Strife ( AoS), a fan-made custom map for StarCraft in which four players each control a single powerful unit and, aided by weak computer-controlled units, compete against a stronger computer. The genre is seen as a fusion of real-time strategy, role-playing and action games. Moreover, there are examples of MOBA games that are not considered real-time strategy games, such as Smite (2014), and Paragon. This type of multiplayer online video games originated as a subgenre of real-time strategy, though MOBA players usually do not construct buildings or units.

Players are assisted by computer-controlled units that periodically spawn in groups and march forward along set paths toward their enemy's base, which is heavily guarded by defensive structures. In some MOBA games, the objective can be defeating every player on the enemy team.

The typical ultimate objective is for each team to destroy their opponents' main structure, located at the opposite corner of the battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that improve over the course of a game and which contribute to the team's overall strategy. Multiplayer online battle arena ( MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield.

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