If you’re playing with your full-five man Dota 2 party, you will now have the option to surrender. Valve added this surprising feature and made various changes to the matchmaking system in an effort to encourage more five man parties. With this feature, the full party now has the option to write “gg” in the all-chat after 30 minutes of play, and in a similar vein to the competitive games, a 10 second countdown stating that the team’s Ancient is about to explode will appear on the screens of all the five players of the party. This surrender can be canceled at any time during this countdown.

Valve introduces surrender feature for five person parties in Dota 2

In an update on 7th July, Valve said, "We think Dota 2 is best played as a group with friends" and implemented some modifications to party queue matchmaking.

“Full parties may now all chat "gg" to surrender a match after 30 minutes of game time with the same 10 second countdown and cancel UI as in pro games. This is scored as a loss,” announced Valve as part of one of the more radical changes to Dota 2 matchmaking in recent memoy. This change is expected to impact the way full party games are played beyond 30 minutes.

Those in favor of such a surrender option argue that it saves time and effort while those against it say that it reduces the possibility of comebacks which is what makes Dota 2 a fascinating game in the first place. A similar surrender feature is already available in Valve's flagship FPS title CS:GO.

Some of the other changes that Valve added in this matchmaking update include enabling five person parties to compete against any valid team in ranked games. Previously, five person parties could only be matched up against other full parties. A matchmaking optimization will also now enable full parties to locate games more quickly. Previously, five-person parties had to wait for extended periods of time to match.

With these changes, Valve is making it clear that Dota 2 is a game best enjoyed with friends, preferably with full five man stacks. Therefore the aforementioned experimental changes have been implemented to encourage group play as well as improve the match quality of such games. While the community is likely to have mixed feelings about it, these changes indicate that the company is trying to make matchmaking a much more tolerable experience.

However, these changes could negatively affect newcomers who want to try Dota 2 for the first time. If they lack friends that play the game, they may have a harder time adjusting to these changes. Valve is yet to address the smurfing issues that plague the new player experience