Axe Has Been Temporarily Disabled in Dota 2, Only Showing a Wanted Poster and Hinting at an Upcoming Event – Dark Carnival Event
Is it because of Ringmaster?
Dota 2 players were curious as to why Axe is always getting banned every match. While Axe is a common ban pick to some, it shouldn’t happen every game. Once is a happenstance, twice is a coincidence, thrice is a pattern.
If you hover over the “banned” Axe icon during the picking phase, it actually shows a wanted poster. Why is this? Well, there’s a reason why Axe is always banned: Valve has temporarily disabled Axe for the time being.
Small Dota 2 Patch Notes June 22, 2026
There’s a small update for Dota 2 (90.6MB to be exact), but it is so small that you would think that it could be just from a maintenance update. There are actual patch notes released by Valve, and here they are:
- Axe has been removed from the available hero pool and can no longer be selected or assigned randomly.
- Still available in Captain’s Mode.
- Selecting Axe in the Heroes tab displays the Wanted Poster variant image instead of Axe’s hero model.
- Axe cannot be used in Hero Demo mode.
- The default demo mode enemy has been replaced with Juggernaut.
- Can still be spawned with -createhero axe command.
- New localization string: “DOTA_Axe_Missing” “Axe is missing and cannot participate”
- New image file: images/events/dark_carnival/missing_axe_large.psd
With the removal of Axe and a new image file called “dark_carnival” being mentioned, it does seem like a big event is coming to Dota 2 soon. With a lot of teases recently, players have already been suspecting something is up with the 7.41d patch, showing Axe with a “Sense of Foreboding” buff if picked with Ringmaster. This is actually a reference to the Ringmaster trailer, where Ringmaster captured Axe.
While Axe may seem to be one of the heroes to headline the upcoming Dark Carnival event, Ringmaster definitely fits the theme of a “Dark Carnival” if it does ever happen.
Dota 2 players are starved for event updates, and it is about time one shows up, especially with one of the biggest esports events, The International, slowly approaching. For longtime fans or skin collectors, get your wallets ready as something big is surely brewing this year for Dota 2.
