Dota 2 Announced as Free-to-Play
It was recently announced on a Seven Day Cool Down podcast with Gabe Newell that Dota 2 would be free-to-play.
I personally find this news to be as good as finding out that it would support LAN. No release date was announced, unfortunately, though the game is still in closed beta. Dota 2 is slated for release later in 2012.