It is rumored that at some point, IceFrog approached Blizzard Entertainment about the possibility of developing DotA as a standalone game, but the company was uninterested and asked him to port the mod to their upcoming StarCraft 2 map editor for free instead.

In 2009, a dispute arose between IceFrog and Pendragon, the maintainer of the de facto community hub DotA-Allstars.com. Pendragon, who had recently been hired by League of Legends developer Riot Games, was charged with using the site to promote his company's upcoming product, while IceFrog was accused of developing the game Heroes of Newerth with S2 Games. DotA-Allstars.com was taken offline (along with all of its contents), and IceFrog and the rest of the community were forced to relocate to the newly-created PlayDotA.com.

Also in 2009, IceFrog was contacted by Valve, who had become interested in Defense of the Ancients and its future. After receiving a tour of their offices, IceFrog was hired and began work on Dota 2.