Valve, the company that brought you the "Meet the Cast" Team Fortress 2 videos, has released a beautifully animated trailer for the upcoming real-time strategy RPG Dota 2 (Defense of the Ancients 2) which asks the question, what type of hero are you? The trailer, which debuted at Gamescom, lets the store owner introduce a few classic Dota heroes as breaking the list down into speed, strength, and energy classes.

Valve plans to officially unveil Dota 2 at The International Dota 2 Championships on August 17th as part of Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, with the winning team going home with one million dollars ($US). Professional Dota players from around the world will be competing and the games will be broadcast live in four languages, giving everyone a look how it plays from around the world.

Dota 2 had teased us with character art for only a few of the heroes including Lina Inverse, Morphling and Bloodseeker. Many previously unconfirmed Dota heroes make their debut in the trailer including Pudge, the huge hook throwing butcher, and Crixalis, the sand king. Old school heroes are all over the place using their classic powers, ganking and forgetting to call MIA - It's fast-paced action with lots of character reveals, so get ready to pause and get a good look at everyone who makes an appearance in the reveal trailer. It's epic, but don't take it from me, check out the the very first official Dota 2 trailer and see if you can spot your favorite heroes in action.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cSFPIwMEq4

From the trailer, it appears that some heroes from DotA, the Pandarens from Pandaria or Taurens, have had their race changed. Even the Trolls look like they got a makeover. It's somewhat disappointing to see Storm Spirit and Earthshaker as weird looking humans instead of the cow and panda to which we've grown accustomed.  Even with minor and somewhat unexpected changes to the cast, the Dota 2 trailer gives us a lot to be excited about for this week when we finally get to see the game in action.

Did you see any heroes you're excited made it into Dota 2? Is there a hero that was missing from the trailer that you are hoping makes it into the game?

Dota 2 is set to be unveiled August 17th at the International and is due for release sometime in 2011.