No one ever wants to give up. But sometimes, the comeback just isn’t coming back and you need to know how to surrender in Dota 2.
Surrendering is a fairly new feature in Dota as it was only introduced in 2025. In years gone by, you’d always have to stick it out to the end no matter how badly you were losing. Now, as long as everyone in your party is on the same page, you can go next much quicker and save yourself the pain of watching your Ancient fall apart.
Credit: Dota 2
How to surrender in Dota 2
When you’re playing in a public lobby, you won’t be able to surrender unless everyone on the team agrees. So if you’re playing in a 5 stack, it’s pretty easy to dip out of the game. But if you’re solo queuing or even playing with just one stranger, you won’t be able to end the game early.
While this is a little frustrating, it’s understandable. In a game of Dota, a team is at a real disadvantage if a player leaves the game. Ensuring that those in solo queue can’t surrender arbitrarily means players are more dedicated to competitive play.
To trigger the surrender option, you need to:
Open all chat by pressing shift + enter by default
Type “gg” or “good game” and send the message or use the chat wheel and select the “gg” option
Make sure everyone else on your team does the same thing.
Why surrender in Dota 2?
Dota is a game that’s well known for teams being able to mount a come back after a bad start. Sometimes all it takes is an item timing, an uncontested Rosh or a pick off before a team fight for the tide to turn.
However, comebacks take time a bit of luck. Sometimes the stomp is too much and you’re just not enjoying the game. Sometimes you just can’t commit to a 60+ minute game. Regardless of your reason, Valve doesn’t penalise you for surrendering. As long as you don’t leave the game before the Ancient explodes and it’s officially over, you’ll be able to queue again immediately with no repercussions.
Calling GG or Good Game can happen by mistake, but almost never in esports play. There are cases where GG was said jokingly in competitive play in the past, either as a meme or as an “offensive GG”. Most cases its done from the chat wheel, but still always gets the casters going.
Read next: Is Dota 2 Dying? – Verdict from a decade-old fan
