[lep]

I'm probably fighting windmills but here it goes: DotA did not start the AoS genre which is now called MOBA. In fact the first AoS map was the map Aeon of Strife, made for StarCraft. There were tons of AoS maps before and tons of AoS maps after DotA. But i agree when you say DotA mad the AoS genre popular even though there were other very well known AoS maps beside DotA (EotA, AotZ, DoE, ToB, AoS GT, etc.).

[nvarsj]

I think you're understating Dota's influence. Its predecessors were tiny blips in comparison. Dota professionalized the genre and had huge popularity, which was only limited by Blizzard's poor infrastructure and support. Many people wondered why Blizzard didn't embrace the mod that far surpassed the popularity of its own games (the answer is probably "WoW"). League of legends took it to the next level with the infrastructure the genre needed.